Martin's Antarctic Visit  
January 2004  

The building at the centre of the picture is the Crary Science and Engineering Center, the scientific heart of McMurdo Station. Simply known as the Crary Lab' it was opened in 1992 and replaced some dilapidated and inadeqaute science facilities that have since been demolished. The Crary Lab' contains offices, laboratories and freezers that are the temporary home of hundreds of scientists each year. It is a little oasis in the sense that only scientists and science support staff are allowed there, able to escape from the noise, dirt and general ugliness of McMurdo Station.

The first people known to have set foot on land at the present site of McMurdo Station were the members of the British "Discovery Expedition" of 1901-03 led by Captain Robert F. Scott. About 25 men (Naval officers and enlisted men, and civilians) spent two winters in the small hut in the lower right corner of this picture. On this occasion Scott failed to reach the South Pole, but the suffering didn't deter him from trying again 10 years later, when he and three companions died needlessly after reaching the pole.

The ship to the left of Scott's Hut is the "Nathaniel B.Palmer". It is a research vessel icebreaker that has been part of the U.S. Antarctic Program since 1992. Owned and operated by Edison Chouest Offshore of Galliano, Louisiana, it is on long term charter to the U.S. Antarctic Program. I have made six voyages aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer to study sea ice in the Ross, Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas. While it was in port a few days ago we visited the ship and met some old friends, and were reminded of some fantastic experiences we have enjoyed in the pack ice of the Soutehrn Ocean.

This modern ship, docked just below McMurdo Station, provides quite a contrast with the old Scott's Hut. One wonders what Scott and other explorers who passed this way many years ago would make of the site today if they could return to see it in this age of powerful icebreakers, helicopters, jet aircraft, computers, satellite telecommunications and navigation, and central heating.

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