Icebreaker Glacier Damages Propeller

Press, Volume C, Issue 29702, 21 December 1961, Page 3

Icebreaker Glacier Damages Propeller

Three American vessels were in Lyttelton yesterday morning. They were the Antarctic supply vessel. Mizar, which sailed in the morning for the United States after being delayed at Lyttelton for a day with minor engine repairs; the powerful ice breaker, U.S.S. Glacier, which returned from the Antarctic; and a supply vessel, the Private Joseph F. Merrell, which arrived from Long Beach, California, with cargo for McMurdo. Since the Glacier left Lyttelton on November 9 for the Antarctic pack ice she suffered damage to a blade on her starboard propeller. Working in conjunction with the icebreakers, Burton Island and Eastwind, she cleared a channel for the supply tanker, Chattahoochee and the Mizar. The Glacier opened the way through floes more than five feet thick, the smaller icebreakers following her, with the supply vessels spaced between. The Glacier’s wake rapidly closed in from the constant pressure of the pack and it was necessary to hold her speed to that of the slowest ship. On occasions the convoy was halted as individual ships became held fast by the ice and the Glacier turned back to assist in working them free. On Novemeber 18. the Glacier commenced breaking her annual channel through the bay ice at McMurdo. starting at a point some 30 miles from the McMurdo base. This was the earliest channel attempt in the history of the Antarctic operations, and was prompted by the urgency for delivery of high priority cargoes, such as aviation fuel and components for the nuclear reactor at McMurdo. The'Glacier cleared a path at the rate of more than two miles a day. and by November 25 she was in ice six to seven feet thick and able to offload the first of her carge for transfer to the base on tractor-hauled sleds. On November 27. the Glacier towed the Chattahoochee. followed by the Mizar. to a point three miles from McMurdo where they began offloading. This was the earliest date that supply vessels have ever been able to reach and unload at the Antarctic base. The Glacier left McMurdo on December 13. Six spare propeller blades were loaded aboard yesterday and the icebreaker was also refuelling. She is expected to sail for Wellington this evening and will enter dry dock there for an engine check and a propeller examination, which will probably include replacement of the damaged blade Return To McMurdo

The Glacier is due back at Lyttelton‘ on January 5. and after refuelling, will sail for McMurdo. where she will exchange her own helicopters temporarily for two Army turbine helicopters which will be used for topographical survey work at Cape Hallett She is then expected to return briefly to McMurdo to retrieve her own helicopters. after which she will continue exploration work in the Marie Byrd Land coast of the Amundsen Sea. After this, the Glacier is expected back at McMurdo at the beginning of March, and will then head north again, probably calling at Lyttelton, at the conclusion of the season’s operations. The 7612-ton Private Joseph F. Merrell, left Long

Beach on December 4, and is expected to sail for McMurdo tomorrow evening. She is commanded by Captain Howard H. Cleaves, of San Rafael, California, and has 7850 tons of stores and equipment aboard, the bulk of which will be discharged at McMurdo. A small quantity of her cargo, not urgently needed, will be landed at Lyttelton before sailing, and she will load some items here for the base. She is expected to return in mid-January. The Private Joseph F. Merrell is named after an American war hero from the European battlefront.