HEARD ISLAND, an improbably remote speck in the far Southern Ocean,
lies four thousand kilometres to the south-west of Australia - with
Antarctica its nearest continent. By 1964 it had been the object of
a number of expeditions, but none reaching the summit of its
9000-foot volcanic peak "Big Ben'. In that year Warwick Deacock
resolved to rectify this omission, and assembled a party of nine
with impressive credentials embracing mountaineering, exploration,
science and medicine, plus his own organisation and leadership
skills as a former Major in the British Army. But first they had to
get there. Heard had no airstrip and was on no steamer route; the
only way was by sea in their own vessel. Approached from Australia,
the island lay in the teeth of the 'Roaring Forties'and 'Furious
Fifties'. One name, only, came to mind as the skipper to navigate
them safely to their destination, and safely home - the veteran
mountaineer turned high-latitude sailor H. W. 'Bill' Tilman,
already renowned for his 'sailing to climb' expeditions to
Patagonia, Greenland and Arctic Canada, and the sub-Antarctic
archipelagos of Crozet and Kerguelen, to the north-west of Heard
Island. He readily 'signed on' to Warwick Deacock's team of proven
individuals and their well-found sailing vessel Patanela. In this
first-hand account, as fresh today as on its first publication
fifty years ago, Philip Temple invites us all on this superbly
conducted, happy and successful expedition, aided by many
previously unpublished photographs by Warwick Deacock. 'The
Skipper' - a man not free with his praise - described the
enterprise as 'a complete thing'. photographs, maps, drawings
General
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