Tourists Enjoying Their Antarctic Cruise

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31588, 27 January 1968, Page 18

Tourists Enjoying Their Antarctic Cruise

(By Captain

E. A. MCDONALD,

U.S.N. (ret.), polar consultant for Lihdblad Travel, New York)

Fur seals, pack ice, Antarctic seals and penguins have been the highlights of the first tourist cruise to sail into the Ross Sea area of the Antarctic. During most of the daylight hours, and that is around the clock at this time of year, the red parkaclad tourists are out on deck. Cameras click and pencils record their impressions of a weird, white, unspoiled part of the world that ordinary tourists never see. All count themselves lucky to be aboard the 215-foot ice-working ship Magga Dan. The belt of pack ice which the little cruise ship pushed and shoved aside, smoking Mount Erebus, and the marble-like Ross ice-shelf were sights never to be forgotten for the 21 tourists, 11 women and 10 men, who make up the first Lindblad Travel party. Never before have tourists crossed the Antarctic Circle. For this occasion, they toasted the land of the Emperor penguins by sipping champagne on the bridge of the cruise ship. Capable Group What amazes me most about these tourists is their capability for getting along. Though the ship rolled and pitched in the rough sea on the way down, no one was really seasick. They all carry numerous rolls of film. They are quick and eager to learn why the Antarctic is like it is.. They write many letters and postcards. They are an independent and eminently successful lot who can take care of themselves anywhere in the World. That they are middleaged and decrepit, and unable to cope with difficulties, is just not true. One should see them clambering over the slippery rocks and negotiating their way through the rugged terrain of the Antarctic inlands.

To keep the tourists healthy, busy and educated as to What the Antarctic offers to them, a management team headed by the tour leader, Mr Lars-Eric Lindblad, of New York, Mrs Marie Darby, a New Zealander of the Canterbury Museum staff, of Christchurch, Dr R. L. Sexton, the cruise doctor from Washington, D.C., and the author, who now comes from Ridgewood, New Jersey, is on hand to lecture, answer questions and maintain interest. The same management team will go south again with the second tourist group. On January 11 a stop was made at the Chatham Islands where tourists viewed the activity in crayfish export. At the all-island feast they sat

down to delicious offerings from the sea. It appears that the islanders could completely sustain themselves from the fish and shellfish of this region. “Amazing, friendly, and downright good eating” were comments frequently heard from the tourists, who certainly had one of the “big meals” of their lives. Seals At Bounty Is. On January 12 a stop was made at the Bounty Islands to view one instance where an animal species has come back from almost total extermination. Once, a century ago, sealers almost exterminated the seal population of these islands by killing them for their valuable pelts. In 1950 Dr R. A. Falla, of New Zealand, commented that the Bounty Islands fur seals were coming back. One postulation is that maybe the present seals are an outgrowth of the Kerguelen breed. Several had been sighted on the nine granite islands. To the writer, who circled many of these islands with Mrs Darby and Mr Lindblad in a small boat, it appeared that the scarce fur seal has really ■ returned in numbers. A conservative estimate would be in the neighbourhood of several thousand seals, many of them newlyborn pups. Perhaps there are as many as 20,000 to 30,000. One thing Is certain: along with the mollymawks, penguins and countless sea birds that cover almost every foot of the islands during the nesting season, the valuable fur seal has reproduced itself in substantial quantities, perhaps to be an important commodity for New Zealand in the future. It is hoped that never again, however, that man will be allowed to slaughter these creatures indiscriminately. A controlled industry, such as is effected in the United States Pribiloff Islands, might be the same answer for the Bounties after a thorough study has been made.

Mrs Darby, who has spent most of her waking hours on the bridge of the Magga Dan, has perhaps made the most complete count of bird, seal and whale life from a ship crossing into the Ross Sea that has ever been made. She has faithfully recorded everything that has appeared within eyesight. Her list is an amazingly long one that will indeed be a valuable contribution to Antarctic knowlerge. She has had many helpers, too. Somehow, on a cruise of this sort, everyone learns about nature. Down in the Antarctic it is basic, besides being an important everyday topic. Antarctica always seems to bring one closer to nature. The author can attest to this at first hand. Once birds were only birds. Now each one has his own identity and characteristic. It’s part of the Antarctic.

The reactions of the individual tourists are interesting. How does Mr Joseph A. Moore, jun., once head of the large Moore Shipbuilding Company of San Francisco, California regard this cruise? He says: “One surely can admire the courage and fortitude shown by early explorers like Sir James Clark Ross who sailed these same seas in his tiny sailing ships Erebus and Terror. They must have had a driving determination to get through in spite of the hazards of ice and uncharted obstructions of an unknown sea.”

Mr Carl G. Grimm, a manufacturer of nurses’ uniforms, views it differently. He says: “The reason I came down here, I tell people, is to see how the world appeared thousands of years ago. Here, in the Antarctic, there are no cities nor air pollution. It’s a rewarding experience and makes a man wonder if it is not really better to adapt ourselves more to the country than to try to adapt the country to ourselves.” Mrs Bessie L. Ferguson, of Harrisonburg, Virginia, during the night the Magga Dan! negotiated the ice peak made the following statement: “I’d go to bed, then every time the ship struck a big ice floe, to crunch against it and throw it aside, I’d always get so excited I’d have to go up on deck to see what was happening. You could hear the ice breaking, and you could almost imagine the ship was a train that had jumped the track and was running along the roadbed. Sometimes the floes broke in two and sometimes they had us up until they finally swung aside to let us pass. Then sometimes there were penguins on the ice floes looking at us as if they were people who had never seen a ship before. I guess they thought we were some kind of monster or something. It sure was a lot of fun.” No doubt Mr and Mrs George E. Holton view this truce a bit differently from the other tourists. They are

on their honeymoon although the cabin arrangement and number of passengers aboard preclude their sharing a room together. The tiny doll-like bride is from Taiwan. She has never seen snow before. “I came down here to learn about the Antarctic,” says Mr Arthur J. Deßlois, chairman of the Deßlois Oil Company of Rhode Island. “This is my second Antarctic cruise and the more 1 learn about this portion of the world the more impressed I am abut the wonder of nature." Mr Deßlois takes pride in showing his Antarctic movies to clubs and educational societies and activities back home.