Why I Became a Fid – Robin Perry
1958 – Detaille (Base W) Met.; 1959 – Horseshoe (Base Y) BC/Met.
He was, of course, a psychologist sizing up my aptitude for life on a base. I was deemed fit, and the Meteorological Office agreed to release me for the duration of my contract with FIDS. My orders were to report to Berth 37 at Southampton to sail with the Royal Research Ship Shackleton on Tuesday 1 October 1957 at 3pm, but I must have a certificate from a dentist that my teeth were unlikely to give trouble under polar conditions.
So about the middle of September I drove down to Grange in my 1937 Vauxhall Ten and was examined by the family dentist in Kendal. He advised that an impacted wisdom tooth be removed, and by cutting many administrative corners I was accepted for the operation (under general anaesthetic) at Lancaster Royal Infirmary on Thursday 26 September. All went well, and I was discharged on the Saturday. On Monday 30th I was driven down by my parents and we stayed my last night at an hotel.
The Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth arrived from America that afternoon and tied up at the next berth. The contrast in size between the two vessels was comical. Our departure did not elicit any great interest in the national press, although regional papers such as the Grange & Cartmel News and the Westmorland Gazette found space when it concerned a local lad. Once we had left the quayside the First Officer handed me a packet containing the 35mm camera and light-meter I had purchased under bond in Aberdeen. The Super Frankarette had a built-in (though manual) rangefinder. Nothing special, but adequate in those days. My first picture was of the Needles (Isle of Wight). Normally we would have called at Dakar, but because of an outbreak of Asian ’flu’ on board this was not allowed. Quite a few of the ship’s officers and crew went down with it, and we passengers had to give a hand in various jobs associated with running the ship, including turns at the wheel. I did most of the weather observations. We learnt with stupefaction of the successful launch of Sputnik–1 by the then USSR. The achievement was a real feather in their cap. As usual it was pretty tumultuous crossing the Bay of Biscay, and oppressively hot just before the Equator. The customary rites for those crossing the Line for the first time were very perfunctory. All in all, we had an uneventful voyage, and arrived at Montevideo, capital of Uruguay, on 25 October.
Transcribed from the book “Antarctic Experience” by Robin Perry, with the Kind Permission of his daughters Carol Perry-Bussinger and, and his son Maurice Perry