From Tim Page
      STILL stuck in the ice
      onboard RSV "Aurora Australis"
      Antarctica
      9th December 1998, 4pm
 

Hello to everyone at Winthrop school, and of course to Ms Kelly, soon to be back from Japan!
 

PRESENT POSITION:   69 degrees South Latitude, 75 degrees East Longitude
DIRECTION HEADING:   None (stationary)
SPEED HEADING:   None (stationary)
DISTANCE FROM TASMANIA:  2889 nautical miles (3328 miles)
DISTANCE TO MAWSON STATION: 288 nautical miles (331 miles)
AIR TEMPERATURE:   -1.6 degrees Celsius (29 degrees Fahrenheit)
WATER TEMPERATURE:  -1.6 degrees Celsius (29 degrees Fahrenheit)
WATER DEPTH:   746 metres (2446 feet)
WIND SPEED:    12 knots (14 miles per hour)
 

Kon-nichi-wa (that's "hello" in Japanese).  Guess what?  We still haven't moved!  The engineers have had no luck fixing our propeller, so we still can't move.  A few days ago we saw our first ship since we left Tasmania a month and a half ago.  It was the giant Chinese icebreaker the "Snow Dragon".  They were on their way to the Chinese base, Zhong Shan.  Sadly they don't have any towing gear, so couldn't help us.  Luckily there is another ship which will be here soon.  It is the Japanese icebreaker "Shirase", which is named after the famous Japanese Antarctic explorer, Nobu Shirase, who came down here in a ship called the "Kainan-Maru" (meaning Southern Pioneer) early this century.

In fact many places here are named for early explorers from many nations.  The Australian base we were planning to go to next is called Mawson Station, named after the Australian explorer and scientist, Douglas Mawson (I will talk about him another time).  The New Zealand base, Scott Base, is named after the British explorer Robert Scott, who was the second man to get to the South Pole, but unfortunately he died on the way back.  The first man to get to the pole was Roald Amundsen from Norway, which is where the American base at the pole, Amundsen-Scott gets its name too.  The most famous American explorer from this period was Admiral Richard Byrd, who flew over the pole in a plane.

One thing which makes Antarctica different from all the other continents is that there were no people already living there when it started to be explored in the last hundred years or so.  That means there were no indigenous peoples (like the Aborigines in Australia, Inuit in Alaska, or Ainu in Japan).  When explorers from different countries started to travel around the continent, they began to claim certain parts for their home countries.  At the moment, land here is claimed by 7 countries (Australia, New Zealand, France, Great Britain, Norway, Argentina and Chile), but nothing is decided.  Despite this, many other countries have bases here too.  There is a treaty which makes Antarctica like a great big international park for wildlife and science.  Hopefully it will always be this way, with no mining or arguments between countries over borders.  It should be for all the world to enjoy, and look after.

One country that has a base here is Japan.  Since a Japanese ship is coming to pick us up and Ms Kelly is in Japan at the moment, I thought it would be interesting to look at Japan and the Antarctic.  By coincidence, we have a Japanese scientist on the ship, Sanae.  She is from Yokohama on the island of Honshu.  She is studying salps, which are a little like jelly fish.  I think she must have been destined to come to Antarctica because the South Africans have an Antarctic base called Sanae!!  Anyway, she kindly agreed to write a little bit about Japan's role in the Antarctic, and here it is:
 

"Japanese Antarctic Research

The Japanese only icebreaker "Shirase" is a gigantic ship of 140 m long and weighs more than 10000 ton (about 3 times heavier than "Aurora").  This ship was named after the Japanese first expenditioner to Antarctica who lived the same era as Mawson, Scott and Amunsden (they reached Antarctica in 1910's). It is amazing that these pioneers traveled to the roaring, icy Antarctic Ocean with only small sloops. Shirase's ship was the smallest among them, and that surprised other expenditioners a lot.  Mr. Shirase did not reach the Antarctic pole, but made lots of adventurous trips in Antarctica.  When you see an Antarctic map, you will find some Japanese names which he put, such as Yamato Yuki-hara (means "snow field of the old Japanese capital").

Japan has one Antarctic base called "Sho-wa" station which is located approximately on the same longitude of the South African Republic.  There is a famous story about husky dogs in the station.  40 years ago, the Japanese icebreaker "So-ya" got stuck in heavy ice on the way to the Showa station for changeover of winterer and summer expenditioners (sounds like Aurora?).  They tried hard to go ahead for many days, but could not make it.  As the fuels and foods stock on ship was decreasing day by day, they finally decided to give up and to send the summer people and their supplies, but just managed to pick up the winterers by helicopter transportation.  There were many winterers and sledge dogs in the station.  Helicopter successfully picked up all people safely...but no dogs.  Due to time and fuel limitation and other unfortunate conditions (sorry, I cannot remember what was the exact condition) they had to leave Antarctica without dogs.  Leaving dogs alone there meant they would die, everyone knew that.  After the ship returned to Japan, they were condemned by international societies for this "inhumane" treatment on dogs.  Some said that they should have shot the dogs rather than letting them die slowly by starving in harsh Antarctic environment.  For all the winterers, however, these dogs were not just animals but almost their family who lived together in long, dark Antarctic winter.  They all cried and resisted when they had to say good-bye to their dogs.  Particularly, it was gut-wrenching for the dog trainer.

One year later, So-ya was going ahead to Showa station again to deliver summer expeditioners.  The dog trainer was there, too.  When the ship was approaching shore, he found 2 black spots running and jumping near the station.  Dogs!!  He could not believe, but they were Taro and Jiro, two of many sledge dogs which he had to leave here last year.  Taro and Jiro recognized him and welcomed him with their tails flapping  enthusiastically.  No one knows how they could survive for 1 year in the Antarctic (probably by hunting penguins?) because they did not tell us.   Taro and Jiro returned to Japan and that news surprised people and made them happy a lot.  The two dogs lived long after that and their statues are now exhibited in a museum.

That is the story I learned in a non-fiction movie, so some parts are maybe exaggerated a little bit.  In my memory, a Russian (USSR in those days) icebreaker "Obi" helped So-ya  when she got stuck, but I am not sure, sorry."
 

Thanks very much, Sanae, it's fascinating to hear stories from other countries about their experiences in the Antarctic, and it's good to see how other countries help each other out down here, in this harsh environment.

Have fun, and I'll send another email before everyone goes on their Christmas and Hanukkah holidays.

Talk to you soon!  Sayonara.
 

Tim Page