| Introducing Mystery Class #8 Port Lockroy, Goudier Island, Antarctica 64.82500 S, 63.49416 W |
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Hello from the team at Base A, Port Lockroy in Antarctica! |
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| Where We Are Base A is located on Goudier Island which is in Port Lockroy. This site was originally chosen because it offers a secure anchorage for ships, protecting them from the worst of the Antarctic weather. As you can see, Goudier Island is quite small - you can walk around it in about half an hour! |
Goudier Island |
How We (and our supplies) Get Here |
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Unloading cargo from Zodiac in good weather
Unloading cargo in blizzard |
| Base A Base A at Port Lockroy was the first permanent British base in Antarctica (and so given the first letter of the alphabet), and it was built during a secret Second World War mission code-named Operation Tabarin in January 1944. After the Second World War it continued on as a science base, and became the first of many British science bases around Antarctica. In 1962 the base was closed and the research moved to other more modern bases. |
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Front door of Base A |
| The Museum The museum at Port Lockroy gives visitors an idea of what it was like to live and work on an Antarctic science base in the 1950s. The science carried out at Port Lockroy included investigating radio communications and atmospheric conditions that might affect these; and meteorology – although it was discovered later on that Port Lockroy has its own localised atmospheric conditions meaning readings taken at Port Lockroy did not accurately reflect the neighbourhood’s weather. |
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(Port Lockroy during the 1950s showing aerials for ionospheric work |
| Restoration, Maintenance and Conservation After it was closed in 1962, Base A fell into disrepair. In 1996, a team from the British Antarctic Survey worked at Port Lockroy for nine weeks, cleaning out the rubbish and penguin guano (poo) and restoring Bransfield House to its former glory. Since then, every year a small team works at Base A during the Antarctic summer and carries out maintenance and conservation work, to ensure that the building stays in a good condition and can weather the next Antarctic winter. |
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| Other Residents of Goudier Island Whilst open as a working science base, Port Lockroy was also home to a variety of pets, including Eddie the sledge dog, Dizzy the cat and Peso the dog. In 1994, all non-native animals were banned from Antarctica so as to protect the natural environment. Today, it is a colony of breeding Gentoo penguins that keeps the staff company on the island. First arriving sometime in the mid-1980s, when the base was still closed, there are now around 550 mating pairs of penguins that return to the island every summer to breed. |
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Visiting Port Lockroy |
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| Counting Penguins One of our favourite jobs at Port Lockroy is monitoring the penguins. We do this to make sure that our presence, and all of the visitors to the island, does not affect the breeding success of the penguins, and so far our results confirm that the human presence has had no effect on this. Three times over the summer we conduct a count of all of the nests and eggs, then of the chicks, and finally of the larger chicks. As you can imagine, this is quite challenging as the penguins move around while we are trying to count them! |
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| Where We Live The Nissen Hut was first built in 1944 as a storehouse and emergency refuge, but collapsed after the base was closed in 1962. After the base was restored in 1996, staff used to live in the museum. This meant that they had to pack up all of their belongings every day before visitors arrived, and that wasn’t very good for the building or artefacts. In 2010 a reconstruction of the Nissen Hut was built to provide staff accommodation. It is surprisingly cosy, with a kitchen, bedroom, lounge and bathroom, although there is no running water and the team have to share the one bedroom. |
Photo Credit:UKAHT, Tudor Morgan |
| Communication with family and friends When Port Lockroy was open as a science base, the only forms of communication were by using VHF radio – which only worked over short distances, HF radio between stations, wireless telegraphy using Morse code and by post. Post could only be delivered and collected by ship during the summer months when the sea was not frozen. Today, we are lucky to have a satellite phone and email connection, meaning that we can make calls to our friends and family at home and send emails. Post, however, still comes and goes by ship. |
Photo Credit:UKAHT, Rachel Morgan |
| Food Our food at Port Lockroy is mostly based on tinned and dried foods, as these can be stored and shipped from the UK. However, we are lucky in that visiting cruise ships will often give us "freshies" – fresh food such as fruit, eggs and bread which are seen as a real treat! Living off mostly tinned and dried food can at times be challenging, but we still manage to make some amazing meals…even this pie! |
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Leisure Time |
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Flag & Farewell |
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