Personal experience, between 1966 and 1969, of work and life on Halley Bay, a British Antarctic Survey Base, approx 75degrees South and 800 miles from the South Pole, in Antarctica.
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Hello, My name is Keith J Gainey.......but that is not the important part. The Important part is this journey South........deep South.

 
In 1966 I joined the British Antarctic Survey as Radar Technician at a base in the South Polar region (Antarctica). The Base is named Hally Bay approx 75degrees south.
I would like to take you on the journey that covered the 2 years and 5 months from departing to returning. 
The journey starts from Southampton, England in October 1966 aboard the R.R.S John Biscoe and goes across the Atlantic Ocean, down the coast of South America to the Falklands Islands, then into the Antarctic Peninsular and finally to the British Antarctic base at Halley Bay. The stay on the base will be for 2 years before departing and travelling back to Southampton, England arriving in March 1969.
 

Attached to the metereological department -my duties involved the operation and maintenance of a Wind Tracking Radar (named WF1 and WF2) which tracked the flight of the daily release of a weather balloon, maintenance of the metereology office instruments, radio and "valve computer"  - Rank Cintel - used for downloading information transmitted by the weather balloon (temperature, pressure and humidity). The information was used daily to plot the winds at ground levels up to the height that the weather balloon reached before going "pop". The daily information was then sent to weather stations around the South Atlantic to aid shipping etc.

 

During 1967 and 1968 a new base Halley II was constructed at Halley Bay some 3 miles closer inland than the original one. the scientific persons comprising of meterologists, geo-physicists, ionophysicists remained housed in Hally I for the year 19667 and moved into Halley II in early 1968. The building crew erected and housed themselves in Hally II during the construction period of 1967.

 

The pictures of my journey and experiences show the travelling to and from Antarctica as well as everyday life aboard ships and on the bases.

 This site is currently under construction, but once completed it will hold slide shows and pictures of my

"Journey South" 

 

Many photographs of the Antarctic have been taken by much more professional photographers than me. I apologise for the quality of some of these pictures I am displaying on this web site, but they have been taken using a very cheap 35mm camera and the majority were taken as slides. The slides have been carefully scanned into my computer, but after over 40 years of storage some have deteriorated.

 

The site comprises of:-

           History and Links

                  a brief history of Halley Bay (started in the International Geophysical Years 1957/58) and links to other various

                  webpages associated with The Pengwinge

           Slide shows

                   a number of slide shows depicting various stages of the 2 years

           Trip onto the Ice Shelf

             Diary of a Glacialogy trip from the Floating ice shelf onto the ice land mass to study glacial movements, snow acumulation. A trip that was planned for 10-12 days but took 28 days

           Visit the  Site Map for detailed information regarding what is on The Pengwinge

 

WHY THE NAME PENGWINGE?    THIS WAS THE NAME OF THE NEWSLETTER WHICH 3 OF US PRODUCED WEEKLY DURING 1968 IT PROVIDED NEWS, INFORMATION AND THE FOOTBALL SCORES - ISSUED ON SATURDAY NIGHTS AT THE WEEKLY GET TOGETHER DINNER/FILM SHOW AND RELAXATION IN HALLEY BAY

 

 

 

 

Guitars in The Antarctic

Click on picture