U.S.S. GLACIER IN PORT

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29368, 22 November 1960, Page 19

U.S.S. GLACIER IN PORT

Sixth Visit To Lyttelton

A party of scientists will join the United States icebreaker, Glacier before she sails for McMurdo Sound this week-end. The Glacier arrived at Lyttelton from Boston yesterday morning at 8.30 a.m. She came by way of Pago Pago. The 8600-ton Glacier is on her sixth visit to Lyttelton, and this time will make a six-month cruise as part of the United States’ Antarctic expedition. The captain is Commander P. W. Porter, who was on the ship on her last visit. His executive officer is Lieutenant-

Commander M. J. Winton. The icebreaker has a crew of 254, including 21 officers. . Apart from a spell of rough weather off the New Zealand coast which caused heavy, 40 degree •rolling, the Glacier made an uneventful voyage from Boston. She will remain in southern waters until about the middle of March. Due back in the United States on April 1. next year, the icebreaker will have acted as a floating laboratory for an extensive scientific programme.

Supplies of explosives will be unloaded at McMurdo Sound. This will be used in blasting on the site of the proposed nuclear reactor.

Two helicopters are carried and a bathythermograph team will record temperatures. and depths. About 40 per cent, of the crew are making their first voyage to New Zealand. About three-quart-ers of the crew will be given leave while the ship is in port.