Burton Island (AGB 1) - Naval Cruise Book

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TX' ,W lr li ll m i I. lt lt L 'r I i i . i I Y K i l l l l t 511'-4....:z5L - :Lr1z:x. Glacier's bow, breaking ice. The plating on a normal ship is an inch and a halfthick, Glacier, in addition, has a two and three-eighths inch sheathing of high tensile steel that runs from three feet above her waterline to twelve feet below it. Each of her two propellers weighs over thirty tons. Snow on the sea ice muffles it and makes it that much harder to break through. An ice- breaker is rarely seen from this angle. Despite its enor- mous bulk, it is insignificant when seen in the Antarctic, between Mount Erebus and the Royal Society Range. Here, the photographer was in danger of having the ice splinter ahead ofthe ship and deliver him to the killer whales. Another photographer set up a pair of Pana- vision motion picture cameras about tour miles ahead. He said he was waiting tor the ship to reach him. The men pointed out that, since Glacier advances no more than two miles a day, he might be there all night. ,....-,-.Y W ... ,- - Y - - f-.-.-,,,-'..... -...-.-N... .......-.-,. ..-.-...,.,.-.-. v:-1 -vw -----' --'HH -- --V --ee- 'Z.Lil2:Lg::.:.LTf 21.55 11 L .Lu 4.L.L.:..-...-.. - .. 2,

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Burton Island, shoving the brash or loose ice in the chan- nel. The huge iceberg that blocked the entrance to the channel can be seen here. Even after ten days of being worn away by the wind and the sun, it was still estimated to cover an area of nine square miles. ...-.-,.. Cdr Faughman was sent to M.I.T. bythe Navy after World Way II to study electrical engineering and is expert in command and control systems. In spite of the demanding nature of his technical duties, he is extremely well read, and he has the philosophical turn of mind that in Conrad is stories used to belong to the Chief Engi- neer. On the bulkhead, over the table, is a framed icepick. Lcdr Irving Voyer, Glacier? executive officer, comes in, wear- ing suntans and Nstreetl' shoes. Except for the four pilots and the eight men who maintain the horses, the ship is too warm for the heavy clothes worn on shore. He leads the way up the mast, which these days is climbed z'nsz'de on 50 or so icy iron rungs. If he has had an extra piece of celery at lunch, he can't make it. At the top is 4'Loft-Conn, a sunny, enclosed space where two officers are breaking ice. One handles the throttles and the other the helm, which is a small brass tube the size of an inverted dice cup. It is hard to imagine the fishermen 's monument at Gloucester - with a man at the 4'tube of aschooner. By turning this cursed thing, Mike McDonald controls upward of 8,500 tons, a 310-ft. vessel with hundreds of men in it, and the second largest Diesel electric propulsion plant afloat, crushing 26 miles of six-foot ice - which would take a long time with an icepick. The tube flips some switches that transmit hydraulic power to acouple of 'cramsn that push the rudder. Lt McDonald has to keep the rudder pre- cisely amidships when backing down, or it will be caught in the loose ice and jammed over, breaking a i'pin or preventer. Even here, where the whipping effect of the mast would be noticed most, they are not knocked down when Glacier hits the ice. The vibration increases as she reaches full power, but ramming doesnit disturb the glasses on the table in the wardroom. Below the waterline, the bow slants aft at such an angle that the ship rides up on the ice and crushes it with her weight. Art Morison cuts the throttles just before she loses way, to avoid being hung-up and having to c'sally the ship. In the old days, this was done by men rushing back and forth across the deck, but Glacier can be rolled ten degrees by pumping 140,000 gallons of water from side to side. c'We got hung-up seven timesfl says the XO. HThe same as last yearf, But that was an unusually light ice-year, with only 17 miles to break. as -- !

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On a window near the ladder, each four hour watch uses a l Below: The real villain of Antarctic waters is the killer whale. lts length is about thirty feet. It will come up under an ice floe and fling it in the air, in order to make a meal out of a bunch of penguins, a dog, a seal- or a man. This could have been the last photograph that Warren Krupsaw ever took. Top right: A group of men is silhouetted against the sky. They are boarding the ship after a party on the ice. McMurdo Station is in the background, at the foot of Observation Hill. Bottom: Men playing touch football on the ice. Glacier continues to break ice, around the clock. Because the work they do is so perilous, the men in Deep Freeze are given frequent opportunities to relax. Yet the tempo quickens as the date approaches when the summer sup- port torces must leave, since everybody is trying to com- plete a iob. Near the end ofthe season, if you get in some guy's way - watch out. grease pencil to boast of its progress and to disparage the dis- tance gained by competing watches. It takes the tension out of a painstaking job, the score is being analyzed more profoundly than a ball game by the people on shore. The first supply ship has on board a number of vans that are urgently needed to set up Plateau Station, and fuel everywhere is running low. Accord- ing to Cdr Mel Scott of ASA, HWe're measuring fuel at McMurdo with an eyedropperf' The timing of everything down the line may rest on Glacierlv arrival one day early, so the season can be completed, and the aircraft fly out one day before a blizzard. Lt McDonald makes a cut to starboard, another 40 degrees to port, and one in the center, about40 cuts per watch. It is hard to achieve what he intends, since he can't tell how the ice is going to split, and the bow may be forced one way or the other. Lcdr Voyer says, 'fNear Beaufort Island it was so bad we had to go around, between there and Cape Bird. You can't force your way . . . Nature decides your channelf' Glacier is making about a mile and a half every 24 hours, and the channel is being widened by Barton Islancl astern, so the loose ice can escape. Loft-Conn is a peaceful place, with a stunning view of Erebus and Cape Royds abeam, where Shackleton wintered before his try for the Pole. The early ships frequently were frozen in for a year at a time, but Glacier creates her own harbor. She will roll fear- fully, however, in the open sea all the way home to Boston. It is fascinating to watch the infinite variety of the splintering ice. The bottoms of the fragments are brownish from microscopic plant life, since the Antarctic Ocean is richer in food than any other body of water in the world. HWe saw some Adelies and Emperors at the edge of the ice,', says Voyer, Hand killer whales waiting for themf' Yet the most important part of Glacier is her engines, because they turn the two 17-foot propellers. An American Indian named Doran is in charge of the engine room, which actually is a series of compartments reached by ladders as slippery as a fire escape. HI can run down here quicker than a voice can get here from the bridge,'9 he says proudly and half seriously. He puts his hand on I ,iz,4w.-,M-f M4-f 7 I, . .,,7zfaf4r., .W . . , .w',,fff4., ,I ,g.g,, ' . , 3, X -W , ra MW, W! fr.. f to xl,