ICEBREAKER RETURNS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29401, 31 December 1960, Page 15

ICEBREAKER RETURNS

Propeller Blades Damaged Three of the six propeller blades of the United States Navy’S' ice-breaker Glacier, which returned to Lyttelton yesterday after breaking a channel through the bay ice of McMurdo Sound to the American Antarctic base on Ross Island, will have to be replaced. The ship will enter dry dock in Wellington next week and return to Lyttelton on January 17, before leaving for an expedition to the Amundsen Sea area. Commander P. W. Porter, the captain, said that the round trip to the base had taken less time than expected. It was easier to cut a channel through the ice this year than in previous years, he said. The first 750 miles of ice were broken through in two days but the last 21 miles of hard thick ice took seven days. Little ice was encountered on the return journey, said Commander Porter.

Concentrated assaults on the ice caused a leakage of reserve helicopter aviation fuel to develop, with the result that most of this fuel had to be jettisoned. A special course was steered by the icebreaker on the return journey to New Zealand to allow the men to have Christmas dinner in smoother conditions. Rough weather, in which the ship rolled to angles of 45 degrees, was encountered for two days before reaching the New Zealand coast, according to Commander Porter.

On board the vessel on the return journey was Captain E. A. McDonald, deputy commander of the American support force in the Antarctic.