- Dr Bernard Stonehouse
- Scott Polar Research Institute
- University of Cambridge
This report describes the condition of the huts of the United States Antarctic Service Expedition 1939–41 and Base E, the British Antarctic Survey hut, on Stonington Island, Fallières Coast, as seen during two brief visits in 1993 and 2000. Bernard Stonehouse has had many opportunities to visit old expedition huts, elsewhere in the maritime Antarctic, in McMurdo Sound, and in high Arctic Svalbard and Franz Josef Land, to compare the environmental conditions that lead to deterioration.
As a former member of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey stationed on Stonington Island from early 1947 to early 1950, I visited the US huts frequently before, during and after their 1947-48 occupation by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition. The current British hut was not then built.
More recent research on cruise ships has enabled me to revisit the island twice, on 28 December 1993 in the icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov, and on 28 December 2000 in MV Caledonia Star. On both occasions I was able to spend one to two hours around the huts, in company with tourist visitors.
The US huts are among the most solidly designed and built of all polar huts, due to their construction in hard timber (probably Oregon pine), thick insulated walls, outer covering of heavy canvas, raised flooring, refrigerator doors and other details. The original buildings of the Norwegian whaling stations on Deception Island and South Georgia appear similarly to have been designed for long-term year-round occupation.
During my December visits the huts were as usual still three-quarters snow-covered. Only the workshop was easily accessible. In the interests of conservation we disturbed the site only enough to show visitors into the workshop and immediate surrounding area.
In 1993 effects of the recent refurbishment by US teams were apparent. The huts appeared to be in good order, with most doors, windows and ventilators intact, and little ice inside. However, on exposed outer surfaces, much of the new tarred felt that had been used to cover it was already stripping off. Several of the pine boards forming the huts’ main outer skin were beginning to bulge and fall away, due to nail rot (the simultaneous failure of galvanized nails on all exposed surfaces) and build-up of ice in the cavity-walls behind them.
By 2000 serious deterioration was apparent. The outer door of the meteorological tower porch was unhinged and open, and the roof covering had blown away. Compacted snow and ice part-filled the porch. Though the door to the workshop was still intact, the floor had lifted and made it difficult to open without forcing. The entrance had already been forced and the hinges broken. The workshop remained relatively snow-free, though the roof was leaking and ice was accumulating on the floor at three points. Exhibits inside the workshop remained dry and in good order.
The large chimneys and roof ventilators, which on the earlier visit had appeared to be intact and effectively sealed, had deteriorated: one at least had collapsed, leaving a gap in the roof. Skylights remained intact but were letting in snow-melt water.
The mild deterioration in boarding noted during the first visit had intensified. The narrow boards represent a fundamental weakness in the structure, remedied earlier by a covering of stout canvas, which was by no means matched by the inadequately thin felt covering of the refurbishing party. By December 2000 very little remained of either covering, and more of the exposed board had buckled and fallen away. Nail rot and ice pressure following exposure seem the most likely causes. Both may be expected to accelerate.
The British buildings on Stonington Island were intact on both visits. They are some three decades younger than the US huts, less strongly constructed and in softer materials. They too showed a gradient of deterioration between 1993 and 2000, which seems likely to increase within the next decade. Symptoms that require urgent attention include loose shuttering, cracked windows, gaps in surface timbers, torn roofing felt, and weathering of protective paint, leaving boards and nailheads exposed.
It is perhaps worth noting that, despite their greater age, the historic huts on Cape Royds, Cape Evans and Hut Point in the Ross Dependency have remained in better condition than either the US or the British huts on Stonington Island. Much the same is true of near-century old expedition and trappers’ huts in the high Arctic. The drier, colder and relatively snow-free high latitude environment favour conservation. In the Antarctic maritime sector, annual build-up of snow, repeated freeze-thaw cycles and summer damp combine to induce more rapid deterioration.