2022: Blog | Joining HMS Protector
15/01/2022
After being released from our hotel quarantine we were transferred to the HMS Protector, it was nice to see a bit of Stanley and the local landscape. We were given a warm welcome including handshakes from the Commanding Officer and Captain, and a quick transition to a maskless covid-free environment. After dinner and a quick tour of the ship we were invited into the Wardroom and got to know the team of Officers.
Pictured: HMS Protector
All of the crew have been incredibly friendly and helpful and each of the team have found their ‘people’. I have discussed the approach to Port Lockroy with the Navigator, and how we might land our stores with the Coxswain. Tank has spent time in the ‘Chippy’ shack, doing carpentry jobs for the ship and getting shown around the engine room by the Chief Engineer. We were also able to check through our stores which had been secured in the cargo hold.
Pictured, left to right: Tank busy working on HMS Protector; Kit visits Stanley Post Office
Kit had arrived in Stanley ahead of Tank and I to pack our stores. This had also given him the opportunity to visit the Stanley Post Office in person and meet Lindsay and Glynnis who oversee the mail going between Port Lockroy and the UK. We will operate the Post Office again this season continuing the tradition first established at Base A during Operation Tabarin. Every year the British Antarctic Territory issues one or more new stamp sets, this year commemorating 30 years of Environmental Protection they include an image of the 2016/17 Lockroy team painting Bransfield House, a task on our work list for this season.
We are a little apprehensive of the crossing after seeing videos from the bridge of the size of the waves previously encountered!
Lucy Dorman, Base Leader 2021 - 2022
Many historic expeditions and explorers, including the men of Operation Tabarin (a top secret mission to Antarctica during World War II) have followed this same route to Antarctica. Whilst I set sail on a modern ship, the 14 men of Operation Tabarin left Stanley on 2 small ships, one of which was not ice strengthened. Not only did they have the dangers of a polar expedition in front of them, but also the potential threat of enemy forces during WWII.
This film captures the 134ft HMS William Scorseby at sea in Feb 1944 (Reproduced courtesy of BAS Archives, Ref AD6/16/1944/1.1).We, like our polar ancestors, are now heading South through the furious 50°'s and eventually to the screaming 60°’s, where the winds batter the Southern Ocean, with terrifying intensity. I cannot begin to imagine what it would have been on The Scorseby, with the men of Operation Tabarin in such weather. I am hoping to experience some of the beauty and wonder of Antarctica's wildlife on my journey there. With perhaps a small bit of Antarctic adventure thrown in. Although perhaps I should be careful what I wish for!
