RRS Bransfield
Farewell “Adders” – Welcome Rothera – Stuart Lawrence
Marguerite Bay 1977 – “Bransfield’s Activities during February and March, taken from the Journal of Captain Stuart Lawrence, recording an”AMAZING FEAT” by all those on board.
British Admiralty Charts 3570, Brabant Island to Adelaide Island and 3571, Lavoisier Island to Alexander Island.
Where to Begin?
Bransfield days 1972 to ’74 – Bosun Robbie Peck
Sorting out a crew
How I got the bosun’s job on the Bransfield was a funny old coincidence really. I’d been working on the Discovery for NERC for a couple of seasons after the Shackleton.
Then, one day the Discovery tied up in Southampton and I went into my local pub, what I’d always used before and the landlady said “There’s a bloke been looking for you, called John Morton”.
I said I reckoned it was for a drink and she said “Oh, no, it’s about work”. I told her I was okay for work at the moment.
My first trip aboard Bransfield – Fourth Mate 1973/74 Season – Jack Tolson
I first saw RRS Bransfield in Southampton docks one evening a few days before she sailed at the start of the 1972/73 season. It was a packed wardroom pre sailing party, and I was a guest of Third mate Ed Dewhurst. Ed and I had been apprentice deck officers together in British India Steam Navigation Company. BI, as it was universally known. BI was an integral part of the P&O Shipping group. However, during 1971 restructuring merged BI into the general cargo division of P&O. Small fish in a big pond syndrome forced Ed, me and many others to jump ship. Before we jumped I’d spotted an advert in a shipping magazine and told Ed about a fourth mate job with an interesting little company called BAS. He got the position. I hadn’t completed my seatime and therefore was not eligable to sit my second mate’s certificate in time.
Anyhow, by the following season they needed a new fourth mate and I applied.
Bruce Crammond? on the Gyro Repeater traversing Neptune’s Bellows, Deception 
Taking sextant angles on Endurance launch while sounding off Rothera
