This pretty much nails the cause of the situation, and blows expedition leader Chris Turney’s claim about being “surprised” about the situation literally out of the water.
In my post Now that the ‘Ship of Fools’ is safe in Antarctica, tough questions need to be asked one of the questions I asked was:
9. Did the sightseeing excursion to Mawson’s Huts on December 19th and again on Dec 23rd (apparently to Mertz Glacier, though their blog and “tracker” are unclear on this point) cause delays that caused the ship to be trapped in rapidly changing weather which closed the sea ice around them?
In the Spirit of Mawson Blog, we have this entry:
Posted by Graeme Clark, December 24, 2013
It’s often said that Antarctica is a dynamic environment that can rapidly transform at a moments notice. Today we experienced that first-hand, as we came down from a high of exceptionally good weather to find ourselves surrounded by thick, impassable pack ice. Too dense to travel through, the sea-ice has stopped the mighty Shokalskiy in its tracks despite aggressive charges by Captain Igor. The ship is now resigned to wait for a change in wind conditions to loosen or dissipate the sea ice before we can escape to open water. These are the challenging conditions for which Antarctica is so well known.
The real answer to that event lies in the blog of the Australian green politician on-board, Janet Rice. WUWT commenter Aphan gave us the scoop from her log on how the stage was set for getting stuck, because the passengers weren’t heeding the captain’s warning quickly enough. Clearly the captain knew what was coming, but the passengers were just too slow. He couldn’t abandon them, so he had to wait, and this delay put the ship in jeopardy.
=================================================================
Aphan says:
January 1, 2014 at 5:13 pm
My apologies if someone above has mentioned this. It’s getting to be a chore to scroll through all the activity here! (grins)
From Janet Rice- http://www.janetrice.com.au/?e=98
*******************************************************
(After 1 am on December 24)
“The ship is making very slow progress through pack ice. There is a narrow channel that we are inching our way along – it of course is pretty frozen in itself. There are icebergs on either side of us, some kilometres away – hard to tell exactly how far. We oscillate between hardly moving to suddenly being jolted sideways with a crunch as the ship bashes and barges its way through.”
***
“We were out in similar conditions this afternoon. Somewhat brighter – in fact there was blue sky and sunshine for some periods. The weather has been better than the forecast blizzard, so that was good.”
***
The first drama of the day was the sinking – or almost! – of one of the Argos. The Argos are designed to be amphibious – just. They were launched today off the ship – and two of the three made it safely being towed by a zodiac the 50 metres or so to shore. The third was towed too fast it seems – and water came over the bonnet / bow, flooding both the engine and the vehicle itself. Ben tried in vain to bail out with a spade and luckily they made it to shore before the vehicle sunk entirely. Ben ended up rather wet too, but similarly to Mary, not submerged enough for the lifejacket to come into play. Sadly Argo engines don’t take too kindly to being submerged… the ships engineers are still working on it and not very optimistic about its prospects.
“The third drama of the day is the one which is still unfolding. Because of the Argo mishap we got off late, and had one less vehicle to ferry people to and fro. I’m told the Captain was becoming rather definite late in the afternoon that we needed to get everyone back on board ASAP because of the coming weather and the ice closing in. As I write we are continuing to make extremely slow progress through what looks like a winter alpine snow field – it’s yet another surreal part of this journey that we are in a ship trying to barge our way through here! I’m sure the Captain would have been much happier if we had got away a few hours earlier. Maybe we would have made it through the worst before it consolidated as much as it has with the very cold south- easterly winds blowing the ice away from the coast, around and behind us as well as ahead.
We’ll see where we are in the morning – it may be a very white Christmas Eve!
PS. 9.30am 24/12. We have moved less than a kilometre over night, and are now stationary in a sea of ice. The word is that we are not stuck, merely waiting for a weather change. It seems to me that we are having the quintessential Antarctic experience. J Stay tuned.”
*******************************************************
THE CAPTAIN and PASSENGERS knew that bad weather and ice were coming on Dec 23-that a “blizzard had been forecast”. The Captain made it clear to them more than once, because he “became rather definite” later that they needed to get OUT of that area ASAP.
As of 1 am on December 24th, they were already progressing through “ice pack” that caused the ship to “bash and barge” it’s way through the ice! Need more evidence of how stupid these people are?
On the 21st, Turney blogged about their trip to the Mawson camp on the 19/20th. Trying to find the LEAST hazardous way to access the Commonwealth Bay area, they decided to move the ship up the coast-farther away, but with access to better ice to drive across. He says this-
“A timely reminder was during the evening we relocated. The Shokalskiy suddenly found it was in a mass breakout of ice. In just half an hour, an extensive area of ice (some of which we had been using for the Hangout on Air earlier that day) had broken up and was moving away from Commonwealth Bay with haste. Large pieces of ice, in the shape of shattered glass fragments – albeit large pieces – surrounded our vessel. There was no danger to the ship but it was a timely reminder how quickly things can change in this environment. You can never take anything for granted in the Antarctic!”
After experiencing the ship being surrounded by breakout ice on the 18th or 18th of December in just HALF AN HOUR, they stayed in that area, moved slightly up the coast and with an incoming blizzard and MORE ice on the way, they went onshore and forced the boat to wait for their return. THEN they got stuck.
For Chris Turney to then go on TELEVISION and act shocked that all this ice just mysteriously appeared and hemmed them in without any warning, is stunning. If the Captain gets sued for damages, I hope he takes every penny Chris Turney and the University of New South Wales will ever have in the future.
==============================================================
[ Anthony: I’ve saved the Rice log entry as a PDF here: Rice-log-Monday-23-December-2013 ]
==============================================================
UPDATE: A chronological summary by Aphan
*Didn’t mean for this to be so long. Just think the info here is important to the truth.*
Just got back from screen capping and copying URLs (instead of just cutting and pasting out key points) from http://www.spiritofmawson.com/blog/. We just never know these days when website pages will disappear. Right?
Not only does it detail all the sea ice they had to “grind through” (interactive map of the trips progress –https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z8QYRx-LCqEw.kFHpO8ktLaqI) in order to get anywhere CLOSE to the continent in the first place, but in the days BEFORE they got stuck in the ice for good, REPEATED posts on the blog by passengers demonstrate that the ice-fast ice-shore ice-was breaking up over and over again!!
Again, for Chris Turney to PRETEND after the ship got fatally stuck, to be shocked or surprised about all this ice suddenly showing up where it had not been before is ludicrous! It was there when they sailed in, it was breaking up and moving the whole time they were there, and Chris Turney admits on Dec 19th that he knew they were “between two low pressure system circulating the continent, promising fine, stable weather for at least the following two days. Unfortunately this is something of a double edged sword. We have been having extraordinary warm weather; so much so the fast ice – purportedly meaning the sea ice is locked ‘fast’ to the land – can spectacularly break out along the edge at any time.”
Not only that, but the ship ITSELF was breaking up fast ice on on shore!
*Dec 17th-Sean Borkovic-
“We reached a point when the ship veered suddenly to port aiming directly at the ice sheet. Just like that we ploughed into the fast ice in an effort to ‘park’ the ship so we could disembark. As we were rattled and shook by the manoeuvre it seemed crazy and bizarre yet it was not enough. We did not penetrate too far and instead of wedging in tight it instead cracked off several floes of ice. It took 12 goes before we had a suitable ‘berth’. ”
*Dec 18th- Robbie Turney-
“Later in the afternoon we took the Argos along the fast ice. We got half way before we realised it was too late and that we should head back. Although when we got back there was a large crack in the ice, 3 metres wide. It was too big for the Argos and Quad Bikes so we had to wait until the ship could barge its way to us. We were there for about an hour waiting in the five degree heat. Luckily there was no wind chill.”
*Dec 18th- Steve Lambert-
“Early evening as everyone on the ice was heading back to the ship, the cracks in the ice widened, separating them from the ship. Our obliging captain, Igor, manoeuvered the ship to a new spot, so that they could safely board.
Christmas Trees, decorations and lights are now up in the bar and dining room, We are festive. The Aussies have loved reminding our Pommie friends on board of that we have reclaimed the Ashes.
…9pm. Just at the end of dinner – the ice sheet that we were on all day has had a massive fracture and disintegrated into numerous sheets with large areas of water in between! Good thing that we are all on board, as well as all of the scientific equipment and vehicles.”
*Dec 19th-Ian McRae-
“The fast ice, the frozen ocean attached to the distant land, is rapidly breaking up and as we walk, cracks appear and occasionally we sink down to our knees to the ice below or, sometimes, to water. The surface we were walking on yesterday is now floating out to sea as pack ice and there is a danger that we could float out with it.”
Turney wraps up the 19th-20th on his entry on Dec 21st- (Note he acknowledges that he knew on or around Dec 19th that they are between low pressure systems and that stable weather might only last a couple of days)
“The weather forecast was excellent. We were between two low pressure system circulating the continent, promising fine, stable weather for at least the following two days. Unfortunately this is something of a double edged sword. We have been having extraordinary warm weather; so much so the fast ice – purportedly meaning the sea ice is locked ‘fast’ to the land – can spectacularly break out along the edge at any time. A timely reminder was during the evening we relocated. The Shokalskiy suddenly found it was in a mass breakout of ice. In just half an hour, an extensive area of ice (some of which we had been using for the Hangout on Air earlier that day) had broken up and was moving away from Commonwealth Bay with haste. Large pieces of ice, in the shape of shattered glass fragments – albeit large pieces – surrounded our vessel. There was no danger to the ship but it was a timely reminder how quickly things can change in this environment. You can never take anything for granted in the Antarctic! ”
By the 23rd, according to the Janet Rice site-they were surrounded by ice –http://www.janetrice.com.au/?e=98
“The ship is making very slow progress through pack ice. There is a narrow channel that we are inching our way along – it of course is pretty frozen in itself. There are icebergs on either side of us, some kilometres away – hard to tell exactly how far. We oscillate between hardly moving to suddenly being jolted sideways with a crunch as the ship bashes and barges its way through.”
From what I read in the meeja, 55 or so tourists/passengers escaped from man-eating penguins in Antarctica. Unfortunatey, all scientists were lost according to onboard manifests.
Put on Robert Cray’s Smoking Gun and grab a cold one.
I just hope the crew who are left on the Akadmik Shokalskiy survive. Pretty brave decision not to go with the rescue helicopter – it might cost them their lives.
“[ Anthony: I’ve saved the Rice log entry as a PDF here: Rice-log-Monday-23-December-2013 ]”
Excellent. Now that this critical item has hit WUWT courtesy of Aphan, the race is on to get that log entry pulled off the internet. But that will be to no avail if the entry has been saved as a screen shot or PDF.
In view of the Antarctic being in the summer season one would normally expect delay to result in less ice rather than more ice.
I’m sure if it comes to that, no doubt, millions of taxpayer dollars will be spent to rescue them, irrespective of the stupidity that got them into this entirely avoidable situation.
Long range forecaster Piers Corbyn predicts a favorable shift in winds will free the A.S. Around 20 Jan.
REPLY: My forecast was for Jan 8th +/- 24 hours for a favorable wind shift based on WeatherBell analysis. Even so, the vessel may still be unable to free itself. – Anthony
Stephen Wilde says:
January 2, 2014 at 8:01 pm
In view of the Antarctic being in the summer season one would normally expect delay to result in less ice rather than more ice.
Given that the captain was insistent on leaving ASAP, one would expect a delay is contraindicated.
Polar cruises offers a voyage. One of the ships listed is the Akademik Shokalskiy (54 passengers):
Ross Sea, East Antarctica Ships and Specialty Trips
Sights the sightseers get to see:
• Historic Huts
• Dry Valleys
• Awe-inspiring Ross Ice Shelf
• Majestic snow-capped volcano of Mount Erebus
• McMurdo Station
• Scott Base
• Enormous Adélie Penguin rookeries
• Emperor Penguins
Chris Turney is crazy like a fox – or just as well a penguin – no publicity is bad publicity, especially when the media air-brush for you. He will roll failure into an ongoing counter-assault. Hear his mighty quack! courtesy of Burgess Meredith.
What colossal stupidity….. and reckless, heedless endangerment of +70 lives, as well as the very sizable capital asset Akademik Shokalskiy and all equipment aboard! Is imprisonment a possibility???
Yep, sure reads like a few idiots who ignored the warnings to get back on board asap were the cause of this fiasco. Even now, they probably don’t realise what they did. The insurer’s should go after them to recover the costs of the rescue, but are not likely to.
Dumb and Dumber – Part Duh.
Popcorn! WUWT branded popcorn! We’re going to need it by the ton!
This is the gift that won’t stop giving. If the facts play out as they now appear, dozens of insurance execs just wet their pants while on the phone with their dozens upon dozens of lawyers who will be slobbering like rabid dogs over the news.
There’s a big bill to pay. I bet the ship owner is insured. Bet their insurance has a clause in it about operating the ship safely. The ship owner will argue that they couldn’t operate safely due to the failure of the passengers to heed their warnings. They’ll both try and hold over the insurer of the expedition. Bet that insurer will have a clause that says they’re not liable if the passengers didn’t follow safety procedures as ordered. They’ll throw it all on the passengers. The passengers will all get their own lawyers. The passengers that were on the ship at the time will argue that they aren’t responsible, the ones who were off the ship were. The passengers could well wind up suing each other!
Butter! WUWT branded butter!
Salt! WUWT branded salt.
Yes, I’m giddy. I’ve laughed so hard I’m suffering oxygen starvation and may pass ou
@Eric Worrall –
If the crew do die because they can’t get out of there before the Antarctic winter sets in, Chris Turney and his fellow miscreants will be guilty of their murder, as far as I am concerned. Here we have a new kind of murder being committed by global warming alarmists – on top of hypothermia from carbon taxes and starvation from the ethanol program.
It’s not so easy to ‘adjust’ the real-world weather when it becomes inconvenient.
“We don’t need no stinking truth, we are the “Hockey Stick Team”.
There’s more Anthony! I posted it on your questions thread, after the one you show in the OT. More damning evidence that conditions had been bad for DAYS before the night of the 23rd!! I posted MORE on your questions thread after the post you quoted in the OT detailing individual passengers mentioning the condition of the ice around them PRIOR to the night of the 23rd which was Janet Rice’s post.
( I don’t want to be obnoxious, but I want the whole story to be seen. I’m just posting stuff as I find it out myself. If you want to combine them/shorten/take editorial license with all of it, I totally trust you. Feel free to delete, rewrite, whatever you thinks portrays the total picture the most completely)
#2 long post in Questions thread-
*Didn’t mean for this to be so long. Just think the info here is important to the truth.*
Just got back from screen capping and copying URLs (instead of just cutting and pasting out key points) from http://www.spiritofmawson.com/blog/. We just never know these days when website pages will disappear. Right?
Not only does it detail all the sea ice they had to “grind through” (interactive map of the trips progress -https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z8QYRx-LCqEw.kFHpO8ktLaqI) in order to get anywhere CLOSE to the continent in the first place, but in the days BEFORE they got stuck in the ice for good, REPEATED posts on the blog by passengers demonstrate that the ice-fast ice-shore ice-was breaking up over and over again!!
Again, for Chris Turney to PRETEND after the ship got fatally stuck, to be shocked or surprised about all this ice suddenly showing up where it had not been before is ludicrous! It was there when they sailed in, it was breaking up and moving the whole time they were there, and Chris Turney admits on Dec 19th that he knew they were “between two low pressure system circulating the continent, promising fine, stable weather for at least the following two days. Unfortunately this is something of a double edged sword. We have been having extraordinary warm weather; so much so the fast ice – purportedly meaning the sea ice is locked ‘fast’ to the land – can spectacularly break out along the edge at any time.”
Not only that, but the ship ITSELF was breaking up fast ice on on shore!
*Dec 17th-Sean Borkovic-
“We reached a point when the ship veered suddenly to port aiming directly at the ice sheet. Just like that we ploughed into the fast ice in an effort to ‘park’ the ship so we could disembark. As we were rattled and shook by the manoeuvre it seemed crazy and bizarre yet it was not enough. We did not penetrate too far and instead of wedging in tight it instead cracked off several floes of ice. It took 12 goes before we had a suitable ‘berth’. ”
*Dec 18th- Robbie Turney-
“Later in the afternoon we took the Argos along the fast ice. We got half way before we realised it was too late and that we should head back. Although when we got back there was a large crack in the ice, 3 metres wide. It was too big for the Argos and Quad Bikes so we had to wait until the ship could barge its way to us. We were there for about an hour waiting in the five degree heat. Luckily there was no wind chill.”
*Dec 18th- Steve Lambert-
“Early evening as everyone on the ice was heading back to the ship, the cracks in the ice widened, separating them from the ship. Our obliging captain, Igor, manoeuvered the ship to a new spot, so that they could safely board.
Christmas Trees, decorations and lights are now up in the bar and dining room, We are festive. The Aussies have loved reminding our Pommie friends on board of that we have reclaimed the Ashes.
…9pm. Just at the end of dinner – the ice sheet that we were on all day has had a massive fracture and disintegrated into numerous sheets with large areas of water in between! Good thing that we are all on board, as well as all of the scientific equipment and vehicles.”
*Dec 19th-Ian McRae-
“The fast ice, the frozen ocean attached to the distant land, is rapidly breaking up and as we walk, cracks appear and occasionally we sink down to our knees to the ice below or, sometimes, to water. The surface we were walking on yesterday is now floating out to sea as pack ice and there is a danger that we could float out with it.”
Turney wraps up the 19th-20th on his entry on Dec 21st- (Note he acknowledges that he knew on or around Dec 19th that they are between low pressure systems and that stable weather might only last a couple of days)
“The weather forecast was excellent. We were between two low pressure system circulating the continent, promising fine, stable weather for at least the following two days. Unfortunately this is something of a double edged sword. We have been having extraordinary warm weather; so much so the fast ice – purportedly meaning the sea ice is locked ‘fast’ to the land – can spectacularly break out along the edge at any time. A timely reminder was during the evening we relocated. The Shokalskiy suddenly found it was in a mass breakout of ice. In just half an hour, an extensive area of ice (some of which we had been using for the Hangout on Air earlier that day) had broken up and was moving away from Commonwealth Bay with haste. Large pieces of ice, in the shape of shattered glass fragments – albeit large pieces – surrounded our vessel. There was no danger to the ship but it was a timely reminder how quickly things can change in this environment. You can never take anything for granted in the Antarctic! ”
By the 23rd, according to the Janet Rice site-they were surrounded by ice -http://www.janetrice.com.au/?e=98
“The ship is making very slow progress through pack ice. There is a narrow channel that we are inching our way along – it of course is pretty frozen in itself. There are icebergs on either side of us, some kilometres away – hard to tell exactly how far. We oscillate between hardly moving to suddenly being jolted sideways with a crunch as the ship bashes and barges its way through.”
The turkey will be frantically unfriending the Greenie MP.
Banishing her back to communing with her chooks.
Maritime law and centuries of tradition generally hold the captain of a vessel responsible for its safety. Period. With that responsibility comes almost absolute authority over both crew and passengers including the authority to physically restrain. Once the captain allowed passengers to depart his ship, he lost the ability to control their actions. If that loss of control resulted in a ship threatening delay in departure, there’s a good chance maritime law would judge the captain at fault for having allowed the situation to arise in the first place. Unlike landlubbers, sea captains do not get to weasel out of responsibility for having released a band of potentially incompetent “explorers” for a frolic across the bay during uncertain weather conditions.
A more sober account from one of the co-leaders;
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/antarctic-expedition-leader-relieved-but-sad-to-leave-russian-ship-20140103-308wx.html
I didn’t notice before posting, but the article is listed under the “tarvel” section of the SMH. So, wasn’t a science trip after all LOL.
[“travel” section? Mod]
There are many serious world conflicts and in the US an important mid-term election. The newest entrant in the former is the threat to the Olympic Games in Sochi to start in 5 weeks.
I’ll go out on a limb and predict that this Antarctica stuff will sink beneath the waves of social media and MSM sound bites. Leaders of the US, EU, and UN are the real ship of fools and none have anything to gain by keeping the ice saga alive. Note the Greenpeace/Russia thing. First terrorists, then hooligans, then free and home. It served Tzar Putin’s purposes and has gone away. Expect the same of the ice holes of Akademik Shokalskiy.
On TV tonight they showed some clips of those idots being saved. They were singing and smiling and laughing and having a great time. They acted like a bunch of pugnacious brats. Now they are cruising away at full speed on fossil fuel burning ships and helicopters while the captain and crew are still stranded.
But if this below is true , then the “Turkey” and his fellow idiots have just created a huge cost to a number of innocent parties
“Under international maritime conventions, the cost of the rescue will be borne by the ships involved.” This is part of a news report in NZ. I hope someone has got their facts wrong. But if it is correct then does it still apply if no danger to life was evident when assistance was asked for ?
Spot on Patrick. Despite having 2 journalists on board, Fairfax (owners of SMH and the Age), have done all they can to either completely ignore the details fo the story by just not reporting anything, or make it all look like some sort of travel mishap.
One can only imagine the headlines form the same newspapers had Turney found what they were hoping to find.
“davidmhoffer says:
January 2, 2014 at 8:21 pm”
My bet is the Australian taxpayer will end up footing the (what will be) rather substancial bill. Lets hope the ship and remaining crew are freed in the next week or two.
Yes Mod, travel section. I really should be more careful with my spelling given I suffer from dyslexia. Thanks!
Here is something I wrote on JoNova’s blog:
Thanks to Robert W Service for the inspiration!
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for fame;
The Climate Change has bedfellows strange
That would make your brain go lame;
The Southern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did bear
Was the climate geeks on the Akademik
Who got stuck in the ice-not-there.
Now Chris Turney was from New South Wee, where the gum tree stands and grows
Why he left his home in the South to roam ‘round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always hot, (no matter what), and often channelled Mao;
And he’d often say in his arrogant way “The Ice has Melted now.”
On Christmas Eve with Argo’s leave they were slow to find the trail
Talk of your cold! Through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If eyes they’d close, then their lashes froze till sometimes they couldn’t see;
It wasn’t much fun, but the only one to tweet was Chris Turney.
And that very night, they got a fright – their ship was in sea ice;
And the blogs were read, and the wind they said was blowing up a vice;
Chris Turney claimed it was “Climate Change” – the Ice had Up and Went;
The rest had napped and they were trapped in their own experiment.
“Sea ice has waned due to climate change, but here it’s building up!
We have found this has changed – they all explained, there’s fresh water all about!
And don’t you know, the seawater below, well, we can almost drink it.
This ice which packs will have impacts so fast – you wouldn’t think it.”
The Snow Dragon and had also come, and got stuck in the same sea ice;
The Astrolabe tried and Turney cried so they hailed the Australis.
The sea ice grew and tempers brewed, and those onboard got sick;
The wind was blamed on Climate Change; that’s why the ice was thick!
The days went by and my oh my; the media had dissed
The simple fact the ship was packed with climate scientists!
They tried to show the melting snow would strike our hearts with fear
And we would back the carbon tax – if truth was far, not near.
Now a promise made is a debt unpaid and the sea has its own stern code.
In the days to come – though the papers were stum, we learned to love that load
Of childish geeks and climate freaks who danced and sang and stuff.
They howled their woes to ice and snow, and proved their warming bluff.
The choppers came and came again – the rescue on and off;
The Australis and the Chinese ship were struggling in a trough
Of water cold near the South Pole so they could pluck them out
Of their own vice in the snow and ice – “not supposed to be about.”
These scientists were more like kids when they begged for help from Watts;
To give the fools some weather tools, to extract them from a spot
Of danger here and trouble there – to save them from themselves!
The choppers came in just in time to pluck from icy shelves.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for fame;
The Climate Change has bedfellows strange
That would make your brain go lame;
The Southern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did bear
Was the climate geeks on the Akademik
Who got stuck in the ice-not-there.
The clueless run amok … so, that’s why there are so many climate activists — it attracts many of the planet’s clueless … poor Captain … having to handle so many prima donnas who haven’t got a clue … now he’s stuck in the ice as a result of the clueless. On the bright side, he now can run the ship without having to do stupid acts for the passengers … or babysit them.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for fame;
The Climate Change has bedfellows strange
That would make your brain go lame;
The Southern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did bear
Was the climate geeks on the Akademik
Who got stuck in the ice-not-there.
Now Chris Turney was from New South Wee, where the gum tree stands and grows
Why he left his home in the South to roam ‘round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always hot, (no matter what), and often channelled Mao;
And he’d often say in his arrogant way “The Ice has Melted now.”
On Christmas Eve with Argo’s leave they were slow to find the trail
Talk of your cold! Through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If eyes they’d close, then their lashes froze till sometimes they couldn’t see;
It wasn’t much fun, but the only one to tweet was Chris Turney.
And that very night, they got a fright – their ship was in sea ice;
And the blogs were read, and the wind they said was blowing up a vice;
Chris Turney claimed it was “Climate Change” – the Ice had Up and Went;
The rest had napped and they were trapped in their own experiment.
“Sea ice has waned due to climate change, but here it’s building up!
We have found this has changed – they all explained, there’s fresh water all about!
And don’t you know, the seawater below, well, we can almost drink it.
This ice which packs will have impacts so fast – you wouldn’t think it.”
The Snow Dragon and had also come, and got stuck in the same sea ice;
The Astrolabe tried and Turney cried so they hailed the Australis.
The sea ice grew and tempers brewed, and those onboard got sick;
The wind was blamed on Climate Change; that’s why the ice was thick!
The days went by and my oh my; the media had dissed
The simple fact the ship was packed with climate scientists!
They tried to show the melting snow would strike our hearts with fear
And we would back the carbon tax – if truth was far, not near.
Now a promise made is a debt unpaid and the sea has its own stern code.
In the days to come – though the papers were stum, we learned to love that load
Of childish geeks and climate freaks who danced and sang and stuff.
They howled their woes to ice and snow, and proved their warming bluff.
The choppers came and came again – the rescue on and off;
The Australis and the Chinese ship were struggling in a trough
Of water cold near the South Pole so they could pluck them out
Of their own vice in the snow and ice – “not supposed to be about.”
These scientists were more like kids when they begged for help from Watts;
To give the fools some weather tools, to extract them from a spot
Of danger here and trouble there – to save them from themselves!
The choppers came in just in time to pluck from icy shelves.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for fame;
The Climate Change has bedfellows strange
That would make your brain go lame;
The Southern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did bear
Was the climate geeks on the Akademik
Who got stuck in the ice-not-there.
“If the Captain gets sued for damages, I hope he takes every penny Chris Turney and the University of New South Wales will ever have in the future.”
The Captain and the owners of the Shokalskiy are the ones who should be doing the suing.
If any of the crew dies from this, Chris Turney should face criminal charges for negligent homicide.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for fame;
The Climate Change has bedfellows strange
That would make your brain go lame;
The Southern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did bear
Was the climate geeks on the Akademik
Who got stuck in the ice-not-there.
Now Chris Turney was from New South Wee, where the gum tree stands and grows
Why he left his home in the South to roam ‘round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always hot, (no matter what), and often channelled Mao;
And he’d often say in his arrogant way “The Ice has Melted now.”
On Christmas Eve with Argo’s leave they were slow to find the trail
Talk of your cold! Through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If eyes they’d close, then their lashes froze till sometimes they couldn’t see;
It wasn’t much fun, but the only one to tweet was Chris Turney.
And that very night, they got a fright – their ship was in sea ice;
And the blogs were read, and the wind they said was blowing up a vice;
Chris Turney claimed it was “Climate Change” – the Ice had Up and Went;
The rest had napped and they were trapped in their own experiment.
“Sea ice has waned due to climate change, but here it’s building up!
We have found this has changed – they all explained, there’s fresh water all about!
And don’t you know, the seawater below, well, we can almost drink it.
This ice which packs will have impacts so fast – you wouldn’t think it.”
The Snow Dragon and had also come, and got stuck in the same sea ice;
The Astrolabe tried and Turney cried so they hailed the Australis.
The sea ice grew and tempers brewed, and those onboard got sick;
The wind was blamed on Climate Change; that’s why the ice was thick!
The days went by and my oh my; the media had dissed
The simple fact the ship was packed with climate scientists!
They tried to show the melting snow would strike our hearts with fear
And we would back the carbon tax – if truth was far, not near.
Now a promise made is a debt unpaid and the sea has its own stern code.
In the days to come – though the papers were stum, we learned to love that load
Of childish geeks and climate freaks who danced and sang and stuff.
They howled their woes to ice and snow, and proved their warming bluff.
The choppers came and came again – the rescue on and off;
The Australis and the Chinese ship were struggling in a trough
Of water cold near the South Pole so they could pluck them out
Of their own vice in the snow and ice – “not supposed to be about.”
These scientists were more like kids when they begged for help from Watts;
To give the fools some weather tools, to extract them from a spot
Of danger here and trouble there – to save them from themselves!
The choppers came in just in time to pluck from icy shelves.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for fame;
The Climate Change has bedfellows strange
That would make your brain go lame;
The Southern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did bear
Was the climate geeks on the Akademik
Who got stuck in the ice-not-there.
Good for a laugh!
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/2013-confirmed-as-australias-hottest-year-on-record-20140103-308ek.html
“This event could not have happened without increasing greenhouse gases, without climate change”
They forgot to mention without models too!
Reading some of the blogs from these folks, I can only wonder about their use of the English language. From a previous post “..waiting in the five degree heat”. Five degree HEAT?. I guess in a “warming” world there is no cold. Sort of like 8.2pH changing to 8.1pH being “more acidic”.
Fairfax press must be embarrassed about this, that is why it is back in the travel section.
They are part of this fiasco (“follow Faifax’s Antarctic Expedition”), and, this being holiday summer here you would think that this would just the story to boost circulation in the slowest circulation period of the year. There is a video link here, to our great Antarctic and Everest mountaineer Greg Mortimer who was one of the team leaders, and he looks truly shocked about the event. He is an experienced, no nonsense guy and it is obvious that he is less than impressed with all of this.
@ Aphan — WAY — TO — GO! Your moment finally came. You are always such a fine affirmer and encourager of others on WUWT, glad to see you shine. GREAT WORK!
A fan,
Janice
*********************
@Patrick — You do AMAZINGLY well at writing given your dyslexia. You should feel so proud of yourself. (and that fact that you are Australian, yes, yes, (smile))
With admiration for your perseverance and mental tenacity,
Janice
Remember the Four Lads in their large row boat, the Arctic Joule, who, back in August/September 2013 attempted to traverse the ice choked North West Passage. Their pathetic struggles against the wind and ice, brought to us daily via modern technology, and their eventual capitulation half way to their goal, provided plenty of mirth for the interested observer.
While the astonishing naivete of both groups is comparable, IMO the huge costs and the number of people involved with this latest farce render it rather less humorous.
Sorry about the bad cut and paste on my first post. The second post is the poem I wrote with thanks to Robert W Service for inspiration. “The Cremation of Sam McGee”. 🙂
Good work Aphan.
Nothing here for the masses. WUWT gets a laugh.
But the proles won’t see this on the News without an AGW spin.
The common MSM news consumer will get the news the cabal wants them to get.
Facts are irrelevent in this new world
LOL, Mrs. Beardsley (riiiigghhht, wink, wink, nod, nod).
Fun paraphrase of Robert W. Service (one of the few poems I’ve had memorized, or nearly so, since I was little). You left out the best part, though, v. a v. Turkey I mean, the part about where in the ice they see in a thrice … the Alice May and … stuff …. ‘im in! Oooo wouldn’t that be great? (No, no, not literally — just some sort of punishment) Well, anyway, thanks for sharing your wit.
Well, actually, Sam MacGee was a lot more noble than Turkey — he just asked to be let off and didn’t endanger anyone else… . And didn’t LIE.
“The ship owner will argue that they couldn’t operate safely due to the failure of the passengers to heed their warnings.”
So true. The leader/sponsor of this fiasco must bear the total rescue cost and that bill has not stopped running to date. So possibly, so long to Turney’s Carbonscape Holdings, Ltd, it would be such a deserving end to this saga. Hope he has learned why the seekers of the true knowledge are now saying Global Cooling is upon us, this is no “pause”.
@ Mrs. Beardsley — lol, I was writing my post while you posted your second one. I DO believe you re: the cut-and-paste thing. The “riiiggghht” was about your “name.” Heh, heh. Mrs. Beardsley. Mm, hm.
Does anyone else read the posts by the “scientists/tourists/mad men” and get the impression they are reading reports by high school kids on a field trip that they failed to prepare for?
“a timely reminder how quickly things can change in this environment”. Funny to hear this coming from one of the participants as they were somewhat incautious in testing this maxim.
Ben U. says:
January 2, 2014 at 8:13 pm
Except that he will have a lot of trouble chartering any boat for a future similar boondoggle.
Take care, out there, Mike Bromley. You are being prayed for.
Janice
“Does anyone else read the posts by the “scientists/tourists/mad men” and get the impression they are {really, really, REALLY, dumb}?”
Yup.
#(:))
I mean, “Yup, Patrick B.” — ooops (heh, heh, just what I deserved for calling those mentally-impaired spoiled brats “dumb,” huh?).
Okay. How many posts is that? (eye roll with sheepish grin)
Did somebody in the back yell, “TOO MANY!”?? #(:))
[SNIP – this is not only inappropriate here, but ugly – take your comments elsewhere – Anthony]
@Janice Moore. Ha ha. Thanks. I never thought that my name could be funny, but it is! At my age, my husband gently leans over, plucks a fine, blonde hair from my nose or chin and smiles at me. 🙂
Dear, dear, Mrs. Beardsley,
Please forgive me. No, no, your name is NOT inherently humorous. It’s just that I’m used to there being so MANY men on this site (percentage-wise) and there is a Margaret Har-something that someone said is actually man, and Beardsley is such a picturesque name, something I would choose for a kindly character in a novel, so… .
Are you pulling my leg, here, though… ? (smile) Well, I’d rather err on the side of asking your pardon than possibly making ANOTHER wrong assumption. So, PLEASE FORGIVE ME.
And tell your husband to stop doing that! Boy, that would really make me mad. He is really lucky to have someone as easy-going as you. I hope, other than that bit of effrontery, he treats you like a queen. Your gracious response shows that you deserve to be and that I am not wrong to have high hopes that you will let bygones be bygones, here.
Apologetically,
Janice
P.S. And — HOW FUNNY — I just read the post about the cross-dresser above! LOL.
“You can never take anything for granted in the Antarctic!”
Like melting sea ice.
Maybe they should have prayed the ice away. That always works!
Frozen Out: 98% of Stories Ignore That Ice-bound Ship Was On Global Warming Mission
A group of climate change scientists were rescued by helicopter Jan. 2, after being stranded in the ice since Christmas morning. But the majority of the broadcast networks’ reports about the ice-locked climate researchers never mentioned climate change.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mike-ciandella/2014/01/02/frozen-out-98-stories-ignore-ice-bound-ship-was-global-warming-missi
Typical…
Paulo deSouza says:
January 2, 2014 at 9:55 pm
I’m not going to copy/paste your post, it does not bear repeating.
We discuss the science, the politics, the effects of the whole CAGW and its off shoots
We do not denigrate, castigate or deride peoples personal choices and lifestyles.
Stick to the knitting, leave the personal issues out of it
Hey everyone, give the tourist/scientits(borrowed from RockyRoad)/reporters/politicians a break. They thought ASAP meant “All Singers At Practice”.
Someone noticed:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mike-ciandella/2014/01/02/frozen-out-98-stories-ignore-ice-bound-ship-was-global-warming-missi
How much damage to Chris Turney’s expedition did you cause?
(That blizzard was likely caused by climate change.)
The EPA helps you compute your liability.
It’s 9kg CO2/gallon of gas.
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/documents/420f11041.pdf
(they also have handy calculators)
Now sadly the EPA was FORCED last month
(they didn’t like it a bit, but hey, climate science is climate science)
http://tinyurl.com/qhv7nwc
the EPA was forced to adjust your liability up by 50%.
To $35/ton = $0.035/kg of CO2.
Times 9 kgCO2/gallon of gas, it gives $0.33/gallon of gas.
(Now try to remember what you said about that EPA ruling – it was done with public comment – but don’t forget that this is a family newspaper)
***
So you cause about $7/tankful of gas in climate damage.
That’s with conservative climate models.
The more creative ones put it at triple that. Say, $20/tankful, to grow to $40/tankful + inflation by 2050. As the attribution of storms to you becomes more precise.
It’s what’s written in the official
http://tinyurl.com/pzf8vns
That’s how much damage you – and, yes, yes, they mean YOU – cause when driving. And much more than that by staying warm and cooking. And by using electricity.
Your life causes a climate mess even if you sit at home.
By changing the climate.
Especially by melting the ice at the poles.
And by causing blizzards.
Like the one which hit the poor climate change fellows.
Who went out on a limb to figure your guilt.
Waleed Abdalati was the fellow in charge, who contributed to switching the focus of NASA
– from outer space (remember the Moon landing? Voyager?)
– to adjusting the temps historic record so as to prove human caused climate change.
Here he explains the method.
“While scientists expect and observe more extreme weather with man-made global warming, some say it’s not quite fair to blame the Antarctic blizzard that trapped the ship on climate change.
University of Colorado ice scientist Waleed Abdalati, NASA’s former chief scientist, cautioned, like many scientists do, that while researchers can spot a trend in extreme weather, they can’t immediately associate an individual event –like a blizzard — with changing climate. When scientists do attribute an individual extreme weather event to climate change, it is usually more than a year later after numerous computer model simulations and then published in a peer-reviewed journal.”
See, it’s:
1) One of those great computer models, followed by
2) The peer review by an expert in the field of climate change.
An expert like Climate Change professor Chris Turney (when he makes it back)
That makes it become established, peer reviewed climate science.
http://tinyurl.com/pxwu42n
So be patient, cross your fingers and wait till next year to see this event attributed to the climate change due to global warming.
The global warming caused by you driving your fossil fueled car to work.
Scientifically attributed, goes without saying.
“… to reduce the surplus population.” Warmists have justifications for anything and everything. Unfazable.
[img]http://www.spiritofmawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Change-in-sea-ice1_sm.jpg[/img]
This image was used in the lastest blog from Chris Turney at the spiritofmawson site.
He states,
He states this is the cause, and then he uses these pixelated images as proof.
I will shortly prove him wrong.
Good ‘un!
The Southern Lights
Have seen strange sights…
@Claude Harvey at 8:27 pm
Maritime law and centuries of tradition generally hold the captain of a vessel responsible for its safety. Period.
You refer to an Obama “Period.”
There is a very big exception as I understand it. When a vessel is chartered to another entity, an operator of the voyage, then the operator assumes a hefty chunck of responsibility.
When the Macondo #1 blew out in the Gulf of Mexico, April 20, 2010, the investigating boards didn’t place the magority of the blame on
Transocean Rig Captain Curt Kuchta
Nor TransOcean senior offshore installation manager: Jimmy Harrell.
Nor on TransOcean senior Toolpusher, Randy Ezell
Nor toolpusher “on deck” Jason Anderson, who was in control of well operations at the time of the explosion, and died in the explosion.
Not these.
Charged with manslaughter are Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine the Well Site Leaders employed by BP who contracted with Transocean to drill the well.
Radio NZ reports that the Xue Long has now become trapped or stuck in a polyna, Aurora Australis has been asked to stay in the area in case assistance is needed
Prof Turkey has a lot to answer for
Paulo deSouza says [lots of stupid gay bashing crap too dumb to repeat]
Dude what has that to do with anything?`Seriously grow the f&%¤ up.
The real perpetrators are the “leftist” and the activists that is behind the political decided UNFCCC.
These policy based scientists and Eco-journalists have all been established based on the UNFCCC. And the mission is also UNFCCC based funded. Those behind the UNFCCC are the real perpetrators?
Totally Off-Topic: Has anyone else read Into Thin Air? What a great travel narrative!
Note some parallels with the air plane crash in Smolensk in 2011.
‘The MAK report found the “immediate cause” of the accident was the failure of the crew to make a timely decision to proceed to an alternate airport despite being warned multiple times of the poor weather conditions at Smolensk […] . Additionally, the MAK report found an “immediate cause” of the accident was the presence in the cockpit of the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Air Force, which placed “psychological pressure” on the Captain to “continue descent in conditions of unjustified risk with a dominating aim of landing at any means.”‘
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Polish_Air_Force_Tu-154_crash
There’s not the slightest mention of this bizarre episode atm either in the mailonline or the telegraph (UK) online…they seem to be acutely embarassed ! There was some mention yesterday. I am completely disgusted by the MSM response, or lack of it. What is up with them all?
All credit to Anthony, Jo Nova and Aphan; the latter has done some very useful research into the logs.
I can’t believe the triviality of the attitudes of so many of the ‘passengers’. I do however think that Greg Mortimer has some notion of what has really happened and he looked very sober and shocked. I think they have had a very lucky and unjustified escape. I just hope the master and crew survive unscathed.
I feel like heading down to Hobart to greet those total idiot ‘passengers’ with a few questioning banners.
These are the people who we rely on to give us the true state of the planet. The media people have always told us that they know best what is going on. They can’t even interpret the weather, the state of ice around their vessel, nor do they understand captain Haddock’s gestures and what he means when he shouts: “Pockmarks…. Barnackles,…. Vodka, and Whiskey….!”
What a bunch of jollies. – These are Hippies gone to Antarctica instead of India….Wonder what they were smoking, on the taxpayer’s money…?
Hey, let’s play Titanic: “…aggressive charges by Captain Igor,” “jolted sideways with a crunch as the ship bashes and barges its way through.”
In a ship with a light steel hull? They should have been terrified to a man and been determined to get as quickly as possible to safety, not go back in for more. And they continued partying? Pure luck they aren’t all at the bottom of the ocean. Ultimately that has to be on Captain Igor, or did Turney threaten not to pay him if he aborted the mission?
Could Turney have been so convinced by his global warming ideology as to believe that, once there was a first breakout of the ice along the shore, there would be no refreezing? After all, this is early summer. Maybe Turney thought it was like spring ice breaking up on a river, and if this was going to be a big year for melting then there wouldn’t be any reversals. I can just see him laying his “expertise” on Igor:
Only too late did Igor realize that he had been taken in by an ignorant fool pretending to be an expert. How else to make sense of such otherwise inexplicable behavior? If this is what happened I hope Igor doesn’t keep it to himself. With official inquiries undoubtedly on the way any such foolishness OUGHT to come out.
Just past the solstice, this Antarctic Summer seems a bit –how you say?– chilled out. Given recent reports that central Antarctic mountaintops have registered near -200 degrees Fahrenheit, colder than a Martian antipode, one wonders what (if anything) this implies concerning Winter some six months from now.
As for Prof. Turney and his cookie-crumblers… may the flees of a thousand AGW Catastrophists infest their fetid under-armor.
And they call themselves “the reality based community.” It’s fake posturing all the way down.
No, Captain Igor is fully responsible, no matter what Chris Turney told him about Antarctica being nice and warm this time of year. I imagine Igor is plenty sea smarter than Turney as well, Ruskis and Kanuks can get to know their ice and snow. My bet is Igor probably regrets giving the hippies too much leeway, but he will get his ship home OK, eventually. But Next time they charge the stupid greenies double, they can obviously afford it.
(P.S. get over it Paolo)
How and why did the Akademik Shokalskiy become iced in?
The key info about that will be the official maritime incident reports and Russian media interviews of the captain and crew of the Akademik Shokalskiy.
That info will probably only be public after the final outcome of the situation that the Akademik Shokalskiy is currently in.
I look forward to it.
John
Warren in New Zealand says:
January 2, 2014 at 11:03 pm
“Radio NZ reports that the Xue Long has now become trapped or stuck in a polyna, Aurora Australis has been asked to stay in the area in case assistance is needed”
————————————————————————————–
To every cloud a sliver lining…
I was disappointed when the rescue plan was changed and the Chinese leg of Turney’s Tour of Shame was cancelled. Now there is a least a chance for the Chinese to line the railings and communicate their appreciation to Prof. Turney through hand gestures or synchronised mooning.
Of course there are still days aboard the Aurora Australis with a crew that wants to keelhaul him.
Then on to Casey, to meet and greet all the real scientists whose summer research window was wasted with his failed climate propaganda jaunt.
Prof. Turney will be finally doing some real science. An empirical experiment to see if it is actually possible to die of shame…
Yes, good work Aphan.
“Janice Moore says:
January 2, 2014 at 9:12 pm”
Thanks, it does get tiring sometimes. BTW, I am not Australian (There is a joke about that), yet! I am what Aussies call a POME, “Prisoner Of Mother England”, although the airfare and immigration costs were considerably more expensive, but less risky, than stealing a loaf of bread in London. I’m a New Zealander too.
This whole event is being over shadowed by “hottest day, week, month, year” since records began (1910) being sprayed accross the MSM. The MSM also forget to tell readers/viewers that the way the BoM calculates a national average (HA HA HA HA!) is by using a new method introduced in…TA DAH…in 2013!!!! Funny that!
I am sure records began earlier than that but I am unable to find a credible source. No mention of the behaviour of the “passengers”, just the usual shots of penguins, snow being compressed by said passengers in the vain attempt to create a landing pad (LOL) and their rescue.
Chris Turney and Alok Jha of the Guardian need to give us some more details. Now read the sections of the post about the captain’s warnings and dithering with Argos.
Chook littles coming home to roost.
Keith Minto says:
“There is a video link here, to our great Antarctic and Everest mountaineer Greg Mortimer who was one of the team leaders, and he looks truly shocked about the event. He is an experienced, no nonsense guy and it is obvious that he is less than impressed with all of this.”
Yes, I’ve seen a couple of clips of Greg Mortimer speaking. I don’t know his usual style of speech but he seems to be choosing his words very carefully and biting his tongue at times.
Maybe he has things that he’d rather say once everyone and the A.S is out of danger.
“It was very sad. I’ve known that ship for a very long time.
“In a sense we’ve left [the crew] behind and to their own devices.”
I can understand how that would seriously go against the grain for an experienced explorer, though I’m sure there is nothing other than relief on the part of the crew to have that bunch of wallies out of from under their feet. They would have been nothing but a liability if things get more difficult.
Good luck to all those who remain aboard the A.S.
“John Whitman says:
January 2, 2014 at 11:59 pm”
I’d guess any report will never reach the gaze of the public eye. Given recent events, Putin would likely supress anything that will show the “expedition” as a bad thing in the run up to the winter Olympics.
My take is that the ship’s captain was just trying to do his job. In retrospect, if he had known of the unprecedented emotional immaturity of his charges, he should have hired security guards to shadow the passengers, and to return them to the ship quickly — in handcuffs and at gunpoint if necessary.
Well after the sea ice hit the fan, expedition ‘leader’ Turney feigned surprise, and tried his damnedest to cover his sorry a**. I hope that he and the other slackers are required to pay the FULL costs of the rescue operation — even if it takes them the rest of their lives.
THE FANATIC: A day of quotes from a diary on the ship
[comments in brackets]
Day 19
[3 days after getting caught in ice because of a trip to see penguins the day AFTER the big storm warning]
Climate change is a constant thread in all the scientific discussions.
Everything… is being affected. Adelie Penguins on the Antarctic Peninsula are in decline as West Antarctica has warmed considerably.
[= penguins, which surround the ship and which swim to Chile, somewhere else succumbed to 1C of warming]
…more giant icebergs… in a future warmed climate.
[= warming produces LESS ice but MORE icebergs]
…the decline in invertebrate biodiversity in areas which have had sea ice in recent years where they previously hadn’t.
[= warming produced MORE ice which is VERY BAD for biodiversity].
[we need] … to reduce our carbon pollution to zero ASAP — that means within 20 years.
Forget about half hearted ambitions of 25% by 2020, or 60% by 2050… given the damage already being done by 0.7 degrees
[= mostly before the big emissions]
…we just need… to overcome the vested interests of the resource industries
[= no real need for fossil fuels now]
[while a flotilla of fossil powered ships approach]
Waiting for … the enormous Chinese ice breaker… The Aurora Australis is also on its way… and l’Astrolabe from the French base…
We have been assured there is no danger to us;
it’s just a matter of waiting.
http://www.janetrice.com.au/?e=100
Janet Rice, Green Senator Elect
This’ll come down to a bun fight over who made the call to phaf around loading equipment instead of just grabbing the passengers and getting the heck out of there. Either way, Turney had better never end up employed by our government or uni a the end of this!
They’re all lying through their teeth. That woman didn’t burst into tears when she got on the Aurora if she was being told on the AS that everything was hunky-dorey.
Claude Harvey and Jannie have got it right. Effectively, passengers are not expected to demonstrate intellectual capacity or a sense of responsibility superior to the average sheep. The Master should have anticipated the real possibility of difficulties in efficiently herding all the sheep back onto the vessel if the weather worsened. Unless he can demonstrate that the passengers wilfully disregarded his lawful instructions or the conditions under which they joined the vessel, he will probably have to carry the can for this.
And, for all those who think that the passengers should have been left there: in a genuine emergency the paying passengers for whom the cruise was undertaken rapidly become useless parasites who get in the way. The professional seamen on the vessel are much better off without these encumbrances.
From the ABC News link mentioned previously:
“The Australian Antarctic Division says its resources have been stretched to the limit by its diversion to Commonwealth Bay.
Jason Mundy from the Antarctic Division hopes the Russian ship’s insurers will foot the bill for the rescue.
“It’s difficult to quantify costs in dollar terms because for us the costs are largely going to be in costs and operational terms,” he said.”
Turney’s passenger list and ship should be limited to two other men and a tub.
The German press has seen through the fiasco..and Turney is coming over as a bit of a clown.
After a long article about the ‘Rettungspflicht’ ..Duty to go to rescue and the insurance issues the article quotes the cheeky chappie…..
Expeditionsleiter Turney hatte ursprünglich gehofft, dass Eisbrecher das Schiff losbekommen und das Team die Reise fortsetzen kann. “Ich bin ein bisschen traurig, dass es so endete. Aber wir haben sehr, sehr viel großartige wissenschaftliche Forschung gemacht.”
Loosely translated…I am a bit sad it ended the way it did. But we have done a lot of great science*
Unbelievable.
Rub a dub dub… http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4752773371267046&pid=1.7
Alas, if the stories about delay from the passengers causing this disaster is correct, Claude Harvey and others have it right. It IS the duty of the Captain to ensure that all operations can be carried out safely.
If the ship had been carrying experienced Antarctic explorers who needed to get ashore at that particular point – perhaps to take specific scientific measurements – then bringing the ship close in to shore where ice was accreting might have been a justifiable risk to take, with the dangers carefully analysed and the expedition leader accepting some of the responsibility – written orders, perhaps.
If, however, the ship was carrying a load of party-going airheads who wanted to look at penguins, make snowmen and convince themselves that the ice was going to vanish, then the right place to land them is at a port with proper facilities so that they do not fall off gangways, from where they will be hustled into coaches under the control of an experienced driver/courier, and then delivered to a zoo where the zoo keepers and managers have responsibility for ensuring that they don’t stick their fingers in the cages.
Too funny – an excerpt from a Washington Post piece:
“Some people are born disconnected from reality and never learn any better. You could call the affliction the Dead Parrot Syndrome. Monty Python, the British comedy troupe, illustrated this 40 years ago in a sketch about a pet shop owner who tries to persuade a customer that a dead parrot he had just bought was actually alive. Punched or poked, the stiff and lifeless parrot wouldn’t move. The shopkeeper insisted the bird was just “stunned” and “pining for the fjords.” Global-warming fanatics are equally disconnected from reality. After a generation of scare tactics, dire warnings and apocalyptic predictions, the global-warming movement has become a caricature of itself. They’re learning just how difficult it is to sell a dead parrot.”
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/2/editorial-no-more-dead-parrots/#ixzz2pKbxbMy5
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
Insurance companies only pay out to cover an insured loss.
What was lost here?
Only time as I see it.
I would expect that ‘research vessels’ and ice breakers to have loose and flexible timetables due to the nature of the duties assigned to them.
If each vessel had a years worth of bookings, each booking generating many dollars or pounds per day per vessel then a loss could have arisen.
However, these are not regular profit making cargo ships operating in trouble free areas where you would normally expect timetabled operations. Deviations from scheduled can trigger a loss if insured for.
As for the captain, it seems as though he did his job very well. He got his passengers to the ice shelf, they took a few photos of some huts and kept them safe through out.
His ship got trapped in the ice, this is not unexpected in this area, since some of the passengers claimed to be conducting some ‘research’ which necessitated close proximity to the ice.
If this was a ‘pure’ holiday/sight seeing’ cruise (of which there are many) then the captain could be in a spot of bother if his vessel became trapped, as that COULD be considered an unnecessary risk.
Turney and his team/dendrochronologist must quickly rebuild confidence in their climate research. Here’s one technique: http://www.boredpanda.com/hovering-tree-illusion-daniel-siering-mario-schuster/
January 3, 2014 at 2:59 am
Insurance companies only pay out to cover an insured loss.
What was lost here?
Only time as I see it.
—–
Are you sure you have your cost-analysis right? I think people are more interested in real costs, not whether insurance companies pay out – look at the obsession with the global costs of CO2 and the steps being taken to implement taxes for it ( whether these costs are real or imaginary is still being debated :))
I think that, at the very least, anybody can be held to the (high?) moral standards they choose to represent e.g. a beef-eating vegan is not going to be taken very seriously.
The Chinese ice breaker has just said it may be stuck in thick ice.
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/relief-at-antarctic-rescue-turns-to-fear-for-chinese-ship-466616
They didn’t go to solve any puzzles. They went to find evidence of ‘climate change’ and oh boy did they find it. Near record sea ice extent, trending cold and very dangerous. There was less sea ice in the area in Mawson’s day so what have they achieved? Bugger all I say except ridicule on ridicule.
Aphan, great finds. I worked through the same route as well. My write-up is posted on Jo Nova: Akademik Shokalskiy: Were those careless risks in dangerous but forseeable conditions? My initial suspicion was whether the Mawson hut trip held them up.
It took a bit of looking around because the Hodgeman islet drama is not available *anywhere*, except buried in the posts of Janet Rice, Kerry-Jayne Wilson and Robbie Turney.
The accounts of Chris Turney, Alok Jha, the Intrepid Wanderers Google+ site are devoid of events that transpired on the 23rd and 24th. Jha reports the flavours of ice-cream he had on the Aurora Australis. Yet he failed to recount what happened for two whole days.
I’m not an attorney but I believe there is one person most responsible for so many people, and ships, now in harm’s way. He cannot be a Captain or Skipper for he is still smiling – while they, I am sure, are not.
Good thing that we are all on board, as well as all of the scientific equipment and vehicles.
I would like to know exactly what “scientific equipment” they had.
Thanks a lot for your research that I liked very much.
But be aware that your results are unwanted and disliked in certain circles. I tried several times to put a link to the “getting stuck” thing to one of the blogs(Spiegel Online or SPON) of Germanys largest newsmagazine “Der Spiegel”. Either I am already on the list of ‘deniers’ or orders were given to brush that story under the carpet…They just don’t want to know about it.
They don’t burn books any more, they censor public opinion.
…I would like to know exactly what “scientific equipment” they had….
It sounds as if ‘ice-cream making equipment’ was in there somewhere…
“Speed says:
January 3, 2014 at 3:53 am
I would like to know exactly what “scientific equipment” they had.”
None. But they had set-up a “media hub”…what else would one do with a week on ice, so what more would a “climate scientist” need?
@DG, It seems they missed milkshakes while too imbibed on AS. As such, they were rewarded with ice cream on AA. Appropriately medicated now on AA, they’re no longer allowed to imbibe.
From the pen of the Guardian journalist who was onboard, the cause of the ship getting stuck was:
Why not pop over there and thank him for his diligent journalism.
My suggestion that, as an embedded journalist, he may have gone native is stuck in pre-moderation.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/02/antarctic-rescue-shokalskiy-free
“steverichards1984 says:
January 3, 2014 at 2:59 am”
1984? The ice (B09B – according to Turney that happened in 2010) in which this fiasco manifest itself “calved” in 1986.
@Patrick, That “media hub” spent an inordinate amount of time rearranging the chairs.
Ray Boorman says: @ January 2, 2014 at 8:14 pm
…. The insurer’s should go after them to recover the costs of the rescue, but are not likely to.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Don’t bet on that. Insurers are like sharks when it comes to money. I had someone pull a manufactured accident at my home and the investigator was one sharp dude!
More likely the tax payers are going to get stuck with the bill. This needs to get out so there is a big ruckus over paying for someones stupidity.
These idiots are not scientists. They are not “tourists”. They are children. Spoiled rotten children. And as such they should be spanked. A swatting of their rears will do no good. The adult spanking is heavy fines. Personal fines. Not fines for their “employers” (although they deserve spankings just as badly).
They not only risked their own lives with their irresponsible behavior, they risked the lives of the captain and crew of the ship. I would not be surprised at all if future excursions were severely curtailed or eliminated. The captain may like the money, but his livelihood is his boat and risking that to indulge children is not on his manifest.
From reading the idiot blogs, it does seem that the AS captain understood the situation and had a rough idea of when he wanted to leave. It is unclear if the time criticality was communicated to the tour/junket leader, but lets suppose it was. I did not seem to see anything to indicate dawdling. It could be that no one bother to calculate how long it takes to disembark and re-embark 50+ in-experience personnel via 2 or 3 of the Argo ATVs. From what can see of the Argo ATV website, the 8×8 seats 4, so that’s 1 driver and 3 passengers. Given that they had 3 initially, with 1 becoming out of service later. My point is that there may not be sufficient evidence to charge the Turney group of dawdling at the tour site, just operational incompetence, which is a different failing.
At the sinking of one of the three ARGOs and with uncertain chances of recovery ist must have become obivious that the return time for all tourists to the Akademik Shkalskiy will be at least one-third longer than originally estimated. So the return call ought to have come much earlier.
Wealthy adventurers posing as science workers, led by a hustler posing as a scientist. Turney has put himself, his gullible followers and the ship’s crew at risk by his folly.
Blaming normal ice shifts on AGW is such typical fanatic dishonesty.
The site they were visiting is famous for trapping ships from over 100 years ago.
Turney is acting a lot more like a cynical con-artist than a devout AGW fanatic.
A bit off topic, but I received a reply from DMI today regarding the lack of 80N Arctic temp data over the past 3 weeks:
==START==
Thank you for your mail – we appreciate your engagement.
Some infrastructural changes at DMI had unforeseen effects – that unfortunately caused the +80N mean-temperature-index to crash. It is now up and running again.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Cheers,
gorm
==END==
I just hope their “infrastructure changes” doesn’t mean the implementation of some new algorithm to get “improved” (aka contrived) data.
If anyone happens to know more on this issue, it would be appreciated.
If you go to the WUWT’s SEA ICE PAGE, you’ll see the DMI 80N temp data is now up to date.
Alec Rawls says: @ January 2, 2014 at 11:31 pm
….” “jolted sideways with a crunch as the ship bashes and barges its way through.”
In a ship with a light steel hull? They should have been terrified to a man and been determined to get as quickly as possible to safety, not go back in for more. And they continued partying? Pure luck they aren’t all at the bottom of the ocean….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I posted this in an older thread but it really belongs here (Mods remove older post)
This group has a completely different mindset and view of reality as is becoming more and more apparent. It explains why Prof Chris(tmas) Turkey did not thank or even mention the Russian captain or crew and why the MSM ignores their plight.
@Joe Chang, dawdling is a primary chore for moonbeams.
It doesn’t matter how nice the weather is when you’re dealing with ice, what matters is what way the wind is blowing. Back in the 80s when we chased near-shore coho salmon on Lake Superior in the early springtime, the ice was always hanging around half a mile or so offshore, and if the wind just became a slight puff from the north we’d have to hustle back to the landing because we only had an hour or so before all the ice floating around was packed on shore, blocking our return.
One heck of an anomoly,,, and water will be blamed.
From The Australian Newspaper today:
$400,000 hit for ice rescue revealed
Maybe the tip of the iceberg, I would say.
John Of Cloverdale WA, Australia says:
January 3, 2014 at 6:31 am
From The Australian Newspaper today:
$400,000 hit for ice rescue revealed
—–
And mounting …
This video from the Guardian by Alok Jha and Topham are video evidence for everything Aphan is highlighting from the various blogs. You have to scroll half way down the page to the three videos after the Mawson interview extract.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/antarctica-live/2014/jan/02/antarctic-rescue-akademik-shokalskiy-live-coverage
The first video shows the ship encountering thick pack ice from a long way out (Jha gives the date at times- this could be related to the marinetraffic.com positions for the Sholkalskiy.)
The other two videos below also show some pack shots.
All these videos are in danger of being wiped by the Guardian when they realise their significance to any enquiry and especially if they read this article on WUWT. Can someone here copy and archive?
They were only posted yesterday despite showing activities (and sea ice) as far back as 16th December 2013 and at 65 deg south. This is why I think this is new evidence and will soon be disappeared.
Sorry if someone has already done this. No time to scroll thru.
They were TOWING a six-wheel-drive amphibious ATV Argo with a Zodiac rubber boat? They went too fast and filled the Argo up with water? Who was in charge of this brilliantly-conceived operation? Goodness, Darwin Awards for all, or just barely not apparently…
This is allfine, but, local media needs to be informed about these points. Specifacally those covered by the relevant university and the relevant Green MP (This is a quick comment – at work at moment )
Gail Combs says:
January 3, 2014 at 5:17 am
“There is a lot of truth in the saying “A conservative is a liberal that got mugged” Unfortunately academics and politicians are pretty much immune to the bite of reality.”
—-
Fully agreed, except that I don’t consider those to be “real” conservatives. Their memories tend to be short. A real conservative avoids being mugged 🙂
Anthony, get your snipping mouse warmed up. I am bursting with mirth and venom for the passengers on “The Ship of Fools” but I refuse to break out in laughter or scorn until the crew of the Russian ship and the Chinese Icebreaker are safe. I am saving my WUWT popcorn until that time. I’ve been a good boy for awhile and have not gotten snipped (spanked) in a while. When I finally bust loose about these unmitigated fools that will change.
steverishards suggsts: “What was lost here? Only time as I see it.”
The ship is not yet out of the ice as we write here, though, and may yet be holed and sunk by it.
@ OLD DATA, 2:52 am,
Washington Times, not Washington Post. Should also be the Washington Post but it’s not.
@Scute at 6:43 am
Was this the Guardian Video you mentioned? It is about 2/3 down in the current blog at “1.07pm GMT”
And this video shows the ship’s approach to Antarctica, when it was happily cutting through the ice “like a hot knife through butter”. with a date of Dec. 14 at some of it and a time lapse of the ship moving through the pack ice.
They had the audacity, the chutzpah to call this foolhardy stunt “The spirit of Mawson”? Mawson must be turning over in his grave.
Bruce Cobb says:
January 3, 2014 at 8:41 am
They had the audacity, the chutzpah to call this foolhardy stunt “The spirit of Mawson”? Mawson must be turning over in his grave.
******************************
Agreed Bruce. They have disgraced and brought shame on the name of Mawson. “The Spirit of Mawson” complains about narrow bunks and no peanut butter & banana milkshakes. I am quite disgusted.
Turney explains that Australia is responsible for rescue costs here: http://youtu.be/At0d_rcYljk (as a result of giving formal permission for the trip).
…All these videos are in danger of being wiped by the Guardian when they realise their significance to any enquiry and especially if they read this article on WUWT….
WHEN they read this…..
This reminded me of the several ships traversing the NorthWest Passage in 2013 that got trapped by an early closure. Most are wintering in
http://northwestpassage2013.blogspot.com/2013/08/canadian-arctic-blocked-with-sea-ice-at.html
Sept. 8: Counting down the days – Which yachts are fighting to escape an Arctic winter? Who will win? Who will lose?
http://northwestpassage2013.blogspot.com/2013/09/counting-down-days-which-yachts-are.html
Sept 15: It ain’t over till the fat lady sings – MAKE PLANS TO WINTER OVER IF STILL IN THE ARCTIC TODAY – THE FAT LADY IS SINGING
http://northwestpassage2013.blogspot.com/2013/09/it-aint-over-till-fat-lady-sings-make.html
I wonder how many lives and how much national wealth these over-smart fools have put at risk by needing to be rescued.
It does seem important to share this link with you. H/T to freetheCO2 on the Spectator…
Chris Turney discovers he is stuck in Antarctic ice…
Last weather report:
It’s so cold, that the climate fraudsters finally have their hands in their own pockets!
The minimum for Antarctica averages around February 22nd. Looking at the powder snow on the pack ice plus the record ice extent this year, suggests to me that this minimum date is going to be brought forward this year. They may only have 4- 5weeks before refreeze this year. Certainly, the “melt” slows down for several weeks before the minimum and these ships may be looking pretty much at the best conditions they are going to get.
@ Stephen Rasey at 8:38 am
I think it’s the one. Just to be sure,
it’s where he says “and loads and loads of this gorgeous white pack ice” 100 miles from the coast.
@ 2:45 it says they’re at 65 deg south (still 100 miles from the coast) and film 4-5 metre thick pack ice from the Zodiac dinghy.
@ 3:30 it shows their walking-pace progress through such ice at 80% to 90% coverage which makes that last 100 miles a 3-day journey.
Just to corroborate the video narrative, Turney makes a blog entry on the same day:
Breaking ice – Sat 14th Dec
Posted by Robbie Turney,
Today I woke up to the ice. I was dreaming peacefully when a loud crack rang out and jolted me awake. I quickly went to the porthole and tore open the blinds to discover pack ice all around us.
The truth of the matter is that when Turney said they were “only two miles from open water”, he knew they weren’t two miles from open ocean. He was careful to choose his words- the “open water” was the ice-clear area of the polynya which he and others regularly referred to. Behind that, to the north, was the hundred miles of very closely spaced and thick pack ice documented above. And to the east there was 400 square km of pure 100% pack ice as documented by the satellite image in Turney’s 30th December blog entry (depicted in the 20th December image, to the west of the Mertz glacier). One or both of these sources of ice closed up the polynya (depicted as blue and yellow/green) and trapped the Shokalskiy.
Alok Jha obviously didn’t realise that in order to cut through 4 metre ice “like a knife through butter” these giant slabs can’t be locked together in one mass- and to be locked together in one mass needed just one blizzard from the right direction. He found that out on the 24th.
Turney’s 30th December 2013 blog entry is here (shows different date due to keeping at the top as a sticky):
http://www.spiritofmawson.com/one-week-on/
In this post, Turney blames pack ice to the east and south of the former Mertz glacier area and in an interview elsewhere attributes this area of new pack ice drifting west to Global Warming due to the missing glacier not protecting Commonwealth bay from easterly winds pushing such ice into the bay. This section of pack ice probably did move west as well and shunt up against the bigger chunk to the west. But it was incidental to the initial trapping of the ship.
For the entire duration of their stay in theCommonwealth Bay area they were in the polynya, 100 miles from open ocean and one blizzard away from a 1000 square km pack ice lock-down.
While much attention is rightly being paid to this farce in the Antarctic we should spare a moment to look over the the Arctic again. There, despite the much smaller than expected melt last summer the refreeze this winter is now at the lowest recently recorded, so next summer could be a substantial melt.
The winds and tides that have given the US and Canada a fiercely cold winter, have ironically made for milder conditions in much of the Arctic
What! Christmas Turkey has been shown to be lying!!! never!! they do such things? do they?
large measure’s of Sarcasm where produced in the typing of this Comment!!
(thanks to OLD DATA at 2:52am today)
AGW is dead. Always (unlike the parrot) has been. Always will be.
“… not dead, it’s {just pausin’}.” Con artists are a l1e (and a laugh) a minute. (and some of them would prefer to be cutting trees for a living and will, if you press them, tell you so…)
LOL.
@Janice. Thank you for your kind words. No offense taken. I am posting from my Phone d’i this time. Apologies to mods if this goes wrong. And please do delete the first copy of poem. I must think of a title.
I know. “The Vacation of Chris Turney”
Patrick linked to the article about Mortimer being “more sober”. Here’s a takeaway quote from that link-
“Mortimer said it was amazing to fly across the extensive sea ice pack that had formed around their ship since they became stuck on Christmas Day, five nautical miles (nine kilometres) from the ice edge.
On Thursday the ship was 22 nautical miles (40 kilometres) from the ice edge.
“All that ice has blown in, in the past week. And it’s big, multi-year ice under enormous pressure,” he said.
“A catastrophic event has taken place in the last week, and we were party to that,” he said.
Aurora captain Murray Doyle said the ice conditions around the Mertz Glacier were typical of the past few years.
“Since the Mertz Glacier was punched out by the B9 [iceberg] some years ago, it has changed the whole dynamics of the area,” he said.
Significant sized floes were now building up year after year, he said.”
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/antarctic-expedition-leader-relieved-but-sad-to-leave-russian-ship-20140103-308wx.html#ixzz2pNClvzZi
*******
#1-Mortimer SHOULD be sad…and very sick to his stomach. HIS COMPANY chartered the SHIP!!!
#2-Mortimer says “Catastrophic event “…Aurora’s Captain Doyle says “typical ice conditions”.
No matter what these people say, the people who work the area (rather than just rent party ships to visit it to get their name attached to Mawsons) KNOW this is not abnormal, not catastrophic, not a freak incident. The ONLY ONES who were surprised here are the SCIENTISTS.
PS Thanks Janice (I love your posts too!) and Chris. I’ve always loved a good mystery. Its fabulous to see WUWT leading the way on the real facts about this trip.
“Ship of Fools”. I’ve read it and used it as a figure of speech.
A “figure of speech” is not literal but is used to communicate the “literal” more truly than a simple statement of the literal. (i.e. “The ground is dry.” vs “The ground is thirsty.”)
Now I’m not sure in which category “Ship of Fools” belongs.
(Captain and crew excluded.)
“Gunga Din says:
January 3, 2014 at 2:26 pm
“Ship of Fools”. I’ve read it and used it as a figure of speech.
A “figure of speech” is not literal but is used to communicate the “literal” more truly than a simple statement of the literal. (i.e. “The ground is dry.” vs “The ground is thirsty.”)
Now I’m not sure in which category “Ship of Fools” belongs.
(Captain and crew excluded.)”
How about “Cargo of Tools” , since they were passengers and CAGW syncophants?
And there ain’t even rum in that “port ‘o call!” What a bunch of lightweights.
@ Aphan — thanks! That’s really nice to know. Thanks for taking the time to say so.
@ Mrs. Beardsley — whew. Thanks. Yes, that’s a good title. How about this little tweak to make the meter match the original: “The Vacation of Chris Ter Nee¹” (¹ phonetic spelling of Turney)? And, of course, a scrivener’s “error” or two turning it into Ter Kee, heh, heh.
John says:
January 3, 2014 at 11:30 am
While much attention is rightly being paid to this farce in the Antarctic we should spare a moment to look over the the Arctic again. There, despite the much smaller than expected melt last summer the refreeze this winter is now at the lowest recently recorded, so next summer could be a substantial melt.
John, the refreezing is about the same as last year, so potentially we can expect a similar “substantial” melt as 2013 was, or even less with more multi-year ice existing now – much to the chagrin of the warmista.
Frankly I do not see anything spectacular or remarkable in it, but that’s just my 2 cent.
I understand the ocean as driving the climate, and with more open waters in winter in the north, the ocean must be cooling. Only with already cold ocean we would see more ice building up, but fortunately we are not there yet.
I think that what the last years showed is that there is no “death spiral” in the arctic.
Hi Anthony
In response to your question:
Did the sightseeing excursion …cause delays that caused the ship to be trapped in rapidly changing weather which closed the sea ice around them?
I understand directly from the ship that the tourism activities on the 23rd meant that a significant number of passengers were actually out of radio contact range, causing an eight hour delay from when the Captain insisted on departing until they were ready to do so. During this time the four miles of ice moved in around the ship.
This is going to come out over the next days or weeks, which will show that Prof. Turney has been lying by omission by simply blaming the sudden change in weather. He should have copped it on the chin and admitted to the stuff up straight away. His actions are turning this from a stuff up into deception – from a slap on the wrist to a pink slip.
Remember, in that period, we know that one tourist fell into a dangerous tidal crack. It now appears she may have been out of radio range when that happened. If it was a geography school excursion, the teacher would need to give a full incident report. Pretending it didn’t happen makes this more serious.
The Commonwealth’s insurers will be asking all these questions of the UNSW’s insurers pretty soon. It’s probably time for UNSW’s lawyers to tell Prof. Turney to either tell the whole truth or pull his head in.
RED ALERT. RED ALERT !
The Akademik Shokalski is back in Bluff New Zealand, BUT and this is hard to believe, another expedition compagny is boarding the ship for a trip to the Ross Sea region, that is the deep South of Antarctica. They will visit amongst other McMurdo Station and Scott’s hutt. For all I know that is 77 to 78° South. Mc Murdo sounds is even in Summer a frozen Ice sea, with thik sea ice, only an icebreaker can work it’s way through. The Polar Star is on it’s way to McMurdo now to open up a channel for resupply of the Antarctic stations in this region.
The Shokalski is an ice strenghtened vessel, that should never go further south than the Peninsula.
Can anyone stop these fools ? Or can we await another rescue operation in an even more hazardous envirment !