Source: BBC World Service
URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01nrh3l
Date: 06/01/2014
Event: The Return to Mawson's Antarctica - Part Four
Attribution: BBC World Service
People:
Andrew Luck-Baker: This is Discovery, from the BBC World Service, with me, Andrew Luck-Baker in Antarctica. In the last two weeks, you may have heard me talking on BBC News about the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. I was reporting how the vessel carrying me and the expeditioneers was stuck, frozen in extensive sea ice, recounting the endless setbacks, and on the successions of Plans A and B into that airlift rescue, finally, on the 2nd January.
[Speaking earlier]: I'm sure you can now hear the helicopter approaching us. It's dropped in height. I'd say it's about 100 metres above the ice surface, getting closer, closer...
The theme of this final programme from the frozen south was always going to be about human life and the human presence in Antarctica. But the dramas which befell our ship, the Akademik Shokalskiy, captured exactly how vulnerable people are, in this other world on Earth.
Greg Mortimer: You don't know what to expect, in Antarctica. It doesn't treat fools kindly. It tends to jump on the back of your neck, if you make a mistake.
Andrew Luck-Baker: Greg Mortimer, one of the three expedition co-leaders. Greg has mountaineered and explored in Antarctica every year for more than two decades. Another explorer has said that "Antarctica is out to kill you". Although we were never in immediate mortal peril, there were moments where many of us did wonder how it was going to end. What follows are snapshots from those ten days, beset by ice, as they say.
The Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013 was a kind of reboot of the first expedition to this part of East Antarctica, a century ago. It was led by Australian scientist-explorer Douglas Mawson, one of the great, though less globally famous, figures of the Antarctic Heroic Age. He discovered and named locations such as Commonwealth Bay, Cape Denison, the Hodgeman Islands and the Mertz Glacier.
That we were properly stuck fast only became apparent to us all - the 52 expeditioneers and the 22 Russian crew - on the 25th December. I went up to the top deck, with Co-Leader Chris Turney, to get an assessment of what had happened and what was in store for us.
* * *
Andrew Luck-Baker: It's 12:30 AM GMT, Christmas Day. I'm in the crow's nest of the Shokalskiy, our ice-strengthened ship. And I'm with Chris Turney, because we've got a bit of a situation here, as you might say. We are currently completely surrounded by kilometres and kilometres of pack ice, along with a few icebergs that aren't so far away. For the last day, we've been stuck in this - basically, we're stranded in pack ice. Now, Chris is here, and he's going to explain this extraordinary Christmas Day for us - you know, the Christmas Day of my life, I think - Chris, probably yours, too.
Chris Turney: Yeah, absolutely, Andrew, it's... So we're so close to open water. The satellite information we've got shows it's all the way clear beyond that. But we just... everything moved so quickly, just over 24 hours ago. It closed in. We can see it, we can almost taste it, and we can't reach it.
Andrew Luck-Baker: How long might we be stranded here for, and might someone come and get us?
Chris Turney: Yeah, could be for another couple of days. Basically, the wind at the moment is effectively easterly, so it's pushing us and the sea ice up against the shore. We can't go any further, unfortunately, because we're blocked in, now. So we're okay on that score. What we really want is a shift in the wind direction, more from the west. But that's one possibility, and that would be great - that means we get out, ourselves.
Andrew Luck-Baker: But we might need help.
Chris Turney: We might need some help as well. And we're very fortunate as well, there's several ice-strengthened vessels in the immediate area, one of which is a Chinese vessel, a massive icebreaker, that's actually going right next to us, actually coming here. And they were scheduled to get here in 48 hours's time, and they'e been alerted to our situation. And so hopefully, there'll just be a minor detour and they'll be able to break open the ice and open up a passage for us to get out. So, it does give - it's just a timely reminder, yet again, of just how quickly the situation can change.
Andrew Luck-Baker: Our situation is nor completely without jeopardy, because there are several large icebergs in the area, moving in our general direction, albeit not on collision course.
Chris Turney: You're right, actually, Andrew. That's why we've alerted the Chinese vessel to - requested assistance, but effectively their running's almost parallel to the vessel. We've been keeping a close eye on them, they seem to be following a steady course. Unlike us - and the pack ice you see around you, which is basically at the mercy of the winds, and you can hear how strong those winds are, the flag just above us is fluttering away, and fortunately not as high winds as were forecast, which is good news as well, for us. But the other thing is that the bergs themselves are actually responding, because it's so much deeper, they're responding to the current that's going from east to west, so that's why they're running in a slightly different direction to us, at the moment. But at the moment they're just running parallel, and they'll miss the ship by quite a way, fortunately.
Andrew Luck-Baker: Oh, I thought one was going to come quite close.
Chris Turney [laughing]: They look close, but everything looks closer out here! ... Oh dear, never mind!
* * *
Andrew Luck-Baker: Down on the front deck, there were some of the expeditioneers - a mix of university scientists and tourists along to help with the various research projects. Many were relaxed and happy. Some were more apprehensive about our situation.
Man 1: To be honest, I'm pretty confident in both Greg and the captain. Um, you know, they're more than experienced and the ship seems solid, and... yeah. I...think we'll be good.
Andrew Luck-Baker: Naysa, what's happening? How are you feeling?
Naysa Balcazar-Carbrera [laughing]: I'm actually feeling very excited! It's so beautiful outside, and it's a little bit daunting to think, you know, we're surrounded by so much ice, but it's actually really, really beautiful.
Andrew Luck-Baker: Now, we were told in the briefing, about an hour ago, that there are some pretty large - and we can see - very large icebergs in the vicinity, and some are going to be drifting past on the current, fairly close to us. How do you feel about that?
Naysa Balcazar-Carbrera: Again, I think it's my, maybe my adventurous side, my want to be close to nature - it's actually... quite excited, I'm sort of waiting and hoping that we will get close. It's actually really exciting, there's a nice buzz in the air, you know - it's Christmas! So... [laughing] no, it's actually really nice, there's penguins...
Tracey Rogers: I love it when the ice wins, and we don't. And it's just - it reminds you that, as humans, we don't control everything, and the natural world, it's - if you know it, it's the winner here.
Andrew Luck-Baker: Hello, Judy.
Judy Stevenson: Hi.
Andrew Luck-Baker: How are you enjoying this experience of being marooned in a pack of ice?
Judy Stevenson: Well, it's a - what a way to spend Christmas Day, that's all I can say. It's freezing and there's snow and ice as far as the eye can see [laughing]. And... yeah, I'm thinking of my daughter, at the moment. So, yes, I was feeling a bit worried, but I've recovered a bit.
* * *
Andrew Luck-Baker: A fierce blizzard arrived with the 26th December. At the morning briefing, Chris Turney updated us on who might be able to break us free, along with information about damage to our ship's hull by ice, the previous day. That was a gash, one metre long.
Chris Turney: Good morning, everyone. How is everyone? ... We're all good? All good... We've slept, well rested after a great Christmas yesterday, I hope. Now, we just want to bring you up to speed of where things are at. As you're probably aware, it's blowing a hooley outside. It sounds horrendous now - I wouldn't recommend going outside, at the moment. Hence [?] why there's a little bit of a list, about one and a half degrees, but nothing to concern ourselves about. The forecast is for this to drop away, tomorrow. Today is basically - this is your "home of the blizzards", this is today. And then it'll be dropping away.
As you know, we've got three vessels now converging on us, at various times of ETA. The first one that should be reaching us is the Chinese vessel Snow Dragon. It's a majestic beast [laughing], it's a huge-looking thing. And that should be with us by midday tomorrow. Otherwise, I realise last night I didn't mention in the bar, I spoke to [inaudible] about the fact that there was a cut in the upper part of the bow. It was in the ballast tank, it was above the ice-strengthened part, so don't worry - it doesn't show a vulnerability in the ice-strengthened part of the hull. It was above - it was a tower of ice that gashed it, that's now been welded, I'm assured, so it's just a plate of steel that's been welded over the top, so that's all okay.
* * *
Andrew Luck-Baker: The next day the bad weather cleared, and we were allowed to leave the Shokalskiy and take a walk on an area of the pack ice that had been checked and marked with boundary flags.
Tracey Rogers: Back on the ship! Back on the ship! We've gotta go. See you, guys.
Andrew Luck-Baker: Tracey Rogers, marine ecologist, you're saying "Back on the ship" - we've only just got here.
Tracey Rogers: I know. It's, um - it's time to get back on the ship. We've just hopped out for an hour and a half, let everyone stretch their legs. We did some drilling and... the captain wants to put the engines back on and keep the water just behind the ship open. So this is just a lovely brief respite. But yeah, it's definitely time to get back on the ship, so the captain can do what he wants.
Andrew Luck-Baker: But your plan is to come back out here a little bit later - that hole has been drilled through the ice, maybe you're going to be listening again for seals?
Tracey Rogers: Yeah, the idea was to put some holes in the ice, and the guys went and put down instruments, but... this ice is so thick they couldn't get through. They put down the corer down to three metres and they're still going, and that's why we're stuck. If you look around, this stuff is massive and everywhere - we're in a sea of multi-ice, basically, which is quite unusual for Antarctica. This - and this is basically why we're here in this region, is that it's so iced up. Um, and that's why it's scientifically interesting.
Andrew Luck-Baker: You say "multi-ice" - what's that?
Tracey Rogers: Normally in Antarctica you have - the sea freezes over each year, and then a lot of it melts again. And in the Arctic you get ice that doesn't melt each year and you get multi-ice, where it's layer upon layer upon layer, so it gets thicker and thicker and thicker. But in this region of Antarctica ice has actually been growing, rather than receding, like in some areas. And it's - you're getting much much more of this heavy, heavy multi-year ice. So this is quite unusual, really. Often you get some multi-year ice but just look around, Andrew, it's everywhere. This multi-year ice has just - it's not only ensnaring us, it's probably changed the environment, here.
Andrew Luck-Baker: And this is presumably telling us something about how this region of Antarctica, East Antarctica, is changing. I know you work a lot in the west, where there has been warming. I guess something else, something else is going on here.
Tracey Rogers: Well, that's exactly - and that's exactly why we really wanted to come to this region, that - we talk about global warming, really it's climate change, you'e getting some areas of warming and some areas are experiencing different things, and as part of the sea ice, the trend is - in the western Antarctic Peninsula, it's all receding, but here it's growing.
Andrew Luck-Baker: But I guess the message isn't that "Oh well, it shows then that Antarctica is fine, it might be melting on one side but it's growing, and ice is forming, on the other." That's not necessarily a good sign, it's not a kind of a - a balance, is it?
Tracey Rogers: No, not at all. This is something completely different. It's another example of how this system is changing, and it was not like this before. This is, this is the system's responding in different places, differently. In some, some areas in the world you're seeing flooding, in some you're seeing cyclones - here we're seeing this multi-multi-year ice, and in other years - in other places it's disappearing...
* * *
Andrew Luck-Baker: Within a week, a vast new expanse of sea ice had formed around our ship, hundreds of square kilometres across. This was not newly-frozen ice, but stuff that had been hanging around elsewhere for years. Greg Mortimer says he has never seen anything on such a scale unfold so rapidly.
Greg Mortimer: It was an extraordinary event. It was unbelievable to watch. And I've spent a lot of time watching ice. And this was simply extraordinary. And when we got stuck, we were within a mile or two of open water. A few days later, it was three or four miles of ice between us and open water - and difficult ice, um, but not like it later became. And then, within a week, there was 22 nautical miles of ice between us and open water, it's closer to 40 kilometres. Now, all of that ice, in that time, also set like a gummy mix of concrete and superglue and - all put together, and, and nothing's going to move it for a long time, I don't think. There's a risk that that ice, that the ship is now trapped in, will become locked fast to the land, and could stay there for a very long time, which could ultimately lead to the ship being squashed and sunk, or for a very long time being beset.
Andrew Luck-Baker: There's an outstanding scientific question about the frozen predicament in which we found ourselves. What event, on the 23rd December, caused so much old multi-year sea ice to start moving fast? The captain had piloted the Shokalskiy into an area of open water, anchoring not far from the edge of the so-called "fast ice" - that's ice which lies like a sheet from the sea to the land. By Zodiac craft we got on to the fast ice, and then with snow buggies made a 20-minute drive, in small teams, to a group of ice-locked rock hillocks called the Hodgeman Islands. As we returned from this visit, in staggered groups, it did become apparent that something about the conditions had changed. There were ice floes moving fast around the Russian vessel. My party had to park up for a few minutes, to let one flotilla of floes clear the water between us and the ship. So what happened? Greg Mortimer.
Greg Mortimer: We don't know for sure yet, but it's starting to become clearer, that an enormous area of very old ice, frozen sea ice of 10 or 15 years' age, which was to the east of where we were, to the east of the famous Mertz Glacier, um, all of a sudden, spat out to the west, like a cough-ball, if you like, and a massive area of ice, of hundreds of square kilometres, and we just happened to be there at that time.
Andrew Luck-Baker: What kind of natural phenomenon would liberate, spit out all this enormous expanse and great thickness of ice?
Greg Mortimer: Er... Look, I don't... think we know yet. Um, and it will take some time for the glaciologists, the experts in the field, to find that. But it's kind of like an earthquake zone, like the San Andreas fault, if you like. It rumbles and groans, and over a period of decades it builds up pressure, and then all of a sudden it can't take it any more and goes snap. This is, in a sense, the ice equivalent of that. You know, ice has built up between the Ross Sea and the Mertz Glacier for a very long time. And this is the end product of that, just the ice built up enough until it couldn't take it any more, couldn't stand it any more.
Andrew Luck-Baker: And so was this ice on the land or was it in the sea?
Greg Mortimer: This is frozen sea ice, um, so all this took place in the sea. So, I think we've just seen a cataclysmic event.
Andrew Luck-Baker: Before we - the captain took the ship down to the fast-ice edge on that day before, on that day on the 23rd, there was no information from anyone, no hints that an event like this might be on the cards?
Greg Mortimer: No. No, it was open water. All of the area between the fast ice - the ice held fast to the land - and the Mertz Glacier, was open water. All of the area to the east of the Mertz Glacier was sea ice.
Andrew Luck-Baker: At any point, what - do you think that we were in any real peril? Because I can understand that you - on the ship, in that situation, you're not wanting to alarm people, you want everyone to be as - kind of to remain as calm as possible. But, I mean, were there moments when you thought we were in real danger, as opposed to just trapped and just awaiting to be picked up?
Greg Mortimer: No, there wasn't. It wasn't a matter of putting on a brave face, to keep everyone chipper. It was okay. Yes, we were encased in very thick, very heavy ice, from which we had no hope of getting out. But that - that style of ship is an incredibly strong hull shape.
Andrew Luck-Baker: You've been to Antarctica for 20 Antarctic summers in a row. What do you love about this place? I mean, there's obviously something you really, profoundly love about Antarctica, maybe there's part of Antarctica that brings you back, time after time.
Greg Mortimer: It's quite obviously, by the recidivism of going every summer for more than 20 years, there's some attraction there. Er...
Andrew Luck-Baker: It's not the money.
Greg Mortimer: Er, no. The cocktail of things that make up Antarctica is the fascination, I think. And we've just lived through another one of those. Every time I've been there, every year, I don't know what to expect of Antarctica. It doesn't treat fools kindly. Whether or not we go into the basket of fools, history will tell. But it tends to jump on the back of your neck if you make a mistake. Which means constant vigilance. And that's quite fascinating.
Andrew Luck-Baker: I was going to say, because the question was: what keeps bringing you back? [Laughs.] That doesn't sound like that will be an incentive to return.
Greg Mortimer: It's, it's one of those overwhelmingly important parts of Mother Earth where natural forces so clearly prevail, where our humanity is so puny, where the real universal forces are evident. And I find that very enticing. It's a source of great humility. And apart from that, there's an overwhelming beauty there, in the, in the rawness of the place. Antarctica is very raw, and it strikes raw nerves. And I find the more you spend there, the more that beauty becomes evident, in the colour, surprisingly enough, in the lack of sound, in the lack of smell.
* * *
Andrew Luck-Baker: There will certainly be further questions about the nature of the event which locked and froze our ship in, as we tried to head north from the moving mass of floes. Enquiries might also cover the logistics around the visits between the Shokalskiy and the Hodgeman Islands. Now, if you've been following the news of this story over the last week, you'll know that three icebreaking vessels - one Chinese, one French and one Australian - came to the area in the hope of providing us with assistance. Only two of the captains deemed their vessels powerful enough to handle the exceptional pack. The Chinese vessel, the Xue Long or Snow Dragon, went in first, and, as we now know, became stuck, itself. The Australian vessel, the Aurora Australis, ventured in to help the Chinese but eventually retreated to clearer water. The ice was just too treacherous.
But put the technical difficulties aside, and the striking thing is that when someone's in trouble in Antarctica, all available countries step forward to help. Expedition leaders Chris Turney and Chris Fogwill.
Chris Turney: You see the rapid response of the government organisations to our call for assistance, and I think it really shows this camaraderie and this capability to help people in distress. The Antarctic Treaty systems and the signatories to that, understand the conditions that prevail in Antarctica. We've seen it numerous times over the last few years, and unfortunately this is another event where, fortunately, people respect other people's safety and don't worry about international boundaries.
Andrew Luck-Baker: So, in a sense, under the International Antarctic Treaty, countries who have vessels down here, who can help, are obliged to help - it's a reciprocal, altruistic regime, if you like, for - over rescue.
Chris Fogwill: Everyone looks after everyone else. Everyone's aware of everyone else and, as a result, it creates this amazing camaraderie and support network, that when you're down here, you'll look after one another.
* * *
Andrew Luck-Baker: On 2nd January a rescue plan for the 52 people with the Australasian Antarctic Expedition on the Shokalskiy was agree upon and executed. A Chinese helicopter team airlifted scientists and tourists from the ice next to the Russian ship to a stable floe near the Australian icebreaker. If I can speak personally, I was so looking forward to the 10-minute flight in the spectacular red and yellow chopper.
[Speaking earlier]: I'm sure you can now hear the helicopter approaching us. It's dropped in height. I'd say it's about 100 metres above the ice surface, getting closer, closer. Those twin rotor blades are probably going to make my voice completely inaudible any moment now...
This is about 50 metres. We're about a 30-second brisk walk from where the helipad is, from where the helicopter is just landing right now...
So we've now got the call to get on board, And we're all in single file, walking across the snow towards this - it's a Russian-built helicopter. Built by Russians, flown by Chinese, owned by Chinese.
Just ahead of me in the line was oceanographer Erik van Sebille and Ian Godfrey of the Mawson Hut Foundation.
Ian Godfrey: I'm just exited. I'm just really looking forward to heading up, going, heading off and just coming down the next side [?]
Andrew Luck-Baker: We're lifting off! Oh wow, this is fantastic. So we are now moving forward, as well as up. The icescape is shifting beneath us, in a way that - well, in a way that we haven't seen it move for nine days.
Erik van Sebille: If you look at the front, now, you can see the open water. So we're really now heading to open water, and after nine days of being packed [?] in the ice, it feels really good! This helicopter ride is a roller-coaster, but emotionally it's been a little bit of a roller-coaster, too, for me and, I guess, for many others aboard the ship. Just nine days of not knowing what's going to happen, of living hour by hour.
Andrew Luck-Baker: Look - oh, I've got to stop you there, Erik. We're now descending and we can see the Aurora Australis!
Erik van Sebille: Yes, and behind it the Xue Long.
Andrew Luck-Baker: Look at that! Oh my goodness, what a sight! Huge vessel, compared to the Shokalskiy.
Ian Godfrey: It's only 20 metres longer. It's only 90 metres long, but 6,000 tons, compared to 2 and a half thousand. So it's got a lot more grunt, and it's a proper 'breaker.
Andrew Luck-Baker: Oh... And with a very gentle bump, we landed... And a two-minute walk through the snow, and here we arrive at the towering shape of the Australian icebreaker, the Aurora Australis.
* * *
Andrew Luck-Baker: And that brings us to the end of BBC World Service's Four Weeks in Antarctica. There's only one more thing to do, and that's to give profound thanks to the many people who contributed to my rescue and that of all the members of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition.