Medivacs
Medivacs (medical evacuations) are an unfortunate but thankfully occasional outcome of living and working in isolation in difficult environments at the three SANAP bases. There have been a number of such medivacs over the years for reasons of injury (e.g. a seal bite at Gough Island, a snapped aerial cable penetrating an eye at Marion Island), illness (e.g. a case of tuberculosis at Marion in the last few years) and even because of a pregnancy following an island conception. Yet there seems to have been no real attempt by anyone to gather information on all these incidents together, not only for the historical record but also to inform medical practices.
ALSA aims to rectify this as much as it can without access to confidential medical records, starting with the following account from the early days at Marion Island.
Koot Kruger and the Protea
In October 1952 K51 SAS Protea (o/c Commander Roderick Tretherwy ‘Roddy’ Tripp, 26.09.09-28.11.82) visited Marion Island to undertake a medivac of J.C.Y “Koot” Kruger (Meteorologist, Marion 9th Overwintering Team) who was suffering from appendicitis (also described as a “kidney complaint”). Kruger was replaced by H. Laurie Malherbe, who must have sailed south on the Protea on its “mercy dash” – as it was called in the press at the time. Because of her limited range the Protea left from and returned to Port Elizabeth. the closest South African port to Marion Island. Even so, she returned with only 15 tons of fuel remaining and had to use sea water in her boilers on her way home.
SAS Protea was a 1340-ton Flower-class corvette of the South African Navy, previously named HMS Rockrose, as depicted above during the Second World War. She was completed in Bristol, UK on 26 July 1941 and transferred on 4 October 1947 to the South African Navy. She was converted to a hydrographic survey vessel, SAS Protea, in Durban during 1949 and recommissioned in February 1950 with Cmdr Trip RN as her Captain She was payed off into reserve in January 1957 and finally broken up for scrap in Table Bay Docks in 1967. SAS Protea was the third (and second hydrographic) South African vessel to bear the name. A fourth Protea is currently serving as South Africa’s hydrographic vessel – and has been to the Prince Edward Islands more than once. This latest vessel is now due for retirement and replacement in turn.
More details of Kruger’s medivac will be welcomed. A photo of Koot Kruger is particularly desired, as he does not appear in his team photo, taken after he had left the island.
South African Naval Museum photographs by Warrant Officer Len Mahood, courtesy of Warrant Officer David Harrison.
John Cooper, Principal Investigator, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, 26 December 2015
Great historic document