Trek in Scott’s steps

Press, 2 June 1984, Page 9

Trek in Scott’s steps

From

DIANA DEKKER

in London

Two Englishmen hoping to recreate Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s 1911-1912 journey to the South Pole expect to leave for the trek from Lyttelton early next year. Mr Robert Swan, aged 27, a tree surgeon and former Antarctic researcher, and Mr Roger Mear, aged 32, an instructor at a mountaineering school in Wales, have bought an Icelandic trawler to take them to the Antarctic for their “Terra Nova n” expedition. The trawler is moored at St Katherine's Dock in London and will be strengthened at Newcastle for her Antarctic voyage. The two men and the three others to accompany them to Antarctica bought the trawler after the expedition had been refused air landing rights there. They had intended to fly out of Christchurch to McMurdo Sound in a chartered Hercules aircraft in October last year. They now intend to leave London on September 1, reach Cape Town by October 4, Sydney by November 24, and Lyttelton by December 23. The voyage is part of a Greenpeace campaign in London to save Antarctica from commercial mineral exploitation. Mr Mear said yesterday that the new venture, unlike the previous scheme, had

had "a fairly good reaction from the Antarctic authorities.” Liaison with the member States involved with the Antarctic Treaty was being dealt with by the British Foreign Office, a condition required by the treaty. On board the ship with the two men will be Mr John Tolson, Mr Gareth Wood, and the expedition’s doctor, Dr Michael Stroud. The group will leave from Lyttelton on January 5 to drop off a hui and supplies for wintering in Antarctica. Mr Swan and Mr Mear will leave from Cape Evans as soon as conditions permit. They expect to be in Antarctica for 12 to 14 months, the journey taking 75 days. The two men intend to

take sledges, to establish no advance depots along the route, and to enlist no air support. They will be in radio contact with McMurdo Station and Scott Base. Each of the two sledges will weigh 280 pounds. The weight of each will drop five pounds a day so that each man will haul 82kg up the Beardmore Glacier. Mr Mear said yesterday that the money for the 42m trawler had been raised through all the members of the expedition. After the voyage she would probably be used for charter. “It was a bit unexpected to suddenly become a shipowner. It is probably better this way. We are in control

and otherwise we would have had to depend on chartering,” Mr Mear said. Taking the trawler to Antarctica meant travelling in a high risk area, he said. They had arranged to accompany Sol, an American ship which was going independently to Antarctica for filming purposes. Mr Mear. who has a degree in fine arts, has been an instructor at the British National Mountaineering Centre in Wales. Mr Swan, with a degree in ancient history, had Antarctic experience in the 1980-81 season with the British Antarctic Survey at Rothera on Adelaide island off the Antarctic Peninsula, and Fossil Bluff in George VI Sound.