MUST TAKE RISKS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 46, 23 February 1934, Page 11

MUST TAKE RISKS

RULE IN ANTARCTIQA NERVE-SHAKING JOBS "Everyone must take risks at times in Antarctica," said Mr. B. E. O'Brien, of Wellington, who largely owed: his trip to the Barrier in the Jacob Buppert to the British Drama League award for Now Zealand playwrights. "One of the most anxious times I had'was when I was recovering somo iceanchors, or. 'dead men,' from the cako ice in the Bay of Whales. For this purpose use was made of hatch covers, which were sunk edgewiso in pits dug in the ice to a depth of six or eight feet, and snow piled on them. When these had set in place they took tlid; strain of tho ship's moorings well, enough. Usually sonic half a dozen wero put out. "I was engaged in recovering one of these when the ice began to crack. Fissures spread in the ice with tho speed with' which a crack will run. across a pane of glass., They may go a lnilo almost instantaneously, and they may open only a quarter of an inch at first, but as they extend they widen very rapidly. Sometimes they had to be jumped. On this occasion we had to row back in a boat over open water. What made us anxious was the presence in. the bay of killer whales. If these brutes put their snouts up and get the scent of men they will bump the boat to tip.you out. Wo were lucky enough to get across without attracting them., Bob' Young had one similar job when, tho killer whales, appeared about fifty yards from.him, but ho was lucky to get back before they did anything about it. Ho was . the more frightened, as on one occasion he had been concerned in an attempt.by some half-dozen killers to tip up a cake of ice on which ho was standing. . ' "These killers live on seals and even penguins. The latter well know it, and line up well put of the. water when they are about. :Even if they are not to bo seen the penguins are chary about entering the water, If1 one penguin goes in after fish and does not,come up again when due, the rest decide that it is not a Friday." . . , A NARROW ESCAPE. It was first of all decided to land on the Barrier from the ship, said , Mr. O'Brien. It^ seemed then the most sensible thing to do. What appeared to be the most stable part of the face was marked out by two Ted flags, and' the ship was edging cautiously in when with a thunderous report thousands of tons of ice broke-away at the marked spot. Luckily the ship was some thirty yards or more out from the face. Had she been there landing supplies, etc., which would-have to be hauled up the face, the expedition must have literally received its quietus, as there was a sufficiently heavy fall of ice to havo overwhelmed the ship. As it was-the engines were reversed, and she got out. The icefall made a regular tidal wave. "The bay cake ice. was almost as smooth as a billiard table," he said. It was about three miles from, where we finally unloaded.across tho bay ice to the Barrier. This ice might crack at any .tune. Whero that meets the Barner proper thero are pressure ridges. The Barrier, is slightly glacial, and in the squeezing the solid ice is for.ccd up from 10' to; 80 feet in places: The tractors did most of the transport up to the first and second caches, and then over the pressure ridges, tho dog teams had to take- it oni"