Public Schools Fencing ... 54 Public Schools Exploring Society

THE BRITISH SCHOOLS EXPLORING SOCIETY 1967 EXPEDITION TO ARCTIC NORWAY

On 26th July last year the 29th Annual Expedition of the British Schools Exploring Society left Newcastle bound for Arctic Norway.

The Society, formerly the Public Schools Exploring Society was founded in 1932 by Surgeon Commander Murray Levick, R.N. The first expedition went to Finland and consisted of the founder of the Society and eight boys. Since then the Society has expanded a great deal and the 1967 expedition consisted of eleven leaders, sixty three boys and two Norwegians as guests of the Society.

Our first part of the journey was from Newcastle across to Bergen. At Bergen, after our first taste of Scandinavian food, we joined one of the coastal ferry boats. On this we were all expecting to find berths as we were to spend three nights on board. However, about a third had to find sleeping accommodation where they could. This ranged from the first class writing rooms to the lifeboats and every possible place between the two. The crew had fairly comfortable quarters and we did manage to get our heads down in their quarters.

The time taken to get up the coast was most useful as it enabled the leaders to get to know all the boys and the boys were able to get to know the people they were going to spend the next seven weeks with. It also enabled the surveyors to get acquainted with theodolites and plane tables. This saved much valuable time later as very few of the surveyors knew anything about surveying and it is much to the credit of the two leaders that such a good map was made.

The expedition was divided into groups of between ten and twelve called "Fires". Each fire lived separately and did their own cooking. Each of the fires had some work to do and were split down as follows : 2 Fires—Survey 2 Fires—Geology 1 Fire—Natural History 1 Fire—Commando

The first five fires speak for themselves but the Commando fire did not have anything to do with the usual use of the word but they did invaluable work in carrying out recce marches in all directions for the benefit of the various marches which were to take place towards the end of the expedition.

After three eventful days on the boat up the coast we disembarked at Bod. I am sure that the crew were relieved to say the least to see us go while the other passengers wished us the best of luck. After unloading all our personal kit we had a short time in which to look around Bodo. This we found very Americanised due to a NATO base being up there. The last stage of our journey was by coach and a mine railway. A combination of the two took us to within walking distance of the base camp which was already well founded by the advance party. The walk from the roadhead to the base camp was only a short distance but due to our various stages of physical fitness it took an awful long time and those who had taken the extra luxury regretted it on the initial march into camp.

As soon as we had de bused and gathered our packs together we were subjected to our first taste of the mosquitoes; it would be more correct to

say it was their first taste of us and they must have been impressed as they kept coming back for more. Luckily as the expedition progressed and the weather got colder they disappeared. To begin with, however, they were quite painful We found the best way to wash was to have a body guard who kept the insects off our backs while we washed.

After one day in base camp the survey fires moved out to their base camp at the S.E. corner of the lake. It was not an ideal camp site as it was rather exposed as was found out within our first week there. Also there was a lack of firewood and running water. It did have the advantage of a very good bathing spot as there was a rocky peninsula around which the water was quite deep. Although nearly everybody in survey made an attempt to keep clean by swimming, one dip in the whole time there was enough. The water was extremely cold and one's reaction on diving in would do credit to any aquatic acrobat and over the short distances required to get out there were some promising swimmers. After the middle of August it was too cold for even the most enthusiastic.

While stores were being carried to survey from base camp we had our one and only case of exposure. This was caused, as it usually is, by two or three factors but luckily we were able to get the victim back to base camp where he quickly recovered. In two days, survey base camp was firmly established and as I was a member of the survey team I can only give an account of its work while they were out there.

As reported in an earlier edition of the Peterite we did not make a map of an area of 80 square miles as this would have taken some considerable time. The area mapped was between survey and base camp in a line north-south to the Norway Sweden border to the east. This proved a difficult area to map as it was extremely rugged. The weather was not very helpful to the survey party as there was low cloud and it rained every day during the first three weeks. However, the weather did not prove too great an obstacle and the first part of making the map went ahead. This was using the theodolites. Their task was to fix the points of various beacons which we placed out on prominent places. The readings they took were given to the computing party who with the aid of log tables and mathematical formulae were able to fix the various beacons in relation to two mountains. During the first three weeks we did not see the tops of the mountains to get an accurate fix. To combat this we measured out a base line but the following day the tops came clear and we were able to continue with making theodolite readings. Various errors were made and these had to be corrected before the plane table parties could go out and actually map the ground. When the theodolite readings had been completed everybody turned to plane tabling so that this could be finished as soon as possible. This was to have enabled as many people as possible to go on the various marches.

All the food for the expedition was taken out in advance. It was planned to give 4,000 calories a day. The food as such was good but very monotonous. In survey we were lucky enough to have a good fisherman and he was able to supplement our normal rations every so often with trout. Basically there were two meals a day with a snack for lunch. Breakfast consisted of porridge and a cup of coffee or tea, without milk, and a packet of Service type biscuits. After a little while this breakfast was not appreciated but if drinking chocolate or coffee or dried fruit were added, on different occasions, it became quite palatable. Lunch took the

form of a bar of chocolate, some dried fruit and two packets of biscuits. The evening meal was called Hoosh, this name being derived from the very first expeditions and from the Society's founder who had been with Scott in the Antartic. Hoosh was basically dried vegetables, Horlicks concentrated meat bars and rice. Our first taste of this was rather disastrous as somehow porridge oats found their way into the pot. This was a case of "too many cooks".

The cooking was done on wood fires where possible but we did have the butane gaz stoves with us. These however were very slow and easily blown out. Wood fires, however, served more than one purpose. Apart from being very efficient for cooking—we were able to dry out clothing and ourselves and it proved a good focal point of any camp. At first we found them difficult to light but once we had a supply of birch bark it was quite easy.

All the time we spent out there we were under canvas. During the first three weeks it was very difficult to keep things dry. The arrangements were fairly comfortable in the camps as we slept three to a tent. It was essential to get oneself well organised like this as all one's equipment was in the tent as well. On marches, however, it was a very different problem so as to save weight we slept five to a tent. This required fairly tight packing and if one person turned over in his sleep everybody in the tent had to turn over and the one nearest the door was outside.

The climax of every expedition are the various marches which lasted between ten and twelve days. The Long March lasted twelve days and was made up of the best members of the expedition. There were three other intermediate marches which lasted ten days.

The march I was on went south into Sweden to the position of the previous year's expedition base camp. On this march we covered about 130 miles. Throughout the march we had perfect weather and we came up against the problem of a shortage of salt. Our route took us along Lapp footpaths and past Lapp huts. The end of the first and second days' marching took us to Lapp huts and we used these to sleep in. They are very low buildings with a wooden skeleton and covered in birch bark and turf. They were usually occupied by mice as we found out somewhat disastrously on the return journey of the march.

To save weight we decided not to take lids to all the cooking pots. On one occasion we mixed our porridge one evening so that we could cook it the following morning without getting out of our sleeping bags. We turned in without putting anything over the top of the pan. At midnight one member of the march woke up because of a noise which sounded like a large animal drinking. I was then woken up as I was nearest to the pot and had a torch. When I shone the torch into the porridge I was greeted by a mouse taking a swim. With some difficulty the mouse was persuaded to leave the water, on the blade of a knife, and was placed on the floor. An immediate inspection of the porridge showed nothing amiss and it was decided to cook the porridge as normal the following morning. In the morning, however, the colour of the porridge put us off our food as it had turned a pale shade of green. Even though we were short of rations we did not eat it.

The march itself was very successful and the ten boys taking part were sent away on their own, the leaders going off in an attempt to film some Lapps.

The maps used were produced by the United States Army map service. These we found were not very accurate and were difficult to read after Ordnance Survey maps. On one occasion on the march we had been split in two and were making our way by separate routes to the same destination. On the second day out the two groups met in an area of ground approximately the size of Worcestershire. At the time both groups were heading for a Lapp but to spend the night in. The problem, however, was that one group was going north and the other south and the but wasn't in sight.

Once the marchers had returned, the remainder of the time was spent clearing up and packing all the equipment. During one clearing up day one of our doctors was burned after a camping gaz cylinder exploded in a gash pit which he had just set fire to. Fortunately he was taken to the hospital in the nearby mining town and was not seriously injured.

There were other minor injuries like sprained ankles and blisters. The doctors were able to practice their stitching up as on the nearby glacier one member of the expedition injured himself with his ice axe. On the whole we were very fortunate with accidents.

Once the expedition had packed up we moved up to the road head and started preparing for our last meal to be cooked by ourselves. This meal consisted of reindeer. We had one shot for us at about 6 a.m. that morning and by 6 p.m. it had been eaten. This was the first meat we had eaten for six weeks or so and although it was somewhat tough it was delicious.

Reindeer were in fact all round us and they could be lured fairly close to the camps with salt. We also came across lemmings, small hamster like animals. One fire tried feeding one on army biscuits but only a corner of one biscuit was sampled.

The expedition was a great success for all those who took part and a great deal of credit must go to the society for the standard of the leaders chosen and for the great cross section of boys selected. The boys were not only from schools, some were from industry and others were police cadets. Some had experience of similar activities while others were newcomers to the whole idea. By the end of the expedition everybody concerned was a much wiser and better person from what he had learnt about himself and the people about him.

This year's expedition is going to Spitsbergen and consists of only 35 boys. The 1969 expedition goes to Norther ,- Canada and should be a very good one. I hope some members of the School will apply, as I am sure they would benefit a tremendous amount from the experience gained. Details of the society and future expeditions can be obtained from The Secretary, British Schools Exploring Society, 2 Whitehall Court, London, S.W.1.

W. N. MARSHALL

(Nigel Marshall left in Summer 1967 and was already, by his own initiative, a very competent climber and mountaineer. Selection for such expeditions is demanding and a considerable personal outlay is involved. Ed.)