Iced In

by Chris Turney

  I’m gently guided onto a lifeboat waiting by the side of the Australian vessel. Minutes later, the side arm of the Aurora Australis has lifted us up onto the main deck, and we’re guided into a warm canteen filled with people. The team are hugging all around me. Cheers and slaps on the back fill the room. I feel numb, uncomprehending of what’s happening around me. There are only three people I want to be with right now. I search the crowd desperately, seeking the ones I love.

  Suddenly, through the throng I make out the smiling, weary faces of Annette, Cara, and Robert across the room. The relief almost overwhelms me.

  Everyone is safe.

  EPILOGUE

  The lights sparkle in the darkness. It’s warm, very warm.

  I’m looking out from the top deck of the Aurora Australis as the Australian icebreaker makes its way slowly up the dark gray waters of the River Derwent in Tasmania. We should be at Hobart within the hour.

  It’s four o’clock in the morning, and a small group of us have gathered quietly on the top deck to watch the city’s approach. Only the lapping of the waves and the dull rumble of the engine vents break the silence. I catch a waft of eucalypt from the valley side. It’s the first time I’ve smelled a tree in over six weeks.

  Annette stands beside me. I reach out for her hand and she turns to me.

  “Nearly home,” I whisper.

  “I can’t wait,” she says, her eyes full of emotion.

  Nearby, Cara and Robert lean on the railings, pointing out features to one another as the ship moves up the channel.

  Together we’ve had an extraordinary journey.

  After our rescue, the Aurora Australis returned to Casey to finish the Antarctic base resupply before heading to Hobart. While at Casey, we learned the westerly winds Igor had been so adamant about finally arrived, releasing both the MV Akademik Shokalskiy and the Xue Long from their icy prisons. We roared and cheered when we received the news. I’m relieved to say the icebergs kept a healthy distance from both vessels during their escape.

  During the three weeks we’ve been on the Aurora Australis I’ve rested and reflected on all that’s happened. There’s been a lot to process. The Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013–2014 achieved so much. The team gathered a trove of data on many scientific fronts that promise new insights into how our planet works. Several major research papers have already been planned. The trees on Campbell Island and the Auckland Islands look like they will lead to the first century-long record of westerly winds in the southwest Pacific, while our survey of life on the New Zealand subantarctic sea floor will help future monitoring efforts of these precious archipelagos. From the Southern Ocean, we have some of the first measurements of ocean-mixing across the Antarctic Convergence, helping us understand the importance of this front in ocean circulation and global climate. Farther south, we have a greater knowledge of the impact of giant iceberg B09B on Antarctic Bottom Water formation and life in and around Commonwealth Bay. Excitingly, the rock samples taken across Cape Denison will provide the first direct age control on the changing shape of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet along a 1,500-mile stretch of coastline. These are just some of the many important research projects members of the expedition undertook while we were away. The next few years will be a busy time working it all up for publication.

  I feel fiercely proud of all we’ve achieved. There have been challenges, for sure, but I remain firm in my belief that engaging with the public, exciting people with all that we do, is critical for creating a modern, scientifically literate society. As scientists, we can do so much more to get everyone involved. Making discoveries is one of the most exhilarating of all experiences in life, but one we all too rarely share with others. Thanks to modern satellite technology, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013–2014 broadcast its science from the very edge of the world, sharing our work and findings in the spirit of the first expeditions south. The response has been positively overwhelming. If you’re a scientist, I can’t encourage you enough to tell your story and see where it takes you. I suspect you’ll be pleasantly surprised just how interested people are to learn more.

  Importantly, this expedition has also reminded me of things I’ve taken for granted in recent years. It’s shown me what teamwork can achieve. When all’s said and done, teamwork made it all possible. Operating in the Antarctic carries inherent risks, and we faced them together. Shackleton and the remarkable men on the Endurance inspired me tremendously in this. Their hard-won experiences remain as true today as a century ago, whether at sea, on the ice, or at home. Our expedition did not face nearly the same dangers—something for which I will be eternally grateful—but it was truly a team effort, and one in which I am honored to have played just a small part. Many of us were strangers at the start of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013–2014. Now, lifelong friendships have been forged.

  If I’m honest, though, the greatest lesson of all has come from my family. I’ve realized one unassailable fact: Without them I’m nothing.

  I’m never letting you go.

  I believe it is in our nature to explore, to reach out

  into the unknown. The only true failure would be

  not to explore at all.

  —SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON (1874–1922)

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I owe a tremendous debt to friends and mentors involved in the expedition. First and foremost, I am inexpressibly grateful to the fantastic team on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013–2014, and I must include here the Heritage staff of Nikki, Nicola, and Brad. We were incredibly fortunate to have such an amazing group of people on board. Few were what you’d describe as expeditioners when we set out, but they braved an intense experience with a level of courage and professionalism that I am in awe of. When everyone returned home, they spoke passionately about the pristine nature of the icescape, the wildlife, the remoteness. They’re true ambassadors for Antarctica in the very best sense of the word, testament to the power of the southern continent. It has been a privilege to be part of such a wonderful group of people.

  To Chris Fogwill, my co-leader—without your friendship, brilliant scientific insights, constant encouragement and support, and remarkable planning, I know we would never have made it to Cape Denison and through the other side.

  To Greg Mortimer for all your help and guidance during preparations and on the expedition—your years of experience helped steady all our nerves.

  To the indomitable crew of the MV Akademik Shokalskiy, particularly Captain Igor Kiselev, who were extraordinary in an extraordinary situation. You were astounding.

  To the wonderful crews of the Xue Long, the Aurora Australis, the Astrolabe, and the Australian Rescue Coordination Centre, who worked so selflessly to take us to safety, a huge, massive thank you. A big thanks also to the crews of the Polar Star and the Fedorov for agreeing to make the attempt if all else failed!

  The strong team spirit on the MV Akademik Shokalskiy would not have been possible without all our family, friends, team members, and sponsors at home. You’ll never know just how much all your reassurances helped those on board.

  I would like to express a huge debt of gratitude to my Dean, Professor Merlin Crossley, and Head of School, Associate-Professor David Cohen, at the University of New South Wales, for what they did, both publicly and behind the scenes. It made a world of difference. Chris and I were extremely fortunate when the university found a salary for Jonathan Pritchard to help with planning and administration. “Jono,” as his friends know him, was someone we relied on . . . a lot. How he dealt with the avalanche of forms, quotes, and payments I’ll never know. You’re the best, Jono!

  A heap of thanks to Leticia and Google Australia for supporting the idea of an Antarctic expedition prize for the Doodle4Google competition and helping us reach out to schools across Australia and New Zealand. To the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for sponsoring the competition prize. And to the National Film and Sound Archive (or NFSA for short) for reaching out during preparatio
ns and arranging for me to speak to thousands of school children across the country—you’re truly a marvelous institution.

  Alvin, you kept me sane managing all the media interest during those intense ten days; thanks to you, I still had time to do my day job on the ship. And you handled it all without hesitation or complaint during the Christmas–New Year holiday period. It was beyond the call of duty!

  Anthony Ditton kindly agreed to join us on the first leg. An outdoors enthusiast with awesome technology skills, he helped keep us connected when the equipment threatened to give up. With Ewan and Bec Horsburgh, he developed the brilliant website for the expedition (spiritofmawson.com) and kept it updated during our time in the Antarctic. Thanks, guys!

  An enormous thanks to Tim Shadbolt, the Mayor of Invercargill. Irrepressibly good-humored, Tim convinced us to make Bluff the departure point of the expedition. Invercargill is a wonderfully friendly, welcoming city. I can’t recommend it enough.

  Many thanks to Brent Bevan and his team at the Invercargill office of the New Zealand Department of Conservation. They helped us navigate the application forms to work on the New Zealand subantarctic islands. No question was too daft, no opportunity turned down. It was a breath of fresh air during preparations for the expedition. To Ed Butler, who was at Antarctica New Zealand and kindly provided the Field Operations Guides and First Aid documentation; it was all incredibly useful. I would also like to thank the Australian Antarctic Division for turning around the mountain of permits we submitted for the expedition in a timely and efficient manner, and for the daily weather and weekly sea-ice reports they sent before and during the expedition; they were a tremendous help. Thanks also to Rob Easther for the months of liaison with the Australian Antarctic Division over field operations and permitting; it helped a huge amount, and I know it kept Chris sane!

  Our sponsors made a big difference. We had support from the wonderful people at meteoexploration.com, Argo Australia, Macpac, Skycom, Labwarehouse, Ultimate Positioning, Newton Microscopes, and Inmarsat. A large part of the oceanographic program wouldn’t have been possible without the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The universities of Wisconsin, Exeter, Waikato, and Landcare Research all provided much-needed equipment and ideas. Without you, the science program just wouldn’t have happened.

  The writing of this book was far from the cathartic experience I had hoped it would be. I’m incredibly grateful to all those who read early drafts and made invaluable comments and suggestions, particularly Chris, Eleanor, and Annette, for whom the return journey was far from easy. My agent Peter McGuigan, the team at Foundry Literary + Media, and Bret Witter helped make this book immeasurably better, giving essential advice and guidance from the start. Without your fantastic support, I’m not sure I would have ever written it. To Michaela Hamilton, Chris Fortunato, and all the lovely people at Kensington Books in New York; Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein in London; Ben Ball, Jeremy Sherlock, and Beth Patch at Penguin Australia, and editor Hilary Reynolds, for their support and insightful, sensitive input—it made a world of difference. Any mistakes of course remain wholly mine.

  And last but not least, to my beautiful wife Annette and my wonderful children Cara and Robert, thank you for being by my side through everything. We shared an incredible adventure together and made it back safe, stronger than ever. I’m so sorry it was more exciting than we’d planned, but I really couldn’t have done it without you. I love you all so very much.

  SOURCES

  Expedition Papers and Associated Articles

  Clark, G., Marzinelli, E., Fogwill, C.J., Turney, C.S.M., Johnston, E., 2015. Effects of sea-ice cover on marine benthic communities: a natural experiment in Commonwealth Bay, East Antarctica. Polar Biology 38, 1213–1222.

  Fogwill, C.J., van Sebille, E., Cougnon, E.A., Turney, C.S.M., Rintoul, S.R., Galton-Fenzi, B.K., Clark, G.F., Marzinelli, E.M., Rainsley, E.B., Carter, L. 2016. Impacts of a developing polynya off Commonwealth Bay, East Antarctica, triggered by grounding of iceberg B09B. The Cryosphere 10, 2603-2609.

  Palmer, J.G., Turney, C.S.M., Fogwill, C., Fenwick, P., Thomas, Z., Lipson, M., Jones, R.T., Beavan, B., Richardson, S., Wilmshurst, J. 2017. Growth response of an invasive alien species to climate variations on subantarctic Campbell Island. New Zealand Journal of Ecology.

  Phipps, S.J., Fogwill, C.J., Turney, C.S.M. 2016. Impacts of marine instability across the East Antarctic Ice Sheet on Southern Ocean dynamics. The Cryosphere 10, 2317-2328.

  Rainsley, E., Turney, C.S.M., Golledge, N.R., Wilmshurst, J.M., McGlone, M.S., Hogg, A.G., Thomas, Z.A., Flett, V., Palmer, J.G., Jones, R.T., de Wet, G., Hutchinson, D.K., Lipson, M.J., Fenwick, P., Hines, B.R., Binetti, U., Fogwill, C.J. In review. Late Pleistocene glacial history of the New Zealand subantarctic islands. Quaternary Research.

  Turney, C. 2014. This was no Antarctic pleasure cruise. Nature 505, 133.

  Turney, C., Fogwill, C., Palmer, J., van Sebille, E., Thomas, Z., McGlone, M., Richardson, S., Wilmshurst, J., Fenwick, P., Zunz, V., Goosse, H., Wilson, K.-J., Carter, L., Lipson, M., Jones, R., Harsch, M., Clark, G., Marzinelli, E., Rogers, T., Rainsley, E., Ciasto, L., Waterman, S., Thomas, E.R. and Vis-beck, M. 2017. Tropical forcing of increased Southern Ocean climate variability revealed by a 140-year subantarctic temperature reconstruction. Climate of the Past 13, 231-248, doi: 10.5194/cp-13-231-2017.

  Turney, C.S.M., Klekociuk, A., Fogwill, C.J., Zunz, V., Goosse, H., Parkinson, C.L., Compo, G.P., Lazzara, M., Keller, L., Allan, R., Palmer, J.G., Clark, G. and Marzinelli, E. In review. Changing mid-twentieth century Antarctic sea ice variability linked to tropical forcing. The Cryosphere Discussions.

  Turney, C.S.M., McGlone, M., Palmer, J., Fogwill, C., Hogg, A., Lipson, M., Thomas, Z., Wilmshurst, J., Fenwick, P., Jones, R., Hones, B. and Clark, G. 2016. Intensification of Southern Hemisphere westerly winds 2000 to 1000 years ago: Evidence from the subantarctic Auckland and Campbell Islands (50–52S). Journal of Quaternary Science 31, 12–19.

  Turney, C.S.M., Palmer, J., Hogg, A., Fogwill, C.J., Jones, R., Ramsey, C., Fenwick, P., Grierson, P., Wilmshurst, J., O’Donnell, A., Thomas, Z., and Lipson, M. 2016. Multi-decadal variations in Southern Hemisphere atmospheric 14C: Evidence against a Southern Ocean sink during the Little Ice Age CO2 anomaly. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 30, doi: 10.1002/2015GB005257.

  Tynan, E., 2016. Oceanography: Changing icescapes. Nature Geoscience 9, 869-869.

  van Sebille, E., Waterman, S., Barthel, A., Lumpkin, R., Keating, S.R., Fogwill, C. and Turney, C. 2015. Pairwise surface drifter dispersion in the western Pacific Sector of the Southern Ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research—Oceans 120, 6769-6781, doi: 10.1002/2015JC010972.

  Wilmshurst, J.M., McGlone, M.S. and Turney, C.S.M. 2015. Integrating pollen and historical records to trace the invasion of a tree daisy (Olearia lyallii) on subantarctic Auckland Islands. Annals of Botany Plants 7, doi: 10. 1093/aobpla/plv1 04.

  Wilson, K.-J., Barthel, A., Lipson, M., Fogwill, C. and Turney, C. In review. New breeding records and other observations of seabirds on Auckland Islands, Campbell Island and The Snares. Ornithological Society of New Zealand.

  Wilson, K.-J., Turney, C., Fogwill, C., Blair, E. and Hunter, J. 2016. The impact of the giant iceberg B09B on population size and breeding success of Adélie penguins in Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica. Antarctic Science, doi: 10.1017/S0954102015000644.

  Wilson, K.-J., Turney, C., Fogwill, C. and Hunter, J. 2015. Low numbers and apparent long-term stability of south polar skuas Stercorarius maccormicki at Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica. Marine Ornithology 43, 103–106.

  Wood, J.R., Wilmshurst, J.M., Turney, C.S.M. and Fogwill, C. 2016. Palaeoecological signatures of vegetation change induced by herbivory regime shifts on subantarctic Enderby Island. Quaternary Science Reviews 134, 51–58.

  Web Resources

  If you would like to learn more about the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013–2014, including updates on our scientific findings, please visit spiritofmawson.com. M
ovie footage from the expedition, including the live broadcast of the orca hunt on the edge of Commonwealth Bay, can be found on the Intrepid Science YouTube Channel at youtube.com/intrepid-science. The Guardian’s award-winning documentary Fast Ice: Rescue from Antarctica, with interviews of team members, can be viewed at youtube.com/watch?v=TSKEG12UtfA. You can learn more about my research, including how to follow the team on future expeditions, at christurney.com and intrepidscience.com.

  Other Reading

  Anderson, A., 2005. Subpolar settlement in South Polynesia. Antiquity 79, 791-800.

  Bintanja, R., van Oldenborgh, G.J., Drijfhout, S.S., Wouters, B., Katsman, C.A. 2013. Important role for ocean warming and increased ice-shelf melt in Antarctic sea-ice expansion. Nature Geoscience 6, 376–379.

  Bromwich, D.H., Steinhoff, D.F., Simmonds, I.A.N., Keay, K., Fogt, R.L. 2011. Climatological aspects of cyclogenesis near Adélie Land Antarctica. Tellus A 63, 921–93 8.

  Childerhouse, S., Michael, S., Adams, L., Burns, T., Cockburn, S., Hamer, D., Maloney, A., Pugsley, C. 2015. New Zealand sea lion research at the Auckland Islands 2014/15. Blue Planet Marine, p. 50.

  Clark, G.F., Stark, J.S., Johnston, E.L., Runcie, J.W., Goldsworthy, P.M., Raymond, B., Riddle, M.J. 2013. Light-driven tipping points in polar ecosystems. Global Change Biology 19, 3749–3761.

  Dingwall, P.R., Jones, K.L., Egerton, R. 2009. In care of the Southern Ocean: An archaeological and historical survey of the Auckland Islands. New Zealand Archaeological Association Monograph 27, Auckland.

  Fogwill, C.J., Turney, C.S.M., Golledge, N.R., Etheridge, D.M., Rubino, M., Thornton, D.P., Baker, A., Woodward, J., Winter, K., van Ommen, T.D., Moy, A.D., Curran, M.A.J., Davies, S.M., Weber, M.E., Bird, M.I., Munksgaard, N.C., Men-viel, L., Rootes, C.M., Ellis, B., Millman, H., Vohra, J., Rivera, A., Cooper, A. 2017. Antarctic ice sheet discharge driven by atmosphere-ocean feedbacks at the Last Glacial Termination. Scientific Reports 7, 39979.