Updated 5/24/2012

Savage Worlds Cthulhu

      From the private journals of Ronald Hearst, Special Agent Bureau 13, FBI

August 1934, New York City; I have just been hired by the Starkweather Moore Antarctic Expedition to become a member of their team heading to the South Pole, all this under the orders of Director Hoover. I have been hired as one of the doctors needed for the trip. I graduated with my medical degree from Boston College while also serving in the US Coast Guard. I joined up thanks to my father Commander Stephen Hearst who was one of the senior officers at the Coast Guard Station at Salem. I was just a teenager when the raid on Innsmouth happened and it changed my father and not for the good. Whatever happened to him there is slowly driving him mad. He is now retired from the Coast Guard and under the constant care of my mother. This was one of the reasons why I joined up, in order to make a difference.

I was born not too far away in Kingsport and spent my summers growing up in New Orleans where my mother was from and where she met my father. I was mostly looked after by my mother’s maid Blu, who was a large Negro woman who treated me as her son. Once I was finished with school I was able to go to university and chose Boston College as it was close and Harvard was more expensive. I was then put into the reserve while I was at school and I spent my free semesters on active duty as it helped to pay my way through Med School. Most of my jobs was anti-smuggling and excise work. Once I graduated I was now back on active duty and promoted to Lt from Ensign and served on a variety of ships as the officer of the watch until I was posted to one of the largest Coast Guard ships and made the medical officer. I was soon promoted to Lt Cmdr and I found that I was getting bored with my duties. Nothing of consequence happened during my tour other than an increase in smuggling along the coast and we were very successful in putting a stop to it. Soon it was time for my enlistment to end and I decided not to return to the Coast Guard but was put on the Coast Guard Reserve in case of emergencies.

Soon after I was invited to a medical conference in Washington and I was eager to attend to get back into medicine again. Imagine my surprise when during the conference I was approached by a couple of men in dark suits that produced FBI badges and asked if I had a few moments to speak with someone. I agreed to follow them and they escorted me to a sedan and we got in and headed over to the Federal Building and soon I was meeting with Mr J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the FBI.

Mr Hoover told me that he was creating a special division called Bureau 13 to investigate the unusual things that regular law enforcement officials were having problems solving. He had been impressed on how I had handled some situations out of Salem and thought my talents could be better used as one of his investigators. He told me that he wanted Bureau 13 to be able to investigate under his direction. I was quite intrigued about it and decided to take him up on his offer. I was then directed downstairs to fill out some paperwork and to prepare for more training. This took about six months where I learned about investigative techniques and quite a bit about the laws of the United States. Thankfully my Coast Guard training helped and I passed the exams and was then given my badge. I then did a few months of field work before I was given an assignment in New York City.

I was ordered to get to the HQ of the FBI which was the Lexington hotel in New York City and was placed with the current squad of Bureau 13 who were now involved in the disappearance of a reporter who was very good at digging up dirt on people and he had been checking out a report of something strange going on in the sewers and pipes underground and the case soon involved us investigating a small island that was home to an Institute that was doing illegal experiments on people. The agents also told me about some of the things they had investigated before I got there and they sounded nasty. In fact one of the agents was forced to retire from active duty due to a debilitating injury. I won’t get into detail about our case but we managed to make sure there was no evidence of Bureau involvement when we were done and that involved a very large explosion. But we managed to impress the Director after the investigation was complete but we were forced to disappear as the owner of the Institute started putting serious pressure on people to find out who had blown up his lab and we were told that Director Hoover then wanted us to join an expedition that was heading to the South Pole. It was going down there to try and find out what had happened to the expedition that had previously gone there a few years ago and a group of scientists had disappeared. So our group now needed some additional training in arctic survival and for some strange reason Director Hoover wanted us to learn German as a German group was also headed to the South Pole.

Since I already spoke fluent German I was taught Arabic instead. For whatever reason I was always able to pick up a new language easily and spoke French, German, Latin, and Louisiana Creole which was another type of French. It was agreed that I would apply to the group as a doctor and the others started learning new skills in order to be hired. One of the things I remember growing up in the south was that Blu told me that I had a guardian spirit or ‘Saint’ to protect me and strangely enough soon after I started having some vivid dreams about a man named Michael who spoke to me in my dreams and somehow managed to convince me that I could cast ‘spells.’ The main component was blood and if I could produce some blood by cutting the tip of my finger or even biting my cheek that I could produce something. I still have not managed to do it but every night Michael talks to me about it. Blu swore that in a past life I must have been a Bocora or ‘magic man.’

Once I was hired I then had to go through a complete physical and dental exam. I was also measured for my survival gear as it all had to fit properly. I was also told that I could bring up to 200 pounds of personal gear. I met the ship’s doctor whose name was Dr Richard Greene. He was just a few years older than me and he was happy to see me as he had been worried that he would have been forced to do double duty but I would now be medically in charge of the expedition. He would be responsible for stocking the medical lab and told me not to worry about it. I passed the exam and headed back to the Amherst hotel that the expedition had rented while they waited and started going over my list of stuff to take with me. I figured to go heavy on the firearms and decided to contact HQ to see if they had any ideas on stuff to take.

The next day Starkweather and Moore held a meeting with everyone they had hired and they went over the itinerary for the trip. We would be boarding the ship, the SS Gabrielle, which was a 500 foot steamship and we would be using the Panama Canal to get to the Pacific Ocean and then the next stop would be New Zealand where we would resupply before heading south. Everyone was then introduced and I noticed that the ship’s captain was not mentioned yet. Then Moore handed out parts of the manifest to everyone and we were told to check over the lists and make sure that everything was accounted for. Everyone seemed to have perplexed expressions as we went over the manifest. It ended up taking me a couple of days to find everything on the list and I was forced to make a few phone calls to various suppliers and I even went back to the Hotel from the docks after speaking with Moore about some letters that had been sent to the expedition concerning the explosives they had ordered.

I soon found out that the explosives couldn’t be shipped due to red tape from New Jersey. I solved that problem by calling up the bureau and had them deliver the explosives along with blasting caps and the fuses. Then I had to deal with a crate of shovels, there had been a dozen ordered but I soon found 72 of them. Then I dealt with foodstuffs in one of the holds and I found some more mistakes. I figured out what had been missed or mistaken and ended up going to the grocers and picking up what was required and then submitted the bill to Moore for reimbursement. I decided to double check my list again and found another mistake when I checked the case of sardines and found that they were sardine oil instead. So I contacted the grocer again and got the right thing ordered. Going back over the list I finally was able to check off everything on it and submitted it back to Moore.

I was also waiting for my personal gear to arrive from the Bureau and I had order a pair of Colt 45 pistols along with two boxes of ammo and a Lee Enfield rifle with a scope and four boxes of ammo. I also decided to pack a pump action 12 gauge shot gun with two boxes of ammo. I included a couple of bayonets and a pair of bowie knives so I had a couple of good blades. I also had a pair of binoculars and a portable microscope and surgical tools. I was also given 10 grenades to put in my gear along with 4 pairs of handcuffs and personal clothing and toiletries. The weight was now about 154 pounds so I still had some room left. I had talked to the bureau and they told me to try and pick up some current maps and reference books on the Antarctic. I did manage to get my hands on a portable lab for specimens and things that I wanted to make sure we had and it weighed about 25 pounds. I also requested them to start doing background checks on the crew.

September 3, I was approached by Moore and asked if I could do something for him. He wanted me to meet JB Douglas the recently hired master of the ship who would be arriving on the 5th and would be staying at the Westbury Hotel. He was the former captain of the first expedition and had retired two years ago and had agreed to come out of retirement to command the ship for this one.

September 5, When I woke up and headed down for breakfast everyone was abuzz about an article in the paper of a famous heiress named Acacia Lexington who had announced that she also was going to go to the South Pole so it now made 5 different groups that would be going down there at the same time. Starkweather seemed angry about the latest news and Moore didn’t loo happy. Then Moore announced that they would be adding a woman to the crew. Her name was Charlene Whitston and she was a botanist. He then said that some changes would have to be made to the ship as everyone starting talking amongst themselves about this development.

I headed over to the Westbury Hotel just before dinner time as Moore had said he would be arriving in the afternoon. I spoke to the desk clerk and he said that he had arrived and I headed up to his room and knocked on his door. It was answered by a thin balding man who was in his fifties and my first thought was that he was not eating right. I introduced myself as a member of the expedition. He invited me in and while I spoke to him I got a sense of unease from him but I couldn’t figure out why. I told him that the press was starting to hound some of the crew as we were the current hit story in New York so he should act accordingly. He said that he would be heading over to the ship tomorrow so he would see me there. When I stepped out of the hotel a man came over to me and asked if I was one of those scientist types involved with the upcoming mission to the South Pole and when I said yes he handed me a note and turned and walked away. I read it and it was a warning not to go south as the consequences of what we might find could be disastrous.

I headed back to the Amherst Hotel and informed Moore that I had met with the Captain. One of the other agents LJ Cannedy had gone over to New Jersey with the pilots as he was the photographer and needed experience in taking pictures from the planes. The other agents that were also going along were Red O’Reilly and Hiro Jackson; they were going to be outfitter/guides/mountain climbers and William Blake who was one of the scientists.

September 6, I woke up and went down to breakfast to find bedlam happening at the front desk. Red and I looked at each other and tried to find out what had happened. I was handed the morning paper and to my shock, Mr Douglas had been murdered during the night and the NYPD was actively investigating. I told Red to grab his stuff; it was time to head over to the ship to get out of the limelight. We managed to make it to the ship with all of our gear and we got it on the ship and I met with Moore, he was looking very haggard and he told Red that he was in charge on looking after the interests of our new crew member. He was shocked about the death of Mr Douglas and he didn’t know what they were going to do about hiring a new skipper. I headed down to sickbay and started getting my gear together. It was about noon when the radio operator poked his head into my room and told me that I had a phone call from someone at the farm.

I hurried up to the radio room and when I answered the phone, the gentleman on the other end was quick to give me the current code phrase and when I correctly gave the response he ordered the team to investigate the death of JB Douglas and to solve it quickly. I managed to snag Red and LJ and when LJ told me that he had spoken to the detective in charge of the case, JJ Hansen and he was probably still at the Amherst Hotel so we headed over there to speak with him. We arrived at the hotel to mass bedlam of reporters and I decided to go back to his hotel and check out his room. We headed over to the Westbury and I flashed my badge to the clerk and asked for a key to Mr Douglas’s room and we headed upstairs to check it out. After a quick check of the door we used the key to open it and found the room a total mess. Someone had gone into the room first and had tossed everything around. I told LJ and Red to continue checking while I went back down to the front desk and told the clerk to contact the Amherst Hotel and ask for detective Hansen.

Once he was on the phone I introduced myself and told him to come over to the Westbury and I waited for him to arrive. Once he came into the lobby I produced my badge and led him upstairs. LJ had managed to find some notes that had been tossed into the trash and looking around we had found his journals but the one detailing his original trip south was missing. There were some notes with names and phone numbers including Starkweather, Lexington, and the Purple Cup. Detective Hansen said that the Purple Cup was the name of a dive bar down by the docks. We headed down to the docks and checked out the Cup and found that indeed Douglas had been there last night and had met with three other men and had some drinks with them and he had left about midnight while the three men stayed behind and continued drinking.

The next thing we decided to do was to meet with Miss Lexington to find out if she had met the Captain before his death. So we headed over to her address and parked out front and we watched a man open the front gate and walk in and moments later he came out accompanied by another larger man and they got into a large sedan and drove off down the street. As we were getting out of the car the gate opened and we watched Miss Lexington driving the car away from us and we followed her to the docks and she pulled up to the berth of the Miss Tallahassee. We managed to catch up to her as she was boarding the ship and we were able to have a short interview with her and she told us that she had only spoken to the Captain by phone and had not met with him and she was saddened by his death.

We thanked her and headed back to the car and I thought that it would be a good idea to look over the body of the Captain so we headed to the city morgue and managed to get a look at his body. By now the autopsy had been done and the ME’s findings said that he had drowned after hitting his head on a piling and falling into the water. Looking over his body LJ and I couldn’t see anything different from his findings so after we were done we headed back to the ship. Once back on the ship we were told that a new sailing master had been found and his name was Henry Vredenburg and he had experience sailing in Arctic waters. Starkweather then announced that the funeral for Captain Douglas would be tomorrow and he requested that we attend.

September 8, we attended the funeral for Captain Douglas and I met a couple of old sailors that were there to pay their respects and I also spoke to his younger brother and we found out that the Captain was seriously affected by his trip to the Antarctic and he had nightmares for months afterword. I asked if he had gotten his package from his brother and he said no. I had noticed Detective Hansen among the mourners and managed to get a word with him and told him to keep an eye out for this package that was supposed to show up. LJ managed to spot a reporter from one of the newspapers trying to pretend that he had known the Captain but we ran him off.

We soon headed back to the ship in order to prepare for sailing tomorrow and we were our butts off for the next bunch of hours until we finally managed to get a break and LJ and I decided to go have a drink on our last night in New York. The two of us had a few drinks and were toasted with a few more when we finally decided to head back to the ship. Just as we left the place we spotted flames coming up from the docks near where the Gabrielle was berthed and we started running towards the ship. Soon we realized that there was a fire on the pier and people were starting to fight it as we headed closer. We were alongside the railway tracks when I spotted someone sneaking along the tracks. I nudged LJ and we prepared to do something about it and I crouched down and prepared to jump down of the guy when LJ stumbled and the guy tried to change direction but I dove down onto him and slugged him one to knock him down. We managed to apprehend him and he smelled strongly of gasoline and in his pockets were three packs of matches.

We took him into custody and headed towards the ship to find one of the sheds on fire and people being dragged out of the flames. It looked like Red had risked his life to safe four men and when the flames were finally put out it was found that three men had been killed. We found the nearest police officer and turned over our friend to him and told him that we figured he had done it and had been trying to flee when we apprehended him. By the time we got back to the pier we could see the Gabrielle sitting out on the river and most of the fire had been put out with some barrels being tossed into the water to put them out. Red was burned from his foray into the burning shed and had been taken to hospital along with the longshoremen who had been in the shed when it went up in flames.

It was a few hours later when we found out that the fire had destroyed the spare engines and skis for the planes and we would be delayed in sailing as these were needed before we could leave. I also told Mr Starkweather that I had spotted Miss Lexington’s ship being escorted out to see and it appeared that she had already left for the South Pole. Boy did he ever get angry about this news and honestly I thought he might give himself a heart attack. I also contacted detective Hansen and found out that one of the other names we were interested in, a Mr Nicholas Roche had been found and I requested an interview with him. He said he would make arrangements and an interview was set up for the next day. I took LJ along with me as the others were still busy and Red was now back aboard the ship recovering from his burns. Thankfully he wasn’t badly burnt and most of it should heal by the time we got down south.

September 9, LJ and I headed over to the Amsterdam Hotel and told the front desk that we were there to see Mr Roche. He was an older gentleman showing the affects of his kidnapping and he was quite talkative once he got going. He was a Dutchman who had been friends with Miss Lexington’s father and he had been trying to get in contact with Mr Starkweather as he had some information that he had tried to pass on to Starkweather but he never returned his calls. We asked what the info was and he said that he had received a journal from one of the men on the first Antarctic expedition and he had been trying to warn either Starkweather or Miss Lexington not to go south. We realized that we had seen him being kidnapped from Miss Lexington’s estate the other day and he told us the man that had forced him away had spoken with a German accent and had taken only the journal before asking him some questions about a diary that Mr Lexington had been reported to have owned and had tried to sell but it had disappeared without a trace. He then spent an hour talking to us about Miss Lexington and we found out some interesting things about her. We thanked him for his time and the last thing he asked us was to keep an eye out for Miss Lexington and to keep her from harm. We told him that we would do our best.

We got back to the ship and I headed to my cabin and a few minutes later there was a knock at my door and I opened it to find LJ there holding a piece of paper. He showed me what it was and it was a warning letter in the same theme as the one I had been given the other day warning us of the dangers that faced us in the Antarctic. We made copies of the notes and then I headed ashore to use a phone and contacted the farm to let them know about the letters. I was told to mail them to them and I stuffed them into a couple of envelopes just to be sure and stuck a stamp on them and put them in the mail and headed back to the ship.

September 11, just before the first high tide we cast off from the dock and with tugs attached the ship was towed out of the docks and soon we were out in the bay with the engines fired up and once the harbour pilot disembarked it was full steam ahead south. The weather was decent and the Gabrielle made good time south. I guess now I should mention something about the Gabrielle, she is a steam engine ship almost 450 feet long with a beam of 45 feet and a depth of 49 feet. The engines were capable of almost 12 knots at full speed and the fuel would last about 12 000 miles so we would make it to New Zealand before having to refuel. I was now sharing my cabin with Red so I could keep an eye on him due to the burns he had taken during the rescue and he was now in the good books of Starkweather and Moore and was now invited to the officer’s mess instead of the crew mess so he was happy about that. I also noticed that the ship’s crew was avoiding the scientists as much as they could.

Once the ship was at sea everyone settled into a routine of working shifts except for the expedition people that didn’t have any ship duties so the ones that were able started teaching classes on the things they knew about and it was surprising that I seemed to have an aptitude for engines and I quickly picked up the proper repair and maintenance of aircraft engines. It was during that time in the hold with the aircraft that I found a tie down strap holding one of the engines partially damaged. I brought it to the attention of the deck officer and he pulled out another strap and replaced it. Looking at it, the strap appeared to have been sliced with a sharp blade so that it would break apart after some stress. So now it looks like we have a saboteur onboard.

September 15, the Gabrielle passed the island of Cuba on the starboard bow and the weather had been much improved the last few days as the temps had warmed up and everyone had removed a few layers of clothing. The Gabrielle then went through a serious squall and a few of the people got seasick but I just went with the flow as I was used to the sea.

September 19, the Gabrielle arrived at Colon Bay, the entrance to the Panama Canal and we dropped anchor and then waited for the canal pilot to come on board early the next morning for our transit to the west side of Panama. The next morning just after dawn the pilot arrived and we started transiting the canal. Late the next day we made it through and once we were in the Pacific Ocean we dropped anchor to wait for morning to sail west. Starkweather and Moore had one of the longboats dropped over the side and headed towards Panama City to send some reports from the telegraph office and Red, LJ and I managed to tag along as LJ needed to get more chemicals for developing his photos as the batch he had seemed to have gone sour or something and Red because of his heroics earlier seemed to be in the bosses good books right now. I was still keeping an eye on him as he was still bandaged up from the burns but they seemed to be healing just fine. I also headed over to the telegraph office to send off a coded message to the farm letting them know what had transpired since we left.

LJ managed to procure what he needed from the pharmacy that was here and Red looked around the market and purchased two wooden statuettes that were African in origin. One of the pilots named Allan Croft had also come along and in fact we had struck up a friendship with him as he had been a young pilot during the Great War and most recently he had been flying planes in Alaska and had hired on as one of the pilots and had worked with LJ. He came back on board and showed us a silver officer’s gorget that he had purchased at the market. Red had the misfortune of attracting the attention of a pick pocket and he managed to lift the remaining money he had when Red bumped into a fruit stall and knocked the fruit everywhere. He noticed his money was missing when he went to pay the stall owner something and found his money missing. I showed up just in time to pay the woman $10 for her troubles and she seemed satisfied with that.

Once we got on board we took the time to look over the statuettes that Red had purchased and when I held them I got a sense of queasiness. Allan then produced the gorget that he had purchased and I looked it over and was very surprised to see that it was only months old and had belonged to a Lt in the German Army. The back of it was scratched up and LJ figured that it was a rune or sign but we couldn’t figure out for what yet.

September 22, just after dawn the Gabrielle raised anchor and we set sail for New Zealand. Looking to the west the clouds looked dark and foreboding. Soon we were sailing into a storm and I thanked the stars that I had been in weather like this before but some of the other crew and scientists were looking a little green around the gills and Red was definitely seasick. The classes that were being run above decks were forced inside and we had to make constant checks of the cargo to make sure it didn’t shift. Some of the waves the Gabrielle went through were deck rattlers for sure.

September 24, finally the weather broke and suddenly we were in bright sunshine and the waves turned into swells. Once the ship was no longer going up and down with the waves, some of the crew started acting a little strangely. I realized that the Gabrielle was getting close to the equator and I had heard from some of the old salts in the Coast Guard that a ceremony would take place initiating all the rookies into a crossing the line ceremony.

September 25, we crossed the equator and I won’t get into the silliness of the ceremony involving Davy Jones and King Neptune. Most of the crew and scientists were on the deck and it looked like the ceremony was about to finish when one of the stewards staggered up onto the deck holding some cloth over his mouth and coughing madly. I ran over to him and smelled ammonia, he managed to gasp out that something in the cooling system had burst and was spraying into the reefer. It took most of us to get down into the hold and it took a few hours to shut down the system and by the time that happened most of the food was spoiled. The only thing salvaged was the stuff that was still sealed.

September 26, LJ managed to look over the reefer system and he found that someone had managed to pour some caustic soda onto a small section of the copper piping causing the pipe to burst. Now it really looks like a saboteur. Once we determined that it was sabotage, Mr Moore asked LJ and me to start quietly checking the ship for more hidden damage. I asked that we be given weapons just in case we had to stop someone in the act and Mr Moore agreed and issued us 38 caliber revolvers. We then started checking the ship from bow to stern and we started finding little things damaged.

September 28, LJ and I were above the deck where the dogs were quartered when they started barking and howling and we headed down a deck to find chaos reigning. A pair of dogs was fighting each other and close to six of them was already dead and the rest of them didn’t look very good. The dog handlers had to shoot the dogs that were fighting and it took some time to restore order. I could see that all of the dogs were suffering from tremors and that didn’t look very good. Once I was able to look things over I found a powdery substance mixed in with the pemmican that was their food. By now Dr Greene had arrived and between us we discovered that all of the dogs in this hold had been poisoned with strychnine. The rest of the dogs had to be put down before the poison killed them and their loss was tragic. Now LJ and I really want to find the saboteur.

Whoever had been doing this seemed to stop for about a week as the rumors flew all over the ship. LJ and I still found some things damaged as we worked our way through the ship, including all of LJ photographic chemicals and some of the oxygen tanks.

October 9, I was checking over the #2 hold where the aviation fuel was stored when I spotted something strange lying on the deck beside the full drums. I climbed down to the floor of the deck and found a crude explosive device set on the floor beside the fuel. LJ decided to stakeout the hold in hopes that the person responsible would return and try to set it off. We had informed Moore and he told us to keep it quiet so I let LJ handle it. He enlisted Red to help him and they staked out the hold.

October 10, during the middle of the night I was awakened by someone banging on my cabin door and the voice said that someone had been shot down below. I headed down to the lower decks and was directed to #2 hold where I found LJ with a young man in custody. I recognized the man as one of the mess boys and he was suffering from a gunshot wound to the shoulder. LJ had caught him red handed trying to find the explosive device. We quickly found out that he had a grudge against Starkweather as he blamed him for the death of his sister a few years before. Once he was in custody all of the sabotage dried up so he had been the one doing everything.

October 11, the Gabrielle sailed into Melbourne Harbour and we could see quite a few people waiting for us at the docks including some members of the local police. They took the young man into custody as Starkweather met with the press and had an impromptu press conference. We found out the Tallahassee had already been there and departed for the south. Starkweather had passed on some notes to Moore and said that he had made arrangements to replace everything that had been ruined during the accidents. So Moore asked some of us to start picking up replacements. LJ and I started by heading over to an electrical warehouse and found out that they had the wrong generators and it went downhill from there.

October 18, we finally got back on board in the evening and all I can say was that it was a hellish week as we found out that Starkweather had only contacted a few companies about purchases and the rest didn’t know what we were talking about. Mind you they were very happy to deal with us once they knew what we were looking for, seeing as we were replacing over 12 tons of supplies. We had to make a version of pemmican using local products and it was messy and smelly work. We made arrangements to get the reefer hold fixed and more ammonia for the system. LJ managed to replace his needed chemicals but he had to check every shop that Melbourne had. But we had managed to find replacements for everything except the sled dogs and they couldn’t be replaced here in Australia. The last thing that arrived was Starkweather in a lorry who had managed to get the empty oxygen tanks refilled and they were the last thing to be hoisted on board.

October 19, it was just after 3AM local time when the Gabrielle cast off her lines and we started out of the harbour and south towards the Antarctic.

October 20, the wind started picking up and the temps dropped rapidly.

October 23, the barometer started dropping like a rock just before dawn. The winds picked up to over 50 mph from the WSW with stronger gusts and very heavy seas along with water over the rails. The Captain was forced to run with the wind to keep the Gabrielle stable during the storm. The skies suddenly cleared as the sun was setting and it was brilliant. The Captain ordered a course change to the south.

October 25, just after midnight the Gabrielle hit fog and we were forced to reduce speed due to possible ice. The first iceberg was spotted just after lunch and then the barometer starting dropping fast again. The Captain was forced to turn east at sunset as the sea swells roughened and got stronger.

October 26, it started snowing heavy during the night but cleared off just at dawn and it was cold and clear. Gabrielle turned south into scattered ice floes. Shortly after the noon bell the barometer dropped like a rabbit going down a hole and the suddenly was blowing at well over 60 mph from the SSW. The Captain managed to order the ship rigged for rough weather as huge waves and blown ice and rime settled over the ship. The Captain had to almost turn around and head NE in order to safely navigate the storm. There wasn’t much available for a meal as the motion of the ship made it impossible for the mess to prepare a hot meal so we made do with what we could. Just after dinner we started hearing something moving around in one of the forward holds. It sounded like something big hitting the sides of the ship and LJ, Red and I managed to get some crewmen with us to rope up and headed out onto the deck and forwards towards the three holds. We were all bundled up like crazy as the wind was icy cold and the blowing snow stuck to us like glue. We checked the closest hold and LJ managed to open the dog hatch and stuck his head in and moments later he looked up and shook his head as we dropped the hatch back down.

The next hatch was opened and we could all hear something banging away as we started to climb into the hold to look around. We pulled out flashlights and with them on we could see that two of the large aircraft engines had broken loose from their moorings and were bouncing around in the hold smashing into everything including the kerosene that we needed for fuel. We managed to climb down the ladder to the floor and with ropes in hand started to haul in one of the engines. I was in the way when the ship went through a wave and shifted and unfortunately one of the crewmen was killed instantly when the engine squished him against the wall and I just managed to get out of the way but still got banged hard enough to make my head ring. We then tried to lasso the second engine and again it shifted just as we started to reel it in and another crewman was in the way and this time there wasn’t much left of him when the pallet rolled over top of him. We finally managed to tie the engines down and took a quick look around and realized that the one plane in the hold was too badly damaged to fly and the engines might not be usable now either. We sent the remaining crewman back to the bridge to inform the Captain that we had managed to secure the cargo but the fuel would have to be soaked up using the cloth onboard for just this emergency. Once the relief showed up we bundled up the two dead men and brought them up and into the quarters.

October 27, the storm continued into daybreak with the winds shifting to the west. The seas were still heavy with lots of snow so we couldn’t check the #2 hold until the seas calmed down. Later that evening the seas calmed and we were able to get a team down to the hold and investigate further. The two engines that had broken loose appeared damaged beyond repair and the Boeing plane was too damaged to fly. We proceeded to soak up the kerosene while we cleaned up and LJ found that the cleats that had secured the engines had been damaged by acid and had broken free. It looks like our mess boy had done more damage than we thought and Starkweather was pissed.

October 29, we were now sailing south dodging icebergs everywhere. It didn’t help that heavy snow was falling and visibility was poor. Gabrielle was forced to turn west looking for clearer waters.

October 31, Gabrielle was forced to stop due to growing pack ice; the weather was calm and gray. Huge sheets of thick ice and long flat bergs were everywhere. The ship turned to the east looking for open water.

November 3, we finally found clear waters around dawn and some progress was made. The sky remained clear but the barometer started dropping in the afternoon.

November 4, just after midnight a furious storm struck Gabrielle and frankly I was worried about crew safety as winds started gusting from the south over 70 mph. The Captain was forced to turn around and head north with the storm as the storm battered the ship.

November 5, the storm abated shortly after dawn and the ship turned back south into brisk seas and clearing skies. The icepack had loosened and bergs were everywhere.

November 6, the Gabrielle sailed into pack ice, very old and thick. We managed to sail through some narrow leads and we were constantly brushing up against the ice. Over the radio we find out that the Tallahassee is trapped in the ice 300 miles to the west. Fog settled in early in the day. Around noon we sighted a ship stuck in the ice and the Captain hove to and asked for volunteers to investigate the ship. I spoke up and he put me in command of the long boat that went over to investigate the ship. There were six of us and we rowed over and checked out the Wallaroo, a whaling ship. I climbed up on board with one of the crewmen and we slowly went from bow to stern and found everyone dead and frozen including the Captain. We found him in his stateroom with a handgun lying beside him. Looking him over it appeared that he had killed himself. His right arm was blackened and his fingers were missing. Checking his desk we found the logbook and his last entry said that some of the crew had taken the lifeboat to try and get free of the ice.

He had been suffering from gangrene and committed suicide before the gangrene killed him. We found a case of whisky that I decided to take back to the Gabrielle. Once we were back on board I gave our Captain the logbook from the Wallaroo and we continued south. Unfortunately we soon came across the lifeboat about three miles away from the ship and there was nothing left of it.

November 11, the last five days we were slowly heading south manoeuvring around the ice. The Captain was worried as we started grinding up against the ice and we managed to push through.

November 13, we finally reached the Ross Sea and open water at 10:20 AM and it was full steam ahead to Ross Island.

November 14, Gabrielle dropped anchor south of Ross Island and offloading began. It took two days with everyone working until exhaustion before we got everything off the ship.

November 15, the sea ice camp is established and we heard reports that Miss Lexington has over flown the South Pole. The Scott was prepared for flight and an area was found not far from Miss Lexington’s base to set up the barrier camp.

November 16, the Gabrielle cast off and heads to open water to wait out the expedition. Enderby and Weddell prepared for flight and take off ferrying supplies to the barrier camp.

November 17, establish barrier camp 40 miles from McMurdo Sound to the west. The planes were busy flying back and forth to the barrier camp.

November 18, the first cracks appear around the ice near the sea camp and we were forced to go even faster ferrying supplies. Then the weather got bad and we had to stop the flights and then prepared to use the tractors and dog sleds. Unfortunately we lost about 20 tons of supplies including half the fuel for the planes when the ice broke up and everything sank to the bottom. No one was injured and we managed to get onto dry land safely and headed towards the barrier camp.

November 19, all expedition members have arrived at the barrier camp. The weather was gusty and cold with blowing snow making flight impossible. I was constantly warning everyone to be careful working outside in these conditions and people were changing clothes constantly so sweat didn’t freeze and cause frostbite.