Coast Guard icebreakers are always a welcome site at McMurdo Station, situated just 850 nautical miles from the South Pole on Ross Island. The main U.S. station in Antarctica, it was constructed in 1956 in the prelude to research conducted across the continent by 12 nations in 1958, the International Geophysical Year. These nations later signed the Antarctic Treaty that stipulates free exchange of research results-and that no country may claim Antarctica, install military fortifications, or detonate nuclear bombs there. The continent now is the subject of a variety of research from geology to astrophysics. The photo on the facing page illustrates the strange beauty of the landscape as ice sculptures formed by the wind frame 12,000-foot Mt. Erebus, the world's southernmost volcano.
About 1,100 workers conduct studies at the site during the austral summer (October-February), and about 220 people stay through the winter. U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers provide vital services to McMurdo Station, including breaking a channel through 60 miles of fast ice in advance of the annual fuel and resupply ships and escorting supply ships in and out of the station. The icebreakers also provide science project support, including the use of the onboard attachment of two Dauphin helicopters (left). On the icebreakers, these helos are used for ice reconnaissance and personnel and cargo transportation, but the scientists are grateful to have them to support studies taking place far afield.
In 2001, the USCGC Polar Star (WAGB-10) and USCGC Polar Sea (WAGB-11) visited the station. The container ship Greenwave followed in the ice-free channel, bringing food, equipment, and materiel to be used in the coming year. Some of this equipment is sent onward to the South Pole via LC-130 aircraft. The ship then takes retrograde equipment and about 6.5 million pounds of waste off the island.
In addition to her icebreaking duties, the Polar Star took residents of the Station on four-hour morale cruise through McMurdo Sound (above). For most residents, this was the only opportunity during the long summer to get away from the island.
McMurdo Station shares Ross island with the 100-year-old hut of Robert F. Scott (right, foreground) who used the area as a base for his polar quest because it was the southern-most latitude to which ships of the day could sail. Preserved by the dry, cold climate, the hut still contains boxes of supplies, scientific equipment, and journals—linking the explorers of the "Heroic Age" to the modern-day efforts at researching and understanding the Antarctic Continent.
Mr. Sutton recorded the visit of Coast Guard icebreakers as the assistant supervisor of laboratory operations at McMurdo Station, working in the largest facility on the island, the Crary Science and Engineering Center (named after U.S. geophysicist Alfred P. Crary, the first man to set foot on both poles).