Staten Island (AGB 5) - Naval Cruise Book

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Distances are great in reference to operations in the vicinity of the great lce Age Continent. By I8 Jun. uary, when STATEN ISLAND departed New Zealand for her second penetration of the forbidding ice locked Antarctic waters, a total of l7,524 miles had been logged since leaving Seattle, Washington. Of this total, almost 7,000 miles had been below the Antarctic circle. Now, the destination was Thurston Peninsula which separates the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas some 2,900 miles away. The first proiect was to collect oceanographic data in the Amundsen Sea and to conduct preliminary reconnaissance for the forthcoming expedi- tions. To accomplish this STATEN ISLAND penetrated almost l20 miles into the Amundsen Sea ice paclc. On 5 February STATEN ISLAND rendezvoused with USS GLACIER to form the Expedition Task Group under the command of Captain Edwin A. McDonald, USN. The objective: penetrate and study the here to for unexplored Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas. The two ship expedition moved southward into sea ice up to thirty teet thick. Many huge ice bergs were sighted, and pro- gress at times was difficult and slow. Occasional leads of open water made transit nearer the coast much easier. On 9 February STATEN ISLAND, with Captain NcDonald aboard, made its way to the South- easternmost point of penetration for the expedition, 72 degrees - 28' S, 9l degrees - 43' W . This was unex- plored territory, areas never before seen by man. Much time was conducting oceanographic research. Five new peaks and two new lslands were discovered as the ships steamed through a channel bordered on the north by great tabular ice bergs and on the south by an unnamed ice shelf. Helicopters from the two ice breakers carried scientific parties ashore to explore the coastal areas and establish geographical reference points. On l2 February a field party of four men was just setting up a camp site about 35 miles from ships when a blizzard began to blow. With winds up to 70 knots at sub-freezing temperatures, this was the beginning of o three day test of man against the elements. Tents were blown away and ice axe handles snapped off in the shdfp biting wind. The party buried themselves in the snow to wait it out. Rescue would not come until the winds sub- sided to permit launching of a helicopter. This WGS three days later. Mean while the two ice breakers were anchored side by side to a heavy ice shelf. Anchor! pulled loose, lines broke, and power of about 6 ltlwfi was necessary to hold the ships against the wind didn driving snow. At 200 yards apart you could onlyqocca- sionolly see the other ship. -A in

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The day following the rescue, STATEN lSLAND's largest helicopter, a Sikorsky HRS-3, caught tire and made an emergency landing on an ice capped island en- route to the camp site. The two pilots and two pass- engers escaped iniury. The aircraft was damaged, and, due to its inaccessable location, was abandoned to the Antarctic. STATEN ISLAND scientists completed 4l additional oceanographic stations in this region of the unknown, including temperature, current measurements, salinity, carbon and oxygen analysis, bottom cores, and geomag- natic readings. STATEN lSLAND set a new record for the number of oceanographic stations made from one ship during an Antarctic operation by conducting a total of 79 in the seas surrounding the Antarctic con- tinent. With the ice pack continually shifting because at wind and current, the tvio ice breakers were once again trapped in the iaws of pressuring floes and were made immobile tor tour days. On 7 March GLACIER using several tons of high explosives was able to make the lost twenty five yards to an open lead that separated her from STATEN ISLAND by aiew miles. Making the lead GLACIER began hammering away into the heavy floes which had imprisoned STATEN ISLAND about 500 yards away. With both ships working by search light the ice was subdued by 6 o'clock the following morning. Bath ships steamed northward in newly formed leads heading for the open sea and home, with scheduled stops at Valparaiso, Chile, Lima, Peru, and San Diego, California. With weather usually being the deciding factor in Antarc- tic operations the trip to Valparaiso ended four days before arrival. An urgent message received at 3 o'clock in the moming ot l4 March diverted STATEN lSLAND from her homeward trail to retum to Mchiurdo, 3000 miles away, to rescue a YOG loaded with aviation gasoline. The ice breaker EDISTO was later diverted to the YOG rescue and the STATEN ISLAND retumed to Port Lyttle- ton, due to a shortage of fuel for the operation, having been at sea for a period of 68 days. After refueling STATEN ISLAND departed New Zealand to take station at 60 degrees S, 'l60 degrees W to provide much needed weather information for EDISTO and for a flight to be made into Antarctica by a C-130 Hercules transport Plane. Operations ended on retum to Wellington, New Zealand on 14 April with a total of 29,240 miles having been steamed and 6,522 miles remaining, via Hawaii, to Seattle and home.