This morning we went
to one of the lesser visited points around the Neumayer Channel: Dorian Bay and
its two huts. The smaller of the two is an Argentine emergency hut that seemed
to be pretty abandoned; its door was open and the view into the interior showed
a few boxes of (presumably) emergency rations plus, surprisingly, some
firewood. The larger one is a former British “base”. The hut was used as an
intermediate stop for supplies and personnel to be flown to Rothera, a base
much further south. The hut had been declared an historic site only two years
ago and was looked after by the same trust that kept Port Lockroy’s Bransfield
Hut (Base A) intact as a museum.
Between our morning
landing at Dorian Bay and the afternoon landing at Port Lockroy the captain had
to move the Fram just a short distance, but wind kept us from landing right
away. We had to wait for the wind to die down a bit, and still, the rides
ashore and back were quite wet.
While Dorian Bay had
been in use from the 1970’s onward, Base A had been set up in 1944 during World
War 2 as part of “Operation Tabarin” to not only reiterate Britain’s claim to
Antarctica, but also to prevent German operations down south, or at least to
report on them. After the war Base A had been an important site for scientific
observations, and part of the museum covered this aspect.
The base had been
rebuilt in 1996, and the museum part showed how the personnel lived and worked
in the 1950’s. Apart from the base being a museum, it also was a working post
office, and many a postcard was written and sent with season’s greetings.
While the base had
been manned in earlier times, today it is womaned, as there are four young
female volunteers. The “troops” are British and the base commander German –how
times have changed….
Apart from the
historical aspect of our visits, the bird-lovers had a field day, too: Gentoo
Penguins, Snowy Sheathbills and Antarctic Terns were seen in the morning, and
even more so in the afternoon around Bransfield Hut.
