Z - F I D S N E W S L E T T E R No. 56 28 Oct 2024 Editor: Andy Smith (email andy@zfids.org.uk) Website: www.zfids.org.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------- News about Halley ----------------- From Dan McKenzie - Halley Station Leader --------------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings to all Z-FIDS. Here we are at the time of year once again (and how quickly it comes around) where we are about to deploy South to Halley. This year is a year of changes on station, with a new station leader, a new temporary SOM [Station Operations Manager], the first full season for our Facilities engineer and first season in a permanent role for our Science Co-ordinator. With a lot of new faces across the vehicles and the estates team from the AEP [Antarctic Employment Pool] too. We are all brimming with enthusiasm and pride to be able to work at this most prestigious and incredible of Antarctic stations, and luckily for us, we have some very experienced and knowledgeable team members around us that can help guide us to a successful season. On that note I'd also like to thank my predecessor Thomas Barningham (Barney), for a fantastic job, who has got the station into a great position looking into the future and left very big shoes to fill. He moves on into project management within BAS and he will certainly be missed around station after many years working at Halley in different roles. I would also be doing a disservice if I didn't heap similar praise on our outgoing Facilities engineer, Nick Gregory (Curly) who has worked tirelessly over the last years to improve Halley and make it what it is today. So, thanks a lot to both, and good luck in your new endeavours. Due to the fantastic work of Barney and his team last year, we are looking at a very decent season ahead of us, our first ships relief in 6 seasons went very well, despite delays early in the season due to weather. The entire team showed that hardworking spirit which marks those who work at Halley and worked tirelessly over two weeks to get all waste and outgoing cargo on to the ship, and fuel, cargo and food onto station. A whole team effort, well done to all. This year marks a continuation of the return to prestige science in the form of the RIFT-TIP [Rates of Ice Fracture and Timing of Tabular Iceberg Production] project, which will be serviced by two of BAS's very best field scientists and marks a return to form for Halley and highlights the good work done in the past few years to get us back to this position by the team. Science and engineering teams will also be servicing LPM [Low Power Magnetometer] and LoH [Lifetiime of Halley] sites on the Brunt Ice shelf, and a two-person team will be transiting from Rothera to clean fuel in drums at the Eagle fuel depot. A major feature of this season will be the work done on the microturbine; after a successful first season we unfortunately suffered a failure of the microturbine during winter. This kind of thing is to be expected for groundbreaking technology as this is, but was a disappointment for those that have put years of hard work into the project. It will be a priority this season to figure out what we need to improve and to make sure it is rectified and continues to be the success story for BAS that it has been. With the rapid movement and unpredictability of the ice shelf, it is of utmost importance that the input team gets all equipment reading movements in the ice started and relaying information again. [Many thnaks to Dan for this report] ----------------------- Sadly, there are deaths to report. David Uzzaman ------------- David George Uzzaman, 20/4/1952-19/2/2024, died on Monday on 19th February 2024. He was the electrician in 1981 and 1982. His widow said "He took many photos! He loved all the amazing nature, scenery and especially the penguins!" Ian Buckley ----------- We have learned from Ian's wife Wendy that he died peacefully on 30th March 2024. Ian was meteorologist in the 1963 and 1964 winters. He attended the Z25, Millennium and Z50 reunions. John Skilling ------------- John died on 26th May 2024. He was the Carpenter in 1961. His wife Maureen says he stayed remarkably fit up until the last 2/3 months. John was one of a three-man team of carpenters, with Ernie Docchar and Dave Edwards, which was sent to Halley in 1961 to construct a new hut to replace the original IGY hut which was getting rather deep. The hut was supplied in prefabricated panels but unfortunately, due to a logistical cockup, the bolts for joining the panels were not supplied. It was decided to go ahead with the construction anyway. John has written an account of all this, which you can find from a link in the "Other Information" section of the 1961 Zfids web page. Don Mackay ---------- Don MacKay (Builder, 73 Halley, 75 Signy, 77 Rothera) passed away on 17 Jun at his home in Aberdeen after a period of illness. Mark Doughty ------------ Mark was the Cook in 1998 and 1999. He sadly passed away on 27th August 2024, aged 58. Alex Gaffikin said "So sad - he was a pillar for me in my first winter". I got to know Mark when I shared a bunkroom with him during my 1998-99 summer visit. ZFids website www.zfids.org.uk ------------------------------ The original Zfids website was very much oriented towards winterers and each winter had a separate page reflecting the bond most wintering Fids formed with their fellow winterers. After 2017, when there were no longer any winterers, I put everything post 2017 onto a 2018+ page. However I recently decided that it would be better to continue the one page per winter (and more relevantly per summer). So I have discontinued the 2018+ page and split the contents into separate years. I am hoping to get more names of summer parties for each year, as that information is as yet rather limited. If you can help in that regard, please contact me. Thanks to Keith Gainey, all the Pengwinge magazines from 1966 have been added. Links have been added to illustrate the calving of icebergs A81 and A83 from the Brunt Ice Shelf. Links have been added to two blogs: Neil Brims (electrician) and Emma Pearce (ice geophysicist). Links to BAS press releases on Brunt acceleration and penguin colony relocation have been added. Find all recent additions on the Latest Additions and Updates page of the Z-Fids website. Database of winterers --------------------- The database of winterers (hosed on the BAS Club website www.basclub.org but accessible to non-members) includes everyone who has wintered at a BAS or FIDS base from 1944 to 2020. Until recently, those who wintered at Halley Bay in 1956, 1957 or 1958 were not included because the base at that time was not a FIDS one but a Royal Society one. That omission has now been rectified. The Royal Society winterers have been given a base code of HB rather than Z. Halley 5 model ______________ This was donated to the Science Museum by the owner Dave Brown. A recent message from the museum said "The model is currently in our stores and being carefully looked after by our conservation team. We haven’t had an opportunity to put it on display in the museum just yet but we have a few gallery development projects in progress at the moment and I hope that we will be able to include it in the not-too-distant future. However, the model can be discovered by our audiences online and I thought that you might like to see the lovely photographs that were added to the record recently. The photographer really enjoyed some of the details as I think you can see!" The relevant link is given at the bottom of the Halley 5 Model page (look for this in the General Index). Z-70 ---- This event, which celebrates 70 years since the founding of the base in 1956, follows on from the successful Z50 and Z60 events and will be held at the same hotel in central Northampton. It is now open for booking and so far 38 Fids have booked online for themselves and 18 guests. The booking form and other information may be found on the ZFids website. Click on "Z70" on the home page. Mount Rose ---------- A peak in the Shackleton Mountains, south of Halley, has been named Mount Rose after Mike Rose, who was wintering electronics engineer in 1989 and 1990. British Antarctic Oral History Project -------------------------------------- All the 272 Oral History interviews being published have now been transcribed by our team of volunteers. 264 of these have been published on the BAS Club website (link on the Zfids home page). You don't need to be a BAS Club member to see them. There are links on the Z-Fids website to the interviews featuring Halley people (see the General Index under Oral history recordings). The remaining interviews are awaiting approval before they can be published. Here are a couple of extracts from the interviews: Dudley (Base Leader, 1962, 63, 64): 'No brown sauce.’ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "Life, particularly at midwinter, is very intense, as anyone going down South will know. It is not a usual way to spend your life, 30 guys, no girls around the place, 120 days of darkness. ‘God, it’s cold out there. What are we doing here?’ There were times when, I don’t know what was in other people’s minds but I can recall some occasions thinking ‘What the hell am I doing here? It’s Saturday night. I could be out with my mates in the pub, going to the dances with the girls.’ There were times when you thought ‘What the hell am I doing?’ When the pressures and the tensions started and it often happened with the chef. I can recall at Christmas lunch, a superb meal that two chefs had prepared, and one of the guys sat down and said ‘Brown sauce please.’ And the chef said ‘No, not today. I have spend a lot of time preparing this meal. No brown sauce.’ ‘I want brown sauce.’ You could see there was an issue, on Christmas Day. I don’t recall how, but I stepped in quietly and disarmed it. One was forever looking at these little tensions going on and you would try and relieve it, either keep the people apart or, if need be, get them together and sort it. It was the toughest leadership job I have ever done." NERC copyright, reproduced courtesy of BAS Archives Service. Archives ref AD6/24/1/172. Alex Gaffikin (Meteorologist, 1999-2000): 'Put the woman back on!' ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "I seemed to spend an awful lot of my time ironing. The blokes just had no sense of cleanliness or decorum. This is another one I confess to: I remember my second winter, towards the end, the summerers were coming back and we got out all the duvets to do up the summer accommodation building, and I insisted on pulling all the duvet covers off and washing them. Some of the guys were like 'Oh don't bother. They will survive.' 'I am not putting dirty duvets back.' So a certain level of standards I think were raised. But some of the gear, some of the equipment was obviously male-orientated. I was issued with underwear; my thermal underwear, was for blokes. It had a great gaping hole in the front for blokes to pee out of, so when I first got it, I stitched it up. So there were a few things like that. But some of the other bases didn't have women. We used to play darts with other bases and I remember in my second winter playing with Sanae, the South African base which was all men. I was on the Comms, reading out the scores of the darts match. After about 20 minutes I think I handed back over to Mark Ryan and the guys at the other end of the radio were like 'Put the woman back on!' They were obviously very keen to hear a female voice. That was quite funny." NERC copyright, reproduced courtesy of BAS Archives Service. Archives ref AD6/24/1/126. Many thanks to all contributors to this Newsletter. Back numbers ------------ All issues of this Z-Fids Newsletter, from No. 1 in 2004 (except for the most recent issue) are available from the Z-Fids website home page. The most recent issue is sent to those on the mailing list. The British Antarctic Survey Club --------------------------------- The Club is now sponsoring the Z-Fids website and if you are not already a member, I would urge you to consider joining. There is a membership application form accessible from the home page of the Club's website: www.basclub.org Registrations and email updates ------------------------------- As usual this newsletter is being sent out by email only, to 412 people. If you are on email but have not received it by that route, please register or re-register on the website (links on the home page). 437 people have now registered on Z-fids. If you have, your name will be shown as a link on the appropriate year page(s). If you wish to be removed from the mailing list, let me know by email. Andy |