SEAL SAVES HARD TASK

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28434, 14 November 1957, Page 6

SEAL SAVES HARD TASK

Depth Of Ice Shown

(From DENIS WEDERELL, "The I Press” Correspondent with the U.S. I Antarctic expedition.] McMURDO SOUND, Nov. 11. An obliging seal saved a 1 United States Navy officer some hard work this afternoon and j showed that the ships of the task force are likely to have an easier • job breaking into McMurdo! Sound this summer. Lieutenant-Commander Charles 1 Robinson was out on the bay ice j beyond Hut Point when the seal, one of those which are moving' south with the spring, popped up through a hole ahead of him. j This not only saved Lieutenant-' Commander Robinson, assistant i air operations officer to Rear- j Admiral George Dufek, the job of drilling through the ice with an augur but gave him in a moment the answer he wanted. Bft Hole The seal, which had probably taken days to gnaw its way up through the tough ice, had made a hole eight feet deep. Last summer the U.S.S. Glacier had to break its way through bay ice up to 18ft thick to make a channel for the cargo ships coining up to Hut Point. Five miles from here was as close as they could get—this season they are likely to berth alongside the ice j just three miles from the point., Many hours of tractor hauling will be avoided and the unloading time will be greatly reduced in consequence. Already a long finger of ice- | free water stretches down the sound, almost to the most southerly point of the bay ice last season. The temperatures, however, are not much higher than those of last year. Commander John Mirabito said today that the rise in temperature was more rapid than last season—the October average was below that of 1956, and in the first week of November it was several degrees higher—but he did not fear for the safety of the airstrip. Last season the airstrip was used until mid-December, and this year the 53rd Troop Carrier Squadron expects to complete its mission by December 1. This should, on the experience of the last two seasons, give the Air Force two clear weeks’ margin.