Butch, Veteran Of Antarctica

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30278, 2 November 1963, Page 22

Butch, Veteran Of Antarctica

SCOTT BASE. Butch, seven years old and Antarctica’s most experienced sledge dog, has pulled a sledge over 5000 miles of the South Polar Plateau and the Victoria Land mountains, a record for a dog with the New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme. Butch always enjoys being petted which is obvious as J. H. Miller of Wellington, says goodbye to him before taking another team into the mountains for a summer survey season.

Butch was a member of Miller’s first Antarctic sledging team, which, in company with Dr. George Marsh and his dogs, ran a 1700 mile depot-laying reconnaissance and survey journey in support of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1957-58. This was one of the longest dog sledge journeys ever made in Antarctica. . Now Butch has retired from field work and is leader of the Scott Base team of young dogs in training. His white, twin sons, Castor and Pollux, are both lead dogs this summer.

Born in Greenland, Butch came to New Zealand and thence to Antarctica on the first H.M.N.Z.S. Endeavour from England in 1956. Then he had the Eskimo name of Tepi but over the seasons he somehow became Butch. In 1960 he first pulled as lead dog for the Christchurch geologist, Garth Matterson, through the Byrd Glacier region of southern Victoria Land and has been a leader ever since.

Always a highly intelligent and friendly dog, big white Butch with his battle-scarred nose is still an outstanding figure on the Scott Base dog lines. A warm home in New Zealand is waiting for Butch. When Miller returns next February from leading the last major New Zealand dog sledge expedition in the Ross Dependency he wants to take Butch back to his Khandallah home.

“Huskies are quite happy in a warmer climate and clearly Butch has at least half Samoyed blood,” Miller said before he left for the mountains.

After the Trans-Antarctic Expedition he took two dogs ohme. One was his leader, Peanuts, who lived for six years at the Pahiatua home of the expedition doctor, Dr. John Findlay. The other was Jan, still a major attraction at the Wellington Zoo. Jan was named after Miller’s daughter, now 13, and another dog in his team, Podge, after his son, Rodger, now 9. The whole family is waiting to welcome another brave Husky home.