CHRISTMAS DAY IN ANTARCTIC

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28155, 19 December 1956, Page 16

CHRISTMAS DAY IN ANTARCTIC

Work At Bases To Continue SPECIAL DINNERS Christmas Day will be a working day for men at the International Geophysical Year station at the South Pole and at the main supply bases at McMurdo Sound. The season of mild weather at the Pole is so short that the 24 men at the lonely outpost will not be able to spare even one day from the job in hand. At McMurdo Sound auout 390 United States Navy. Air Force, Marines and International Geophysical Year personnel will be working round the clock to unload four shins bringing supplies for the winter and next year's operations in the Antarctic. Both at the Pole and McMurdo Sound the men will, however, pause to celebrate Christmas with religious services and other festivities. The Pole partv headed by Lieutenant Richard A. Bowers already has the ingredients for a Christmas dinner of chicken, ham, sweet and white potatoes, peas, pumpkin pie, nuts, mints and mincemeat. Favourite dessert even at the South Pole will be ice cream, which has proved popular at McMurdo Sound even in the bitter cold of winter. At McMurdo Sound men will pause from their labours on Christmas Eve to attend services for Protestants at 10 p.m. and for Catholics at midnight. At midday on Christmas day they will sit down to roast beef, which will be served instead of ham. in addition to chicken. The ovens at the supply base are not capable of cooking turkeys, the traditional Christmas bird of Americans. Lieutenant Commander David W. Canham. commander of the Navy installations at McMurdo Sound and the South Pole, has planned to fly the five men who operate the tiny weather and radio station at the Beardmore site back to McMurdo Sound for Christmas if planes are available, but if theses plans fall’through the men have supplies on hand to prepare their own lonely Christmas dinner. Moving Spirit Moving spirit behind the Christmas preparations in the far south is Lieutenant John C. Condit. chaplain of the chapel of Our Lady of the Snows, the world’s most southern chapel. He will preside at both Protestant and Catholic services and will also conduct worship on board the Navy vessels unloading at McMurdo Sound. The pride of Father Condit’s congregation at McMurdo Sound is his bearded choir which has rehearsed special, music for the Christmas services. It will, however, be short of eight members, who took their music with them when they were flown into the South Pole to build the scientific station, and its Air Force members who will be back in Christchurch for the festive season.

Father Condit, the first chaplain to fly over the South Pole—with MajorGeneral Chester E. McCarty on October 26 —had planned to land at the South Pole on Christmas Day to hold services for the construction party of 23 men and Dr. Paul Siple, head of the scientific station. Aircraft will, however, not be available for this venture. Earlier Colonel H. A. Crosswell. commander of the Air Force task unit, had offered to fly Father Condit to the pole and cruise above the tent camp on the icy wastes of the polar plateau while the chaplain conducted services over the radio on Christmas Day. Among the Christmas mail that the men are now receiving in the Antarctic are presents from “the kind people of Christchurch,” says a United States Air Force dispatch. Among many presents sent to the station commander or the chaplain are decorations for the little Chapel of Our Lady of The Snows, including a big wreath from Mrs Nola Miles, of St. Albans.

Three of eight Christmas trees which were flown to the Antarctic by Globemaster are being retained at McMurdo Sound One has been dropped at. the Pole station. Two trees were to have been flown to Little America and one to the Beardmore staging area on Sunday. These trees have been provided by the Bank of California in Portland. Oregon, and the United States Bureau of Land Management. More trees from New Zealand are due in the Antarctic on the ships which are now nearing the southern supply base.