British Antarctic Survey opens doors for 75-year milestone

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) are celebrating.

It has been 75 years since Operation Tabarin in 1943 established the first permanently occupied base in Antarctica, explains BAS archive manager Ieuan Hopkins.

“It was a naval expedition,” he tells me when I visited BAS’s Madingley Road HQ. “It was led by Lt James Marr, a naval commander in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, and a few other navy types, and it was overseen by the Secretary of State for the Colonies via the governor of the Falkland Islands. The Admiralty was involved.”

The team landed on the continent in late 1943 and built the Base A on Port Lockroy in February 1944.

It was the first permanent UK scientific presence in the Antarctic. But what was their purpose?

Ieuan explains: “There’s a bit of debate about that, but at the start the stated purpose was to deny the enemy [Germany, Japan] safe anchorage, monitor shipping in the area, get meteorological data and also to do science – some geology and surveying. There was a marine biologist and a botanist on board. Lieutenant Marr himself was a marine zoologist.

“They went to reinforce British rights on the continent of Antarctica, but they couldn’t tell the Americans about it because they’d be upset about our ongoing colonial aspirations…”

Hopefully, that’s water under the bridge now.

Today, Port Lockroy is no longer an active base: it’s run by UKAHT, a team led by chief executive Camilla Nichol.

“Port Lockroy has a team of five to run it as a visitor site, monitor the penguin colony and sell stamps!” Camilla explains, one day before she sets off for the base for a series of site inspections. “One of the first things they did in 1944 was open a post office – to establish sovereignty and to communicate. Nowadays we use tourist vessels rather than supply vessels. The base receives 18,000 visitors between November and March. It hasn’t been a wintering base since 1962.”

UKAHT took over management of the base as a living museum in 1996.

“1990 was the time when tourism started up. In 1996 Base A was designated a site of historic interest. BAS gets on with the science, and UKAHT are custodians under a memorandum of understanding with BAS.”

The 75th anniversary of Operation Tabarin is an opportunity for the organisations to tell the world about the ongoing work at the bottom of the world, and was marked with a celebration at BAS headquarters last Thursday.

“We called it Tabarin day,” confirms Ieuan, “with talks about the operation, a film, guest speaker, quiz, cake, questions and a tour of the archives.”

New material about Operation Tabarin is also being released online, via the BAS website, including photos, films and reports recently inscribed onto the UNESCO Memory of the World UK Register.

Camilla adds: “We’re also doing ‘75 facts’ on Twitter @AntarcticHT, Facebook and Instagram – one a day from February 7, which is when they started building the huts while they were still on the ships.”

Restoration work that began in 1996, when UKAHT supported the British Antarctic Survey and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office to return the base to its working condition, has paid off handsomely.

“It’s now one of the most popular sites in Antarctica,” says Camilla. “It’s so remote yet familiar. It’s been restored to its 1950s condition, the brands are recognisable on the shelves. It’s a time capsule. It’s brightly painted inside, there’s murals, a bar and a gramophone. We work together with BAS in continuing the legacy.”

The history is also kept alive at BAS.

There, Ieuan shows me a map of the continent: it is busy with Russian, French, Italian, Australian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Argentinian, German, the Netherlands, Chilean, Ukranian and Canadian bases as well as the British ones.

There are two archive rooms. Both are cooled, where you can study the records without gloves.

“As long as you don’t touch the documents for too long,” notes Ieuan. “Gloves put the documents at more risk.”

They get a lot of enquiries, of the ‘my grandfather was in Antarctica in the 1950s, do you have any record of him?’ variety. There is also historic scientific data, which is useful for researchers.

With over 50,000 items in his care, and 1.3km of shelving, Ieuan has to be at the top of his game. Fortunately he was at the V&A – “the Museum of Childhood” – before he joined BAS six years ago.

I turn through some reports of new species being discovered, written on a typewriter. The work rate involved is pretty incredible, though I suspect there was not much by way of distraction.

Ieuan talks about the crew with the sort of respect rightly due to authentic heroes.

“James Marr, the expedition commander in the first season, had been with Shackleton, who led three expeditions in the Antarctic,” he says.

“He was the boy scout on the 1920-21 expedition, Shackleton’s last. He was a marine biologist so he had gone south with the 1929 BANZARE (British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition) and the Discovery Investigations in the 1930s.”

Andrew Taylor of the Royal Canadian Engineers took command in February 1945 and set up the base at Hope Bay.

BAS is home to 400 people “which varies seasonally as people are away in Antarctica”. Today, it is of course a leading light in scientific research in the polar regions, including the current Thwaites Glacier mission (more above) which has now commenced its work measuring ice flows.

From its wartime origins, it has blossomed to be a world-respected authority at the heart of a Cambridge hub that includes UKAHT, Scott Polar Research Institute and the International Whaling Commission. This unique collection of organisations has much to celebrate – and lots more work to do.

“All the huts are on a small island, so significant sea rises are going to be a big problem,” concludes Camilla. “You see it most on the peninsula, it’s a glacial Alpine environment, so you can see the ice is hundreds and hundreds of metres further back from where it was.”

The first 75 years have secured an indelible legacy: here’s to the next 75.

Find out more on Operation Tabarin here, or find out more about the ‘75 days’ posts here.