South georgia

[Hawkey01]

I came across these papers whilst looking for something else.
I do regret not applying now as I am sure it would have been an amazing experience. However at the time I obviously thought it was more like self imposed imprisonment.
The salary for 1967 was good at £1250 but that did not sway me and probably the list of necessary clothing of skis, ski boots, and knee length sea boots swung it. There was mention somewhere in the papers of sports facilities - one very rough hard tennis court. Probably had to play with the penguins.
There were three men at GKA who had spent time on the ICE - one was a normal sane person the other two had some peculiarities.

Did any of you think of going to the ICE or in fact did time there.

Neville - Hawkey01

[BobClay]

I remember seeing a similar advertisement when I was at Leith Nautical for a post on Tristan Da Cunha. As I remember it you would also have been responsible for the postal service on the island (sorting the mail and franking presumably for pick up and delivery by ship.)
I hadn't got my ticket then or I might have been tempted but I suspect lack of experience would have set me back. Good thing to have on your CV though, 'Post Master General of Tristan Da Cunha.'

[Hawkey01]

Bob,

Tristan still fascinates me and I used to have the web site in my favourites. Liked to follow the life there which at times seems quite idyllic. They have some good ship visits down there as several of the cruise ships call. A difficult place to get to and you have to have permission. Sail from Capetown on scheduled sailings on the fishing vessel Edinburgh, cargo ship Baltic Trader and survey ship Agulhas II. The first two have accommodation for 12 pax and Agulhas carries 40 but only visits a couple of times a season. Link below for any interested in looking and learning about Tristan.

http://www.tristandc.com/index.php

Neville - Hawkey01

[McCloggie]

That is wonderful!

Bring your own gear - including skis, boots and wax - no provision of what we would call now PPE and IF your wife comes along you pay for her food!

What on earth would a wife do on South Georgia? - no, on second thoughts do not even think about answering that!

Seriously, that is a real snapshot of how things were not that long ago and in its own way should be regarded as a historical document.

McC

[BobClay]

It's really difficult to say such remote places have no appeal, even at my age !

[Troppo]

No thanks!

Similar to Antarctic postings in Oz....

[BobClay]

I've often looked at it on Google Earth and have to say I'd still be tempted .....

[jimg0nxx]

Originally Posted by BobClay

I remember seeing a similar advertisement when I was at Leith Nautical for a post on Tristan Da Cunha. As I remember it you would also have been responsible for the postal service on the island (sorting the mail and franking presumably for pick up and delivery by ship.)
I hadn't got my ticket then or I might have been tempted but I suspect lack of experience would have set me back. Good thing to have on your CV though, 'Post Master General of Tristan Da Cunha.'

I wrote an application for this job in 1974, but after much thought and discussion with my wife got cold feet and destroyed the letter. I often wonder what would have happened had I sent the letter and been accepted. Now I reckon I made the right decision, but who knows.

[BobClay]

Originally Posted by jimg0nxx

I wrote an application for this job in 1974, but after much thought and discussion with my wife got cold feet and destroyed the letter. I often wonder what would have happened had I sent the letter and been accepted. Now I reckon I made the right decision, but who knows.

Can you remember what the minimum time for the job was ? I seem to remember it was for at least a year, but that memory could be faulty (it was the sixties !! )

If it was a year that wouldn't be so bad, less than a Bank Line trip at that time.

[jimg0nxx]

You may be right Bob, but I have a feeling it was longer, maybe 2 or 3 years. Don't think the pay was brilliant either.

[Farmer John]

I did apply for a job in a remote part of Scotland, first big job, build a 5 mile road to the house. I wasn't Scottish enough (not meant in a bad way, and probably right.)

[BobClay]

Originally Posted by jimg0nxx

You may be right Bob, but I have a feeling it was longer, maybe 2 or 3 years. Don't think the pay was brilliant either.

Yes now you mention it three years sounds more like it.

[Naytikos]

I did actually apply for the Tristan job; one of the conditions was that one had to be married without children (as I recall) and the wife had to go along. It was offered but I was in the PG and couldn't make it back to the UK in time to catch the St. Helena for the voyage out.

I subsequently met the chap who had been doctor there over the same period. He recounted a story of the R/O scanning an xray photograph and transmitting it by fax on Ham bands to someone connected with Edinburgh University Medical School for an opinion.

I'm sorry I missed the opportunity.

While on the Crusader course at Maldon another chap doing it was on leave from the British Antarctic Survey. He didn't really have much to say about it.

[Meridian2013]

I worked for Decca Navigator on their HIFIX survey system and every year they sent half-a-dozen technicians to Antarctica to support the summer hydrographic survey operations of HMS Endurance. There was some competition for this jolly but in Jan 1973 I got lucky and went down to Port Stanley to meet the Endurance and head south. Two of us ended up living in a tent for 2 weeks on a place called Flyspot Rocks, running the HIFIX beacon and living off ration packs. As the skipper was new to the ship and area we did a flag waving tour of all sorts of bases and on the way back we put into Deception Island and the abandoned BAS station. The radio room still had the ET-4336 TXs and I "liberated" a blank log-book as a souvenir.

We did the job, flew out of Stanley to Argentina courtesy of their air force and were back in the UK by mid-Feb. I often saw the adverts for radio operators with BAS but was never tempted, their trips were too long for me. I visited a lot of places with Decca and later employers but I don't think anywhere matched the things we saw down there, the Lemaire Channel in particular.

Went back to Stanley in 2008, a bit different to 1973!

73

Meridian

[BobClay]

Got any pix Meridian ?

[Meridian2013]

Originally Posted by BobClay

Got any pix Meridian ?

Yes, I have, mostly copied from slides. How do I put them up on this site?

M

[Hawkey01]

Meridian2013,

Click on the Gallery and when you have this you will see on the right hand side - UPLOAD PHOTOS -
click there and follow instructions. You of course will have to have the photos copied on to your PC, then click the required file and hey presto you should have uploaded a photo. Any other problems just ask.

Neville - Hawkey01

[Meridian2013]

1st attempt at uploading!

http://www.shippinghistory.com/galle...hp?i=4505&c=13

[Meridian2013]

1st attempt seems OK, here's another. The ship in the background is the RRS John Biscoe, IIRC.


http://www.shippinghistory.com/galle...hp?i=4506&c=13

Have a few more pix if anyone's interested.

Meridian2013

[BobClay]

Amazing pix. By all means post more into the gallery. These remote parts of the world are fascinating.

[Meridian2013]

Originally Posted by BobClay

Amazing pix. By all means post more into the gallery. These remote parts of the world are fascinating.

Thanks Bob,

I've added a few more pix to the gallery of my 1973 trip on HMS Endurance. All the best pix I took are on Kodak slides and I only have a few converted to jpegs, which was done for me ages ago by a neighbour with a slide and negative converter gizmo, not sure if such a thing would work with a modern PC but it would good to convert a few more slides.

Meridian2013.

[Chadburn]

Great photos Meridian👍🏿

[BobClay]

They are.

I think many modern scanners come with a 35mm slide scan gizmo too, but there are outfits who will convert slides to a suitable file format. Also a bit of even simple processing of the pix can increase the detail. I'm not showing off here, but even the simple software I have can bring out more detail in pictures. I did a simple screen print and save of one of your pictures and just ran it through one setting on PaintShopPro just as an example of what can be done. More sophisticated software can do far better. The hardest part of the job would be getting the slides into file format in the first place. After that you could do what you liked with them.

I'm not setting you any kind of task here, just I hope giving you something to think about. Your pictures are definitely worth it.

[Meridian2013]

Hi Bob,

Yes, your bit of processing has brought out quite a bit of detail on the Neptune's Bellows pic, the strata in the rocks on the starboard side are a lot clearer. I'll see what I can do with the unprocessed slides and maybe see if I can find anything in my scanner/printer software that will do the job.

Cheers,

M2013