[drummy]

Paul,
Shame to see the old lady has sunk. I was at Stonington when she made one of her first full tourist visits to the Antarctic thereby laying the foundations for the present Antarctic tourist industry.

I also recall the HMS Endurance managing to hit a submerged rock in Marguerite Bay in 1972 whilst on oceanographic survey. This resulted in a major gash in her hull and she made a beeline for Stonington Island where we were in the middle of building the new extension to the base. A somewhat embarrassed officer in full dress uniform came ashore by helicopter and rather sheepishly asked if they could 'borrow' as much sand, aggregate and cement as we could spare to plug the hole. The next couple of days were spend organising cargo net loads of building materials and our cement mixer for helo lift out to the ship, Rumour has it that the officer of the watch on duty when she struck was relegated to pounding the Western Approaches for the next few years as a penance!

Drummy