Thesaurus

Kista Dan

Fred Elliott, Kista Dan, 5 Feb 1954
Pen and wash on paper

The story behind this picture involves the leader of the 1954 ANARE Expedition and the Captain of the Kista Dan. Leaders and Captains J.K.Davis and Mawson are good examples, especially on the first BANZARE trip, but the Filchner and Capt Vahsel confrontation wins on the body count!

Possibly the Petersen - Law affair arose partly from Petersen's refusal to allow his officers to con the ship in ice, thus wasting valuable sailing time both in leasing time and cost and the need to place the Dovers party at Horseshoe Harbour as soon as possible, for the season was coming to an end. Time had already been lost at Kerguelen because inclement weather delayed the watering of the ship and later on more when it became beset for four days in fast ice. Horseshoe Harbour was not reached until Feb5th.

New ice was forming when we left Mawson on Feb 23rd.

Law was keen to get accurate astro-fixes at salient points on the coast to help tie-in the aerial photographic run taken by the Americans during their "Operation Highjump", as well as magnetic observations. Possibly the showing of the flag came into it as well.

The Scullin Monolith landing was thwarted by ice conditions so Law decided to try to reach the Westfold Hills.Petersen objected on the grounds that it was too late in the season to venture south again, and also he did not think that the charter covered poking around in uncharted waters.

Law contacted the owners who told Petersen to do as Law requested, so in we went.

After competing the necessary observations and flag unfurling, we sailed for home on March 4th. The empty Kista was riding high in the bows, but attempts to trim her were thwarted by the pumps freezing up.

It was a wild night with hurricane force winds taking control of the ship which broached, drifting downwind. She had a thirty degree list to port with a further forty degree roll from there. It would hang over at that angle then gradually come up, only to be knocked down again. It was a bit chaotic up in the fo'castle, so I thought it might be interesting down aft. Two of us opened the door of the fo'castle, saw the port wing of the bridge lying in the water so decided if we were going to drown we might as well be warm, so went back to bed.

At 2 a.m. the Auster on its platform on the stern broke a float strut and fouled one of the lifeboats. The Second Mate, Bill Peterson, cut it loose and it went overboard. Bill was sprayed with freezing AVGAS. Because of the list the engine room the water intake was vulnerable to being choked with brash ice. It was a serious situation: the only way to avoid the many icebergs in the area was to crab past them by going ahead or astern, so water intake had to be kept clear.

The task was given to the Fourth Engineer, who spent a terrifying night in a confine space. He helped save the ship, but the stress was so great that, according to Bill Peterson, that he never went to sea again. Apart from losing the Auster and the unfortunate state of the engineer, the only other damage was a hole in one of the forward fuel tanks.

As we used to say "She was rugged mate. No survivors!"

Fred Elliott, Weather observer with the Australian Antarctic Division, Heard Island (1953); Mawson (1954,1955,1958). Melbourne 2007