Be patient while they load
c/o BRITISH ANTARCTIC SURVEY
HIGH CROSS,
MADINGLEY ROAD
CAMBRIDGE CB3 OET
UNITED KINGDOM
A Club for people who have worked with Operation Tabarin,
the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey
and the British Antarctic Survey
Note to any ex Fids, or anyone who has been to Deception since it was evacuated:
Does anyone know what happened to the Deception scrap book? It was kept in the bar.
Was it rescued, did it fall victim to the mud slide, or was it, as I suspect, stolen by a looter/souvenir hunter?
I spent 14 months in the Antarctic, wintering at Deception Island in 1962.
All my photographs were mixed up without my knowledge so I could no longer correlate them with the notes I made.
I can't remember where some of them were taken.
1960 On board the Kista Dan, just proir to sailing from the U.K. to the Falklands
These are some of the Greenland pups being sent down to the bases
Tuning one of the transmitters. Deception, winter 1962
The radio room, Deception, 1962
Peeling spuds on board the "Shackleton"
Deception base hut, 1962
The smaller structure on the left, above, is the generator shed.
Deception base hut a few years ago (posted December 2003)
I came across this photograph on the internet and "borrowed" it. If the copyright holder asks me to remove it I shall do so.
I can't remember where some of them were taken. Deception Island was volcanic in origin, consisting of four craters. Whalers bay, where our base was located, was one of those craters. There were several fumaroles on the beach from which steam would escape accompanied by an odour of sulphur. The sea ice, which was normally several feet thick in the bay during the winter, never formed along the beach near our hut. The last volcanic activity before I wintered there had been in the 1930s when the Norwegian whaling station was still operating during the summer. I believe the water in the bay boiled. A couple of years after I spent the winter there the island erupted again and it was evacuated. A lava flow went straight through the hut.
Correction Saturday 17th December, 2005
I have been advised by Robert Burton (B.A.S.) that ..... " the destruction was caused by a mud flow not a lava flow as you say on your website. Apparently, the eruption behind the base melted the ice cap and the water brought a mass of ash and mud down into Whalers' Bay."
|
"The book says the pastry should be three eighths thick."
Joe, on cook duties. His leg was in plaster at the time.
Deception, winter, 1962 |
 |
Bathnight, Joe and Puta (it's a Spanish name)
The inside of the lavatory window.
|
The kitchen at Deception, 1962 After my first day on cooking duty. |
 |
One of the piss-ups in the Deception bar
We didn't have fresh water so we cut snow blocks and filled melt tanks in the kitchen and bathroom
Re-fuelling "Red Label", Deception, 1962.
I dont' know who started it, or when, but someone saw a similarity between B.A.S. (British Antarctic Survey) and Bass - the beer.
The two DHC Otters (and possibly the Beavers before them - does anyone know?) were known as Blue Label and Red Label after the two Bass beers which carried either a blue or a red triangle.
Accordingly, triangles were painted on the sides of the engine cowlings - better seen on the next photograph - these being overlayed with "Bas" in the Bass style.
The DHC serial numbers of the two aircraft were 294 and 377, the former being Christened Blue and the latter Red.
Red Label. I think this is at Fossil Bluff, 1962/3 summer.
I think this was at Deception
The wind-sock at Deception being given the "Bas" treatment.
I came across this photograph on the internet.
If the owner of the copyright objects to it being here it will be removed at their request.
Blue label or Red label? Outside the derelict hangar at Deception a few years ago.
I now know it to be Blue Label, serial number 294. (posted December 2003)
I have recently (end of May 2005) been informed by B.A.S. that 294's fuselage, wings and skis have been returned to the U.K. and are at the de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre where they will be displayed.
The projecting part of the hangar, to the rear of the observers and to their right, was the mechanical workshop.
On the other side was a corresponding part of the construction in which I had the radio workshop.
The next 6 photographs, which I found on the internet, show the removal of Otter 294 before being brought back to the U.K.
I took the next three photographs of 294 today, 12thAugust, 2005
The hangar being built in the summer of 1961/62. The radio workshop can be seen in the background.
Max, brother of Min, named after the Max & Min thermometer.
Deception, 1962
Deception, 1962
Adelaide Island, 1962/63 summer
 |
 |
Adelaide Island a bit later in the same summer
Adelaide Island, 1962/63 summer
