Antarctica Revisited

Talk and Slide Show

8:00 pm, Saturday 18th October 2003
Meldreth Church Meeting Room

George Kistruck served a tour of duty in Antarctica for three years as a glaciologist between 1968 and 1971. He was located at a tiny isolated outpost of Fossil Bluff where the accommodation for four was in a hut the size of a garage.
The team travelled around taking measurements using mechanical transport and occasionally with visiting dog sledges. It was dark from the end of April until late August - work was very difficult and they learned to sleep a lot during this period.

A team reunion took place in 2000 with wives and friends, visiting the current main British survey site and a number of the historical ones. They were able to see the stupendous scenery and see how the methods of working had changed dramatically.

We had a fascinating evening with superb slides of the stunning landscape, beautiful sunsets, four species of both seals and penguins and whales on the outward journey - everything that one would expect.

The really interesting aspect was the inventiveness of the four scientists living for 2 years in a small and remote garage sized hut. The conditions were 'compact' including a kitchen with an Aga cooker incorporating a large ice-melting tank; occasionally this was contaminated with paraffin and had to be drained after a primus stove was knocked over on top of the Aga. In addition there was a workshop and living / sleeping quarters. On the culinary front we saw icing sugar for the Christmas cake being made by putting granulated sugar through a mincer, crème brûlé topping being hardened with a paraffin blow lamp, not a common practice in the 1960s, and the importance of food was apparent from the photographs of tomatoes, eggs and oranges alongside the modest pin-ups.

Improvisation continued with shower with a base made from half of a 45-gallon drum and the other half holding hot water - feeding a perforated tobacco tin as a showerhead. One of the small-motorised vehicles frequently suffered chain breakages due to ice build up which was resolved by ducting the warm exhaust gases onto the affected area via a tube made from tin cans.

We were most grateful to George Kistruck for bringing back his memories to us and enabling £250 to be raised for the Friends.