Dave Steward Palmer Station Video and Narrative

  From Life member Dave Steward (ASA Det Alfa W/O Palmer Station 70-71).  Dave offers something over 40 minutes of life around Palmer Station during that year.  Link here:   https://youtube.com/watch?v=f55C0VgJPhk&feature=share.  Below is the narrative to match the film footage.

Palmer Station Antarctica
Operation Deep Freeze 70
Filmed by Dave Steward SK2
Winter-Over Detachment Alpha
Crew:

Ltjg Don McLaughlin, CEC, USNR
Lt. Verne Smith, MC, USN
Chief George Wade, CEC
Dennis Patton, HM1
John Stanciu, RM1
Harvey High, CS1
Jay Clinck, CM2
Dave Steward, SK2
Michael Bergin, Marine Acoustical society
Steve Shabica, University of Oregon, Scientist

 00:00 minutes

Opening begins with sun appearing over Palmer after winter period, then backtracks to the USCG Glacier departing Punta Arenas early January, 1970 with the Palmer crew aboard. Shots include the passage through Tierra Del Fuego and entering into the Drake passage and some flight ops by the Coasties.

 3:08 minutes

Glacier abeam Elephant Island in very foggy conditions.  Scientists attempt landing a beachhead but they broach the launch and have to be rescued via helicopter.

 3:30 minutes

Glacier enters Arthur Harbor and our first look at Palmer Station.  Harbor is choked with bergy bits and icebergs.  The Glacier clears an iceberg out by placing her bow against a berg and pushing her out of the harbor.  No video of this as the skipper clears all decks for this operation.

 Various filming over the months of the station and surrounding islands along with the wildlife found in these waters.

 6:18 minutes

A skiff (named El Grande Penguino Del Sur by Bergin) ride around Arthur Harbor, the glacier that abuts the harbor and our first view of “Old” Palmer. One of the Glaciologists is seen on the edge of the glacier and the Antarctic Peninsula Mountain range to the eastin the background.

 8:59 minutes

A return to Palmer Station and the fire is our weekly trash burning. The two buildings are the Bio-Lab and behind is what we called the Gar-Rec (Garage-Recreation) building.  No other buildings existed at this time. The trash area was located up by the helicopter pad and behind the 2 fuel tanks.

 9:40 minutes

We come across Elephant seals off of Bonaparte Point milling about smartly, playing in the water and not happy I’m there filming.

 11:30 minutes

I capture pancake ice that has blown in against the pier with several seals; one a crabeater and the other a Leopard seal.  Lounging turns into a skirmish, a bite (13:00 minutes). Afterwards a few shots of the Dominican Seagull.

 14:06 minutes

Steve Shabica, Mike Bergin with support in the skiff for sample collecting.  Scientific mission that year was to study the inter-tidal ecology. The presence of the seals momentarily keep the divers out of the water as these seals were aggressive underwater.

 15:57 minutes

A trip to Torgerson Island and the Adelie Penguin rookery there. This was peak mating season so the males can be seen collecting rocks, presenting them to a prospective mate and building a nest with them. The island is quite loud with their honking and the smell not appealing with all the guano present.

 19:40 minutes

Another visit to the rookery later in the season.  We see immature penguin with their down still present as the hatching season comes to a close.  These penguin actually go north for the winter.

 20:22 minutes

Arthur Harbor mid-winter and it is frozen allowing for frequent trips out on the ice for sample collecting. At roughly 20:55 minutes we see the Sheath Paddy Bill that remains during mid-winter.  Here they feed from a slop trough that our Harvey High placed for scraps.  Old Sol is seen for the first time in many weeks.  Although we would get several hours over light each day, this was the first occurrence of actually seeing the globe in some time. Shots after this from atop the glacier on Anvers Island with a pan of the peninsula and mountain range then looking south. Following this are shots of the station as we come out of mid-winter.

 23:28 minutes

We are now aboard the R/V Hero heading toward Port Lockroy.  For more information on this journey one can find an excellent article in National Geographic, November, 1971 Edition.

 35:28 minutes

Some of the bird life around Palmer.  The ever-present Skua and Dominican Seagull.  The skua could catch food tossed to them in midair, which I found intriguing since there were no flying bugs or other critters that would account for how the Skua learned this.  We locate a Skua nest on Bonaparte Point among the rocks there, you’ll see the chicks in the nest but locating them wasn’t without some aerial bombing by Mom and/or Pop.  Got pecked on the head a few times just wandering out onto the point.  Lessons learned!

 37:06 minutes

Awahnee (means peace in Hawai’ian) arrives Palmer Station during her voyage circumnavigating the continent.  Too many stories to tell here about this vessel and crew, but the skipper and his wife Bob and Nancy Griffith made a movie of this adventure entitled Following Seas. For those readers that have Prime you can view the movie there.  It is worth the watch!

37:47 minutes

A visit to the British Antarctic Survey station not far from Palmer courtesy of a helicopter ride by the USCG Westwind that arrived there.  We are at the end of our tour now having been at Palmer for almost 13 months.  The film concludes with me sitting in the gunner’s seat and grabbing shots of the surrounding area as we fly back to Palmer.  Was a beautiful day to fly and a great year to winter-over.

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