Team photographs at South Africa’s three SANAP bases get taken shortly before the teams are relieved. In pre-digital camera days this usually meant that black and white photos were developed and printed on the island for framing and mounting, even though colour pictures may also have been taken at the time – at least from the 1960s.
ALSA is now coming across colour versions of team photos, as shown earlier on this website for Marion Island’s 35th Overwintering Team of 1978/79 (click here). Another such example has come to light for Marion’s 41st Team (March 1984 – May 1985), courtesy of Jan Blackie, who was visiting the island with the then South African Weather Bureau in September 1984 ( Marion Second Annual Relief, S.A. Agulhas Voyage No. 35).
ALSA plans to print and label these two colour team photographs to replace the black & white ones currently displayed in the new base on the island. It is also working to “fill in the gaps” as it finds team photos from the early days prior to their loss when Marion House burnt down in 1966 (click here). A reply from Southern Oceans & Antarctic Support of the Department of Environmental Affairs is now awaited as to whether it will be able supply the necessary new frames in time to be aboard the S.A. Agulhas II when it departs on this year’s annual relief voyage on 7 April. Here’s hoping!
The featured photograph of M41 (March 1984 – May 1985) was taken in front of the crane on Gunner’s Point by Jan A. Blackie in September 1984 when the Medical Orderlies changed over.
Back from left:
Jan E. Crafford (Entomologist), William K. Steele (Ornithological Assistant), Mark Banfield (Medical Orderly, July-September 1984), John Stephenson (Diesel Mechanic, Deputy Leader from July), Dave Ashton (Radio Technician), Peter d’Abreton (Senior Meteorologist) , Justin M.W.G. Cook (Meteorologist), Johan van der Merwe (Medical Orderly, September 1984 – May 1985), Jules Marschal (Radio Operator), Dr Steve Hunter (Ornithologist), Louis du Plessis (Meteorologist)
Front from left:
Nigel J. Adams (Ornithologist), Charles A. “Jug” Gilbert (Ornithological Assistant), Chris R. Brown (Birder), Ernst Rossouw (Deputy Leader, Leader from July 1984, Meteorologist), Greg Espitalier-Noel (Ornithological Assistant), Anton Hunt (Mammalogist), Pete Bartlett (Mammalogist)
Note: Graham Clarke, the Original Team Leader/Medical Orderly, was medically evacuated from the island on the S.A.S. Protea in July 1984. See his insert picture in the BxW team photo here as it appears framed on the island.
With thanks to Jan Blackie.
John Cooper, Principal Investigator, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, 28 February 2016