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ANTARCTICA

Nathaniel B. Palmer

Photos © 2004 Seth White

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On the way to South Pole, weather intervened and I spent an extra two days at McMurdo. This worked out pretty good, actually. I happened on some penguins one day, then got on a tour of the Nathaniel B. Palmer the next. Here is the Palmer, on a nice Sunday morning, in Winter Quarters Bay. A hundred and one years ago, you would have seen Scott's ship the Discovery sitting right here.

Speaking of Scott, here is one of the Palmer with his Discovery hut in the foreground.

The Palmer is one of two research vessels operated by the USAP - the other being the Lawrence M. Gould, which sails mainly around the Peninsula area and is the 'shuttle' to Palmer Station. Nathaniel Palmer was thought to be the first person to see the Antarctic continent itself, around 1820. However, the evidence shows that either the Russian Bellingshausen or a Brit (whose name I can't remember...Wilkins?) was the first. At least one of them sighted the continent several months before Palmer. However, Palmer is the first significant American name associated with Antarctica, so he got the nod for our station on the Peninsula as well as this vessel. Some ancillary science goes on aboard the USCG icebreakers, but the Palmer and Gould are the main research ships. Both ships' hulls are ice strengthened, and possess limited icebreaking capabilities.

The hat I bought on the tour (yeah yeah, I'm a tourist) says RVIB NB Palmer. RVIB stands for Research Vessel Ice Breaker.

The rec department posted signup sheets in building 155 for tours at different times during the day. I wrote my name down and then promptly forgot which time. I showed up on the ice pier at 10:00 am...and then found out I had actually signed up for the 3:00 tour. Hmmm. Well, it turned out alright because Ashley (the guide for the last group) took myself and a couple other stragglers along. Thanks! Here she is with some CTD probes (conductivity, temperature, depth), used to characterize the sea water. Well, as usual, this is what I remember her saying...but I can't be sure that's actually what they are, since I had never seen one prior to today.

We made our way up the (neverending) staircase to the bridge. There are multiple locations on the bridge where one can exercise control over the ship, and this is one of them. The chair is for the captain...and captain only.

A pic of the actual controls. Sadly, there wasn't a brass conning tube like I found on the Polar sea...

From just outside the bridge, here is a picture of the tower.

On the vessels, the usual work week is 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Gads. It was pretty considerate of the crew to offer tours to the McMurdoites during their short stay, and it was appreciated (at least by this landlubber). I figured they'd want to get off the boat and go for a hike, or hit the bar, or you know, do something other than mill around the ship. And I'm sure a lot of them did just that. But as we walked around I found out that this boat is pretty posh. I had heard this before, that the Palmer was not exactly a garbage scow, and it's true. Our guide mentioned that sometimes people actually prefer to get back to the ship after walking around McMurdo for a little while. To illustrate, here is a berthing area for one of the supervisory positions.

This is a more generic berthing area. Small, but not too bad.

This is the TV lounge. Yes, leather seats...which recline. There is nothing even remotely close to this in any lounge at McMurdo. But then again, after one summer season in any of the station lounges, these nice seats would be absolutely trashed!

This is the swanky conference room. First rate.

Now for the boat fleet aboard the Palmer. This is the Cajun Cruncher. The company (Edison Chouest Offshore) which runs the ship for the USAP is located in Louisiana, thus the name for this little mini-icebreaker. It's a nice idea, and kind of a cute boat. But I understand it is hardly ever used.

This is one of the lifeboats. I, for one, would not relish the idea of being inside this thing in any kind of rough seas. It's a little cork, basically, and I'm guessing that if I survived whatever cataclysm had befallen the Palmer and found my way into this craft, I might well be wishing I was dead if we hit some waves. I suppose it's better than some kind of open boat...like the James Caird, for example. But then again, it might be OK. I'm such a landlubber. Speaking of the Caird, I was talking to someone last year who had seen it at a museum show, and he described it as about as big as a queen size bed. And that was the boat that Shackleton et. al. piloted 800 miles across the worst seas on earth to South Georgia Island.

The backside of the lifeboat.

We got a peek inside the lifeboat, and here it is. Yep, strap in tight 'cos it'll probably be a rough ride...

The Cajun Cruncher, a small open motorboat, and the lifeboat, all hanging off the side of the Palmer.

Off to the galley - and here it is. Again, pretty nice.

On a wall in the galley (behind me in the above picture, I think), is a nice non-Antarctic-themed mural.

Also in the galley is the requisite area for placques, gifts, and such. I've been on a grand total of three legit, oceangoing vessels, and they all have little displays like this.

The gym.

A shop area.

Here is one part of the main science lab. It looks pretty modern and high tech to my eye. On the (interminable) drive back from Pegasus on the Terrabus, I met this fellow Jeff who had been the science tech at Palmer and had also been to Pole for a couple winters. He had flow in to meet the Palmer and was headed out on the month-long cruise. This ship will be back at McMurdo around Feb. 15. It didn't make it to the station last year because of the brutal ice conditions. The Polar Sea actually broke one of its screws while cutting the channel...and the channel stayed clogged with ice the whole time. The captain decided not to risk damage to this (ice strengthened) ship by going through the channel to McMurdo...so that gives you an idea of how much ice there was last year. The fuel tanker also did not come to McMurdo last year, but instead 'parked' 4 miles from station and delivered the fuel via hoselines run out over the sea ice. A much different story this year. The fuel tanker has come and gone, the cargo ship is almost ready to depart, and the Palmer will have been here twice by season's end.

On deck are a couple milvans, equipped as science facilities.

Here is a random oceanic instrument laying around on board. What is it? I dunno. Some sciencish thingy. There is actually a heliport on the Palmer, and a small helicopter has occasionally been flown from this ship. But usually the space is consumed by all sorts of cargo, research equipment, etc.

After the tour was over I got a few more pictures of the ship. Here's one of the bow.

This one turned out pretty nice - the heavy ropes used to secure the ship to the pier. This morning they were uloading a bunch of cargo from the ship. Notice the ship's crane lifting an unweildy piece of tubing. They took quite a while to get this awkward thing rigged before hoisting it up.