Memorabilia

Halley Patch

This was produced before I arrived, in 1993 I think. I put one of these on the back of my favourite hat.

Halley 1993 Patch

This was produced before I arrived, in 1993 I think.

Halley 1994 Patch

This was made by my lot in 1994. We designed it on a computer & then sent the picture back to the UK on the weekly data transfer. The permanent base commander in the UK then got a load made up & brought them down with him in the 94/95 summer season. Quite a convoluted system, but it worked surprisingly well.

Note that the location on this patch is different to that on the patch above - the base moves on the ice shelf - 2 metres a day.

Rothera 1994 Patch

So far north they omit the location from the badge! Only joking, but I think the Halley patch above is much nicer, or course.

BAS Patch

This was produced by BAS, rather than a base. It's much bigger than the rest & I had one on my windy top.

Polar Flight Patch

Can't remember where this came from

BAS Triangle

BAS issue sticker, not sure why it's triangular.

Science is cool

Quite a nice sticker, this. My mum had one on the rear window of her car for years.

SWEDARP

Swedish Antarctic Research Programme (I think). They came through Halley the year before I got there and, I think, during one of the summers that I was there. I can't really remember acquiring this one.

Neumeyer

Neumeyer Station was our nearest neighbour - about 500 km away - and this is the base sticker. It probably came into my possession via the Dash-7 aircraft which were flown by the German Alfred-Wegener Institut.

ItaliAntartide

I got this from a chap on the Bransfield who was carrying out some oceanographic research. We picked him up in the Falklands in 1996 & then took him to some submerged instruments. He pressed a button on the ship & his instruments released themselves from the sea bed and floated to the surface for collection. Quite clever really.

GAP

This is another blank in my memory. Obviously part of the German 1995 activities, perhaps from my Polarstern visit.

FRISP

I picked this up on the Polar Stern - a German research ship that visited us a couple of times. At a guess I'd say they were examining the seabed for something or other either side of Halley.

European Expedition to the Shackleton Range (1994/5). The Shackleton range were far South of Halley. If I remember correctly, they were whizzing about in helicopters, which meant that they could only fly in good weather, which meant they couldn't fly as often as they'd like.

Despite the name, Shackleton never saw them - he was on his way to the region when his ship, Endurance, got trapped in the ice & crushed. He wrote a book about it called "South" which is an excellent read.

Alfred Wegener Institut

Generic sticker from the German Antarctic researchers

Alfred Wegener Institut

Generic sticker from the German Antarctic researchers

Aerodata

This sticker comes form the Airbourne side of the German research team

Aerodata MAGRAD

They were down at Halley in the summer of 94/5 to measure ice shelf thickness using fancy radar.

They came back again the following year to do some "Aerophotogrammetrie" whatever that is.

Aerodata

His little flag says "Aerodata" so this comes from the German research teams, can't remember quite how I got it. Cute, though.

Polarstern

This tie pin came from the pilot of a helicopter that picked us up from base & flew us out to the Polar Stern for a free party as guests of the Dornier crews. This was to thank us for our hospitality towards them. Very kind of them - we made them welcome & gave them stale beer ( we only had stale beer) and they flew us to a ship to drink all their nice fresh draft lager.

Halley Tie

A Halley tie constructed before I got there.

Halley Tie, 1994.

The tie we had made during the 94 winter. We wanted an aurora, but the manufacturers couldn't do it!

Polarstern Tie

This tie came form the pilot of the helicopter that took us to Polar Stern - it came with the tie pin above.

SCAR XXIV Stamp

I bought lots of stamps to go on lots of letters home but, for some reason, I don't have any myself. In hind sight, I should have written myself a few letters.

I do, however, have this first day cover. Halley contribute the picture of aerials in the top left & the man launching a balloon in the bottom right, which also shows the ACB. I'm pretty sure that the balloon launcher is Graham Neden, from my first winter.