Winter Expedition

The second floor of Bissell Hall is the scene of intense activity these days as Dave Nutt '31 (Commander David C. Nutt, USNR) makes preparations for another trip north. This time, unlike his well-known summer expeditions in the schooner Blue Dolphin, he will be invading the north country in winter.

The expedition is sponsored under a contract from the Office of Naval Research with the Arctic Institute of North America. The three-man party will gather scientific data about the water in Hamilton Inlet on the coast of Labrador, about 1000 miles north of Hanover. Last summer when the Blue Dolphin slipped into the inlet it was warm enough for swimming. Now, from three to five feet of ice and several feet of snow have transformed the inlet into an arctic wasteland. The measuring of temperature and salt content of the water under such conditions calls for special techniques and equipment—Dave and his colleagues have developed both.

John T. Tangerman '53 of Port Washington, N. Y., will leave with Dave by air from Westover Field, Mass., about March 15 for Goose Bay, Labrador. In Labrador they will meet Harry Montague, a woods- man and trapper, who will be their dog driver on the trip out onto the ice.

Jack Tangerman, an experienced DOC man, sailed on the Blue Dolphin last summer and is an old hand at gathering the type of scientific data that the expedition seeks. As Dave puts it: "We have tried to see that we will have two of everything, so that if some piece of equipment is lost or damaged, our work will not be held up. The same is true of men—Jack can handle any of the work and so, if one of us should have to stay in the sack for a while, the other can carry on the work."

The unusual requirements of the expedition called for a light tent, constructed well enough to withstand the worst March gales in the area, with a frame strong enough to hold the heavy instruments that will have to be lowered through the ice. There was no such tent in existence and so one was designed and constructed as a special Dartmouth project (even though the stitching had to be farmed out to a firm in White River Junction). Because gasoline stoves will be used to keep the instruments at working temperatures, flame resistant cloth is used for the tent. Such a precaution is insurance that the party will not be stranded on the inlet without adequate shelter—although Dave could make a snow house quicker than most fellows can walk from the garage, open the front door and settle down with the evening paper.

The expedition will not travel over unknown territory at any time. The only unknowns are the winter oceanographic regime and the qualities of the clothing and equipment that will be tested.

The data about the water in the inlet is not sought for any specific reason but will supply "pieces" that may fit into several oceanographic puzzles. Those who have read Rachel Carlson's fine book The SeaAround Us will certainly appreciate the importance of such information.

There will be a lot of hard physical work on the expedition: the travel on snowshoes; the setting up of the various camps; and the chopping through the thick ice for each series of tests. But in the evenings, snug in that tent with a Coleman lantern hissing quietly, they will enjoy the scientist's special satisfaction in lotting down the day's work in the journal; and after a few weeks of sleeping on the ice, it may be pleasant to think how fine it will be to feel the resiliency of an innerspring mattress again.