15 months at French Antarctic base

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33241, 2 June 1973, Page 3

15 months at French Antarctic base

A young Frenchman p who spent 15 months in ' the Antarctic instead of undergoing national . military service at home < said in Christchurch ' yesterday that a person , had to have a very good ( reason to work in such :< a place. h It was no good going toll work there just for the!; money. Many men he hadli heard of were, for much ofp the time, like “lions in all cage.” “Unless you have a definite ) 1 task which fully occupies you i it is easy to hate the place,”)' said Mr F. Robert. < “Limited choice'’ 1 i Mr Robert said he person-)' ally volunteered for Antarctic duty from a limited choice of I available alternatives. Of the ’ 32 men who wintered with ’ him at Dumont D’Urville i Station, in Adelie Land, seven > had gone there rather than J do military service at home;! while of the 33 there at) present 13 had made a similar decision. During his period on the It continent Mr Robert, who'l holds a science degree, wash

(employed by the National! Centre for Scientific Research .with which, on his return to Paris, he will spend a further; I six months. He was in charge' of the Earth Magnetic Laboratory. For much of the time he’ was at the main French base! considerable construction was! (carried out. I “We built a new Post Office,) transmitter building, equip-) ment store, a food store and) a new shelter for the mag-j ) netic observatory. In addition we built a special platform from which we launched the 100 ft tall balloons which were used to study electrical fields in the upper atmosphere. These balloons (there were about half a dozen) flew to a height of about 84,000 ft and my associates say the experiment known as ‘Operation Citadelle’ was a success.” Much of French Antarctica has a reputation for strong winds; and just before mid-, winter's day last year an Ant- j arctic record gust of 200 miles an hour was recorded! (at the station, said Mr Robert. Temperature The lowest temperature recorded at the station during his stay was minus 31deg C i which was not as cold as it

could get at times in the French Alps. ) Generally the health of the Frenchmen was good although during the 1972 winter an appendicitis operation was performed by the team surgeon who was (assisted by the leader of the team (Mr M. Guillard)

a.id two others. Mr Robert said the base had an operating theatre which was the equal of any found in a hospital in metropolitan France. While this operation was a ■success the fate of a young : Emperor penguin chick whicl. the men adopted and attempted to train was not. “The chick was abandoned and our biologists tried to raise it. Most of us in our free time, especially on Sundays. fished for food for it. The chick seemed to do well and was very greedy but during the winter when we were unable to get fish for it we tried to feed it with minced beef steak but it died after two days on this diet.” Mr Robert said attempts ito train the penguin also failed. “It was just as stupid as a hen.” However, it lived i for five months and where 'fish was concerned had a (Voracious appetite. I The two cooks at Dumont ■D’Urville were very good, (said Mr Robert. So much so 'that members of the winter- ; ing party gained, on average, 1221 b. Weight increase ! This weight increase was without the benefit of fresh foods. Most of the canned food was from France, although meat and wines were imported from Australia. Mr Robert said that during the summer the meat had to be kept in a refrigerator as the temperatures were too warm outside.

The food was supplemented by a bar which remained open day and night. All drinks and tobacco were free. “We were each restricted to a certain quantity each week and if you were foolish enough to drink it all up on the first day then you were without for the rest of the week. I might, add that we left quite a quantity behind this year.” Popular hobbies For recreation the most popular hobbies were photography, reading, film:, and even walking. The base has a gymnasium, which is popular. The men received mail from home only twice a year — in December and February when the supply ship, Thala Dan, arrived. “We were also able to exchange 50-word telegrammes with our relatives in France once a week.” “Occasionally there were radio exchanges with the) Australians and the Russians. Sometimes chess competitions were held by radio but, these didn’t last long as the' Russians were usually much too good for us,” said Mr Robert, Chick loss One of the saddest features of the time Mr Robert spent at Dumont D’Urville Station occurred during the breeding season of the Emperor penguins last year when, of about 5000 chicks_born. only 100 were left alive. This was caused by the parents having to go too far away to the sea for food.

Mr Robert said the biologists took a vehicle out to the rookery, about a quarter of a mile from the station, to count them and later to push their bodies into crevasses.

“Normally some destruction takes place at the end of the breeding season when the young chicks make their way to the sea for the first time. Leopard seals, with an uncanny sense of timing, wait there for them and many young birds are killed.”