HAWEA & PUKAKI LEAVE ENDEAVOUR

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28162, 28 December 1956, Page 10

HAWEA & PUKAKI LEAVE ENDEAVOUR

[From DENIS WEDERELL, of “The Press” reporting staff, with the Royal New Zealand Navy frigates, escorting the N.Z. Antarctic expedition ship Endeavour.]

ABOARD H.M.N.Z.S. HAWEA (67deg 30min South), Dec. 27. Barely had three ringing cheers for the Endeavour died in the frosty air late this afternoon than the New Zealand Antarctic ship slipped out of sight in thick fog, and the Pukaki and the Hawea swung away northward. Their sirens shrieked out a farewell to Sir Edmund Hillary and his party, and to Captain H. Kirkwood and the crew of the little 850-ton supply ship, bound for McMurdo Sound. Ahead of the Endeavour lies the pack ice; for the men of the Hawea the blue lagoons of the South Pacific Islands. For, while the Dominion's Antarctic team is building Scott Base in preparation for their transantarctic crossing next season, many of those aboard the Hawea today will be in the Rotoiti heading north for the British nuclear weapon tests on Christmas Island. This evening the two frigates are steaming north 300 miles from Cape Adare through fog and loose ice floes, Soon they will part company—the Pukaki to follow the 165th meridian off the west coast of New Zealand, and the Hawea the 180th to the eastward to continue their oceanographic surveys. They will meet again in Wellington about January 5. Crossing of Circle With towering icebergs moving majestically past under an overcast sky, the small ships today crossed the Antartic Circle at 66deg 33min south. Half an hour later, with fog continually closing in and lifting again. Captain Kirkwood signalled from the Endeavour that he felt it best to bid farewell to his escorts rather than proceed further south in the poor visibility. The two frigates closed in on the Antarctic supply ship, and the Pukaki launched her whaler to take Chaplain Roy McKenzie over to the Endeavour for a farewell •ervice. An hour and a half later, after the whaler had carried mail for posting from Scott Base over to

the supply ship from both the Hawea and the Pukaki, Chaplain McKenzie returned to the senior frigate. Only moments after the Endeavour had steamed between her escorts, with the crews waving from the rails, Commander Richard Hale signalled that in company with the Hawea he intended to follow the Endeavour in line ahead to the edge of the pack ice. Visibility had by then considerably improved. This decision was greeted with satisfaction aboard the Hawea, where one rating said: “As w’ve come this far south we might as well see the job through. Lets have a look at Scott Island.” Scott Island Sighted The Hawea was barely under weigh again when Lieutenant Christopher Parker-Jervis, the navigating officer, spotted Scott Island. This placed him only 15 miles south of his position on dead reckoning after 52 hours without a sun or star in sight. Scott Island, named 1300 by Lieutenant W. Colbeck aboard the Morning, one of the relief ships of Scott’s first Terra Nova expedition in December, 1902, lies at 67deg 24min . south, 179 deg 55min east. A bleak rock 128 ft high, it is bounded by steep cliffs on most sides. Off the northern end is Haggits Pillar. Lieutenant Colbeck reported in 1902 that the island and the pillar were covered by an ice cap, but this season both have melted. As the frigates steamed south in the Endeavour s wake, Commander Hale signalled that it was hoped to land a small party on the island on the way north tonight to make a brief survey and collect rock samples. This is the first time that Scott Island has been sighted by ships of the Royal New Zealand Navy.