SOUTH POLE COOK

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28492, 23 January 1958, Page 2

SOUTH POLE COOK

No Refrigerator Problems

When a United States Navy cook, Chester W. Segers, volunteered lor service in the Antarctic, he found on arrival at McMurdo Sound that he was to be the cook at the South Pole during 1957.

When he stepped off the Private John R. Towle at Lyttelton he was not too certain about the advantages of civilisation. “Oh man, it’s awful. I’m frightened to cross any street. I might get run over,” he said. As the only cook at the base “I worked every day except Sunday, when the men cooked their own breakfast and one of them prepared the other meals during the day,” he said.

Dr. Paul Siple, the former * scientific leader, and Lieutenant John Tuck, the former military , Leader, were very fine men, and . they made excellent station leadJ ers. “Quite often on Sundays or holidays they would take over the cooking,” he said. "At the base I had the best ■ deep-freeze unit any housewife J could wish for, no power worries, • and no need to de-frost. I used the tunnels between the huts 1 where the temperature was about ’ minus 60 to 70deg,” said Mr Segers. "During our warmest day at the base the temperature was only lOdeg below, and that’s even better than my wife’s home freezer. Arranging Menus “Every man at the base had a turn in arranging the menu for a week—they each had their turn every 17 weeks—and I soon found out their favourite food,” said Mr Segers. “Dr Siple was very keen on French menus and Lieutenant Tuck was always very pleased when we served beans. “We had a wide variety of food in the freezer—beef, chicken, turkey, peas beans, and many other vegetables,” he said. “I kept a close watch on the turkey, which was reserved for the mid-winter’s day and September 23—the day we first saw the sun coming up over the horizon. It looked good to see light back after six months." Like any cook, Mr Segers still had his problems and at times even more than the usual cook. "After cooking in a low altitude for 13 years I had to get used to cooking in a high altitude,” he said. “One day I put some beans on and after three hours they! were still hard. Twenty-four hours later they were not much better.”

A great deal of cooking was done in pressure cookers, he said. “The most wonderful sight we saw during our stay was the United States Navy Neptune aircraft land on our runway," said Mr Segers. “However, when the aircraft became stranded those first few days were tough. I had been cooking .for 18 persons all winter and had to start cooking for 34, but it was good to be able to talk to them and read the mail and newspapers from home. No Cooking at Home

‘ It was certainly great to eat someone else’s cooking on board the Private John R. Towle," he said. “When we came into the city this afternoon we walked around and just watched what was going on. I did not feel like a fancy meal. After a year’s cooking on the ice I do not go much for fancy food."

Asked if he would like to go back for another year he said: “It was a wonderful year. I’m not sorry and I would go back again but not right now.” With 60 days’ leave when he lands in the United States, Mr Segers will join his wife and two children, a girl aged three and a boy aged two, at his home in Rhode Island. “My wife will do all the cooking when I’m home,” he said. “I do not intend to look at a stove or dishes until I return to the Navy.”