IC - Chapter Five - Onto The Ice

[Decrepit]

Jack tries to keep busy and to stay out of the way at the same time. In the meantime, he writes and relays some stories about progress on the ice.

[Raiko]

SME Temporary Sea Camp, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica
Thursday November 16th, 1933

The next few days are filled with the sound of aircraft engines. The Enderby takes to the air on the morning of November 16th, followed shortly by the Weddell. Meanwhile the smaller RF Scott continues to make mapping flights along the Ross Sea shore and mountains of the barrier’s western edge, while the two Boeings begin the methodical process of airlifting the expedition to its new home forty miles away. The airlift is expected to take six days in total.

“We mast move the base,” Professor Moore explains to the curious. “Within a month, the sea ice on which we now stand will break up and float away; we must be atop the barrier by then. When we leave, in three months time, we shall load directly from the barrier itself, a feat which in currently too dangerous to attempt.”

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Each of the Boeings makes five trips on the 16th, and six on the day after. By the afternoon of November the seventeenth, the expedition’s permanent base camp in well established on the smooth ice of the Ross Ice Shelf.

More than half of the explorers, including all of the sled teams, are now at the Base Camp; the two tractors and half a dozen men remain on the sea ice at the temporary camp to load the aircraft as they arrive.

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SME Temporary Sea Camp, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica
Saturday November 18th, 1933

At 10:40 am on November the eighteenth, Nature forces a change in the plans. A great crack opens in the ice not far from the sea camp, running more than a hundred yards inland from the shore with a deep rippling pop. Two hours later, it lengthens further, and two other huge fissures appear, spearing inland from the open sea. One seems to be aimed directly at the expedition’s sea camp; the other threatens to cut the remaining supplies off from the safety of the runway. The sea ice is breaking up early - and the expedition is not yet fully prepared.

A hurried radio message informs the aircraft and the Base Camp of the trouble and all hands are roused to save the precious equipment and fuel. The next several hours are a race against time, as the cracks is the ice multiply and move inexorably inward toward the sea camp.

Load after load of food, supplies, and gasoline drums are dragged island and stacked by the runway. With each new trip, the explorers pray harder that this will not he the last. The aeroplanes load, unload, and turn around as fast as they can, but a large amount of cargo still remains at risk!


The SS Gabrielle steams back westward to help, but she is far away and cannot possibly reach the shore before the next morning.

A new fissure opens up inland of the seaside cache at three o’clock that afternoon, directly in front of one of the racing tractors. The tractor crew must watch in horror as open water yawns before them and the icy surface tips to one side. The tractor and it’s crew survive, but thirty drums of fuel and more than a ton of pemmican slide quietly into the water and are gone forever.

The airlift continues for another three hours, but it is clear that the end is near.
The two tractors are attached to short trains of heavy pallets and instructed to head overland toward the barrier along the dog sled trail. All the remaining men and women at the sea camp are ordered to accompany the tractors—there is no way to take them in the planes.

Is the face of rising winds and oncoming storm clouds, the two aircraft make one more trip, and then a second. Shortly after 6 p.m., Kitt Knght, piloting the Weddell, reports that a fissure has appeared across the runway itself, making it impossible to land at the sea camp. She aborts her flight and returns to the Base Camp; the Enderby, preparing for her next flight, does not even leave the ground. The remaining ten tons of aircraft fuel are abandoned to the sea.

In all, the breaking of the ice costs the expedition dear, with over a quarter of it’s aviation fuel 140 drums of aviation fuel lost to the sea. It is a bitter blow.

The tractor party struggles all night through lowering temperatures and blowing snow. They arrive, exhausted but safe, shortly before noon the following day. A roughening sea, and the increasing shelving of ice from the barrier, forces Captain Vredenburg to give up his rescue plans and withdraw the Gabrielle from shore.

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SME Expedition Base Camp, Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica
Sunday November 19th, 1933

November the nineteenth is blustery, with falling snow and poor visibility. The aircraft are tied securely within their makeshift shelters. There is barely enough room for the entire expedition in the buildings erected so far, and the loss of the extra fuel casts a pall upon the party, but everyone is safe and sound upon the ice.

Professor Moore has spent several hours in conference with Captain Starkweather, and the expedition pilots, going over the logistical plans. After much debate it is felt that there is still enough fuel remaining to complete the expedition, although the number of planned flights to explore the mighty Miskotonic Mountains themselves may have to be reduced.

Work continues to improve the facilities at the Base Camp, meanwhile preparations are made to sent a three sled party 250 miles overland, to establish an emergency fuel cache half way to the site of Professor Lake’s ill fated 1931 campsite at the foot of the Miskatonic Mountains.

Despite its losses the expedition is at last ready to begin its mission of discovery.

[Dave Syrinx]

"In the light of our misfortune, I say we try to get on our way to relocate the camp further inland. I´ll gladly take point to make sure our path is secure. Let us stay together in pairs or threes as there could be pit falls and ravines anywhere. The safety ropes will surely save anyones life!" John gets his hopes up for getting on his way to some proper ice trekking.

[Raiko]

Moore attempts to allay John’s concerns, “Oh I wouldn’t worry about that old chap, we’re forty miles inland already and there’s about a thousand feet of ice under your feet Mr Rhyes. This Base Camp is quite safe; it would required something truly cataclysmic to fracture the ice here.”

“Still if you fancy a trip outside, perhaps you could join the overland expedition to establish the fuel cache?”

[Dave Syrinx]

"I think I´ll do just that!" John gears up and joins the overland expedition.

[Decrepit]

Jack knew how to play up the last-minute salvage operation as a heroic endeavor of human fortitude against the bitter ravages of nature. His readers, not to mention his editor, would lap that up like newborn kittens. Privately, though, he was concerned. While not a believer in bad luck per se, he still couldn't shake the feeling that the expedition, from its inception, had been snakebit.

He decides to go try to seek out Kitt at the earliest opportunity to get some sense from her about the real fuel situation. Jack didn't doubt that he was basically hearing the "truth" already, but he also knew the pilots hadn't alll agreed on what to do or how bad the situation was. Asking Moore or Starkweather wasn't going to be much help in that regard; both men had too much invested in this operation succeeding.

[Ghost_1971]

"You can count me in for that trek Professor" Callum says to Moore on hearing his talk with John. "Unless you have something else in mind for me?"

[amarriner]

Isugtag, downhearted by the latest misfortune, is eager to be put to work again. Sitting still doesn't suit him well and the prospect of trekking across the ice actually holds quite a lot of interest to him. The cold biting air is a welcome experience. He heads over and indicates to Moore that he'd like to be a part of the overland expedition.

[Steerpike]

The loss of the fuel was a major blow, but Bill can't let this distract him from his main task until the cache is set-up. He works with the air-crew to perform vital maintenance of the aircraft. Making sure the de-icing shoes on the wings are working, running the engines at set times to prevent ice building up in the engines. De-icing the propellers...its long and hard work, the alternative...wings caked in ice and unable to provide lift or damage to the propellors could spell disaster. He tries to dismiss this from his mind as he mixes some heated glycol and water.

[Henrik]

"I'd like to follow that expediton as well if you don't think I'm better suited elsewhere" Olof tells Professor Moore. The engineer is troubled by this latest setback and his inability to be of much use in these matters. To be able to lend a helping hand is what Olof believes he would need now.