The Anare Antarctic Dog Driver’S Manual

By Rod Ledingham

This manual has been written to gather together as much expertise available on the fine art of dog driving.

It is intended as a practical manual for the care and running of the Mawson Station dogs. Each experienced individuals ideas on the subject of dog travel and driving vary to a greater or lesser degree, and therefore, some options will be given. However, in some areas, it is most important that expeditioners use the same techniques to ensure that the dogs are able to be driven safely and efficiently by different drivers. Some practices which may spoil the teams, such as running in front of leading the dogs, have to be discouraged and only used in tricky situations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Jul 11, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514498026

Rod Ledingham

Rod Ledingham Staff Rod was raised in Scotland and first worked in the Antarctic in 1966 as a meteorologist for the British Antarctic Survey. He overwintered in 1967 and 1968 at Adelaide Island (near Rothera Base) and Fossil Bluff. Rod returned briefly to the UK and in 1970 moved to Australia, working as a geologist for seven years before once again returning to the subantarctic with his wife, Jeannie. They wintered twice on Macquarie Island (women were not allowed to the Antarctic from Australia until 1981), but they spent a summer at the site of Mawsons Australasian Antarctic Expedition Hut at Commonwealth Bay in 1978 by chance! In 1980 Rod commenced work as field equipment and training officer with the Australians and remained there until 2003, equipping, training, and running expeditions and resupply ships to the Australian sector bases Casey, Davis, and Mawson and several summer bases. Over the years, Rod has assisted with work on elephant seals, fur seals, leopard seals, giant petrels, albatross, small petrels, penguins, surveying, geology, and geomorphology in the Antarctic and subantarctic. Rod began escorting tourist voyages in 1991 and has visited Antarctica most seasons since (mainly to the Ross Sea but also to the Peninsula) and has been on several partial circumnavigations and one complete circumnavigation of the continent. He lives in Tasmania with his wife, Jeannie, who has been south on nine trips and his daughter Kate who made her first trip to the Ross Sea when she was five and has been on four more trips since then. They ran a family vineyard for twenty-three years. Rod assists with the zodiac training of Australian Antarctic staff and is a guide at Mawson’s Hut Replica Museum in Hobart. He has been to Antarctica on eighteen different ships over the last forty-nine years.

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© 2016 by Rod Ledingham.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016911046

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5144-9773-9

               Softcover        978-1-5144-9772-2

               eBook            978-1-5144-9802-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 07/08/2016

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.Xlibris.com.au

721597

Contents

1.   Introduction

2.   General

2.1   Why Dogs Are Still Used

2.2   The History Of Australian Huskies

2.3   Type Of Dog

3.   Breeding, Rearing, And Caring Of Dogs

3.1   Heat Breeding And Contraception

3.2   Pups

3.3   Breeding Program

3.4   Medical Kit

3.5   Deaths And Injuries

4.   Feeding

4.1   General Feeding Rules

4.2   Seal Killing

4.3   Seal Storage

4.4   Pemmican Meat Bar

4.5   Pemmican Block Formula

5.   Training – General

5.1   Some Misconceptions

5.2   General

5.3   Discipline

5.4   Commands

5.5   Training Pups

5.6   Training A Young Dog To Pull.

5.7   Pup Training

5.8   Training Lead Dogs By Using Tracks And Obstructions

5.9   Training Lead Dogs By Whip And Command

5.10   Training The Team

5.11   Dog Fights

6.   Equipment

6.1   Station Spans

6.2   Traces

6.2.1   Centre Trace

6.2.2   Fan Trace

6.3   Harness

6.4   Building Dog Sledges

6.4.1   General

6.4.2   Timber

6.4.3   Names

6.4.4   Rawhide

6.4.5   Knots And Lashings

6.4.6   Step

6.4.7   Foot Brake

6.4.8   Pulling Rope

6.4.9   The Cowcatcher

6.4.10   The Sequence Of Construction

6.4.11   Maintenance

6.5.1   Extra Brakes

6.5.2   Safety Rope

6.5.3   Chain Brakes

6.5.4   Ice Brake

6.5.5   Keels

6.5.6   Canvas Tanks

6.5.7   Fibre Glass Sledge Boxes

6.5.8   Lashings

6.5.9   Picket And Ice Axe Holsters

6.5.10   Compass Mounting

6.5.11   Night Span

6.5.12   Sledge Wheel

6.5.13   Pickets And Deadmen

6.5.14   Whips

6.5.15   Sledge Loading Methods Commonly Used

7.   Travelling Techniques

7.1   Travel On Sea Ice

7.1.1   Snow Drifts

7.1.2   Hidden Leads

7.1.3   Glacier Tongues

7.1.4   Rafted Ice

7.1.5   Action If Caught In A Breakout

7.2   Plateau Travel

7.2.1   Waist Loop

7.2.3   Travelling In Crevasses

7.2.4   Travelling In Convoy

7.2.5   Sledge Loads

8.   Camping

8.1   Tent Sites: Sea Ice

8.2   Tent Sites: Plateau

8.3   Tent – Position And Pitching

8.4   Pitching Tent: Good Weather

8.5   Pitching Tent: Bad Weather

8.6   Camping System

8.7   Tent Layout – Two-Man Party

8.8   Other Camping ‘Hints’

9.   Extracts From Mawson Dog Reports

9.1   Lars Larsen, 1976

9.2   Pat Moonie, 1974

9.3   Pat Moonie, 1973

9.4   Pat Moonie, 1969

9.5   J. Hudson, 1966

9.6   G. Smith, 1961

References

ROD LEDINGHAM

STAFF

rod.jpg

Rod was raised in Scotland and first worked in the Antarctic in 1966 as a meteorologist for the British Antarctic Survey. He over-wintered in 1967 and 1968 at Adelaide Island (near Rothera Base) and Fossil Bluff. Rod returned briefly to the UK and in 1970 moved to Australia, working as a geologist for 7 years before once again returning to the subAntarctic with his wife Jeannie. They wintered twice on Macquarie Island (women we not allowed to the Antarctic from Australia until 1981), but they spent a summer at the site of Mawsons Australasian Antarctic Expedition Hut at Commonwealth Bay in 1978 by chance!.

In 1980 Rod commenced work as field equipment and training officer with the Australians and remained there until 2003 equipping, training and running expeditions and re-supply ships to the Australian sector bases Casey, Davis and Mawson and several summer bases. Over the years, Rod has assisted with work on elephant, fur seals and leopard seals, giant petrels, albatross, small petrels, penguins, surveying, geology and geomorphology in the Antarctic and Sub Antarctic. Rod began escorting tourist voyages in 1991 and has visited Antarctica most seasons since, mainly to the Ross Sea but also to the Peninsula, and has been on several partial circumnavigations and one complete circumnavigation of the continent.

He lives in Tasmania with his wife Jeannie who has been south on nine trips and his daughter Kate who made her first trip to the Ross Sea when she was five and 4 more trips since then. They ran a family vineyard for 23 years. Rod assists with the zodiac training of Australian Antarctic staff and is a guide at Mawson’s Hut Replica Museum in Hobart. He has been to Antarctica on 18 different ships over the last 49years.

WHY A DOG MANUAL?

In the early days of ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Expeditions) changeovers of personnel at the stations at the end for each year could be as short as 4 days and there were unlike the British system where field assistants were employed each year to train and run the dogs and accompanied most of the field scientists.

The ANARE expeditioners were asked to learn their new job and pick up a bit about the dogs in the evenings during a hectic few days of unloading and talking with their departing opposite number.

The author would like to especially thank my good friend Liz Haywood and the director of Green Grass Publishing who did all the hard work to get this guide in publishing format.

Sadly the dogs were caught up in the diplomatic doings of the Antarctic Mineral Treaty and banished as undesirable aliens and replaced by such not polluting transport as motor toboggans, quads, tractors and helicopters. The dog of the past drivers will never forget the quiet panting of the dogs, the crunch of the snow and creaking of the sledge at the Nansen sledges flexed over the sastrugi.

The author would also like to acknowledge and thank the Australian Antarctic Division for allowing me to use several quotes by notable dogmen of the early years from the Mawson Station annual dog reports’’

1. INTRODUCTION

This manual has been written to gather together as much expertise available on the fine art of dog driving.

It is intended as a practical manual for the caring and running of the Mawson Station dogs. Each experienced individual’s ideas on the subject of dog travelling and driving vary to a greater or lesser degree and therefore some options will be given. However, in some areas, it is most important that expeditioners use the same techniques to ensure that the dogs are able to be driven safely and efficiently by different drivers. Some practices that may spoil the teams, such as running in front leading the dogs, have to be discouraged and only used in tricky situations.

The following ANARE expeditioners have assisted greatly in the production of this manual:

Pat Moonie, Tom Maggs, Murray Price, and Attila Vrana

The author would