There is also an “Athena” Bar in virtually any port of note around the globe.
Some wines are good and some are bad
And women are the same
I’ll drink to all the bad ones if
You’ll just tell me their names.
Old mariners toast. Bars that I vaguely remember such as one in Vung Tau where every second Friday a Boa Constrictor dealt with a live chicken to others with a new use for ping pong balls.
1 Like
Sad. Should’ve been a national historic site.
The ice was so bad the polar-class breakers couldn’t clear a channel? Dang! In 71 and 72, we were able to make a clear channel through 12-15 foot thick ice with two wind-class WWII relics.
3 Likes
Making Square Knot sailor. We would have crossed the International Date Line but hit an uncharted shoal and had to cut the trip short. Went through the Straits of Magellan and sailed all four oceans. Although I think they now have the Southern Ocean on maps, which would make five.
2 Likes
It was one Polar class (think it was the Sea) and the Healy. That was the year they discovered that the Healy wasn’t great for Antarctic ice… at all.
They got the American Tern into the ice pier and decided it would be more prudent to tie us up to the pack than to clear the channel again with a breaker that couldn’t break and another that kept breaking down. That and it was getting late in the austral summer (saw the first sunset of the season while we were discharging) and they wanted to get it done before things really started icing up.
Leaving McMurdo there were a few times that we were able to clear fast ice with our ice belt faster than they could with breaking (higher up and could see the fissures better) and Polar Sea just trailed until we’d get bogged down.
Edit: Found the report from the Healy from that year for you. http://www.icefloe.net/docs/DF-03%20Cruise%20Report.pdf )
4 Likes
I see from the report summary that 72 kreel were introduced to the order of the Emperor Penguin. Do you know if that was from all ships in the convoy combined or just the Healy? If they are running with that many newbies it might explain their track record of efficient operations. Also, one thing this report & all other old pre-2010’ish reports leave out is, they did it all with no wi-fi. What was communications like for the trip if you don’t mind sharing?
if you’re from usa area probably panama canal. the more memorable of course would be rounding cape horn, in sail, in july or so !!! navigating magellan straits at night?
Pretty sure that was just the Healy. It didn’t include any of us for sure. Also, that probably was most of the crew since they normally operated in the Arctic region and were only down south because they finally turned the Star into a floating parts bin for the Sea.
As for comms, the Matt had a full time RO (MSC GOCO contract) and we had Globe Wireless email that cost a small fortune. Once we got tied into the ice off Hut Point they brought out an “Air Phone” set to communicate back and forth during the discharge.
1 Like
Thanks for the reply. The Polar Sea was recently towed away from the Coast Guard pier in Seattle to be scrapped. A shame. The Sea and the Star was designed from tests run with my icebreaker, the Staten Island north of Alaska. Just glad you and your ship came through safely. Hard to believe that my ship, being a WWII leftover had a shorter life than the Polar Star. But she goes south and returns to the yards, goes south and returns to the yards…Have a goodern
1 Like
We went through the Straits of Magellan THEN took a starboard turn and went through the Drake Passage. Must have been one of the few “quiet” days of the passage that year.
2 Likes
1971, going through the Straits at night, there were what we were told were natural gas fires flaming up. Except for the fires, it was pitch black and all you could see were the flames and the rock near the flames. Closest to a picture of Hell I can imagine.
3 Likes
The Spanish named the place Tierra del Fuego (Fire Land) because they said the natives lit bonfires all along the coast. That never made sense to me because that area of the world has very little trees. According to wikipedia, only 30% which seems exaggerated imo. And the trees they do have are small brush like trees because the wind blows so fierce, giant talls ones wouldn’t survive in most places. I always wondered where they got the wood from & why didn’t the bonefires get blown away like everything else? Now the only fires are from flares from the Argentinian offshore production platforms. The Spanish probably got the source of the fires wrong imo. With the fires, majority darkness during their cloudy winters, fierce winds & seas and bone breaking cold it’s little wonder some ancient Europeans confused it with Christianities version of hell. Not a place for weekend day sailors for sure.
4 Likes
I had photos of a crew member on the Maumee waving to me when the Maumee was offloading fuel in McMurdo. And it was snowing to beat the band.
I forget if it was drake or Magellan discovered those natives could mimic about anything, crewmembers, birds etc. they also wore little clothing compared to the crew who oft wondered why they didn’t freeze and apparently showed little or no discomfort.
1 Like