blown through the ice with 40- pound shaped charges, from its northern 

 limit to the center of the bay. 



Leaving Little America V on 8 November 1956, after passing the 

 western entrance to the Bay of VJhales, a course of 300°T was set 

 which brought the ship to the edge of the pack ice at about 76°S, 

 175°E (Fig. 21). The water from Kainan Bay to this point was open 

 except for some thin, new ice and grease ice. At 175°E the ship's 

 head was turned due north and this approximate longitude was followed 

 during the passage throi;igh the Ross Sea pack ice. The ice encountered 

 continued to be new and thin. In places it had been rafted, but other- 

 wise was not more than four to six inches thick, with a light covering 

 of snow. On 10 November the ice became slightly heavier at about 

 74°45'S; a patch of consolidated ice one to three feet thick was passed 

 through only after some backing and ramming. Further north wide leads 

 extended in all directionso More heavy ice was encountered on the 

 afternoon of 11 November (between 69°12'S, and 68°50'S) retarding the 

 ship considerably. This pack was consolidated, three feet thick, 

 and with one foot of snow cover. The leads were few in number and very 

 irregular. The ship was forced to back and ram repeatedly to break 

 its way throiogh this ice. North of about 67°S however, only rotten ice, 

 one to two feet thick and with six inches of snow cover, was encountered, 

 offering little resistance. The northern edge of the pack ice was 

 left behind at 64°10'S, 175°04'E. A giant berg, 60 miles in length, 

 was encountered at this point. Relatively few bergs were encountered 

 along the ship' s track from Little America prior to this encounter, 



December - On the return trip from Port Lyttelton, New Zealand, 

 to McMurdo Sound, the first bergs were seen on radar at 0545 on 15 

 December, and by 1500 of that afternoon, growlers and bergs were visible 

 from the ship. The fringe of the pack ice was entered in the early 

 afternoon of 16 December at 65°32'S, 175°20'E (Fig. 22). The ice 

 concentration was only two-tenths and the thickness about one foot, 

 but five miles south of this point the concentration increased to seven- 

 tenths, and at 67°10'S, the coverage was eight-tenths. The thickness 

 remained about the same except for occasional blocks of older pack ice, 

 which were from three to four feet thick. By noon of the 17th the 

 concentration had increased to nine-tenths and the average thickness 

 was three to four feet, with a six- inch snow cover. Leads were 

 numerous. These conditions remained about the same until the morning 

 of the 18th at 70°S, where open water areas became more numerous and 

 the ice thinned to two feet, offering very little resistance. At 

 70°25'S, a five-mile stretch of nine-tenths concentration was passed 

 through, the ice being about four feet thick. From here on the ice 

 thinned out considerably, and at the edge of the pack, which was 

 reached at 2300 on the 18th at 72O09'S, 177°30'E, it was barely a foot 

 thick. 



41 



