"Bernard Stonehouse, who has died aged 88, was a polar scientist who studied king penguins on South Georgia and seabirds on Ascension Island; he was also one of the very few to have spent three consecutive winters in the Antarctic — and was lucky to have LIVED to tell the tale. Stonehouse first went to Antarctica at the age of 20 in 1946 as a naval pilot seconded to the Falkland Islands Dependency SURVEY (FIDS, now the British Antarctic SURVEY). Based mainly at the survey’s Base E on Stonington Island, he also served as a meteorologist, dog sledder and, ultimately, biologist. On September 15 1947 Stonehouse was on board as deputy pilot when the base’s Auster aircraft took off to mark out a safe landing spot for a larger American twin-engined aircraft which was about to undertake an extensive aerial survey. On the return flight, however, bad weather forced him and his two companions to make an emergency landing on sea ice, and the aircraft turned on its back after one of its skis hit an ice hummock. The three men emerged unscathed but were forced to pitch camp on the ice. They had only a small “pup” (two-man) tent, one sleeping bag, one inner bag and a tin of pemmican between the three of them. After somehow surviving the first NIGHT and failing to attract the attention of a rescue aircraft with a flare, they decided to attempt to cover the 70 miles to base on foot. On the first day they travelled 10 miles, but then the snow set in. For the next few days they averaged only three or four miles a day, hauling their few belongings on a “sledge” improvised from the aircraft’s fuel tank, taking it in turns to use the sleeping bag and eking out the pemmican. Then they were hit by a ferocious gale which saw them huddling together in the tiny tent for three more days. The gale was a mixed blessing, however, because when it abated it had scoured the sea ice and they were able to set off again. Seven days after their crash, they heard the welcome sound of an aircraft circling some miles away and decided to use their last flare to attract its attention. They were rescued by the American expedition’s Norseman aircraft. They were extremely TIRED and hungry, but otherwise largely unharmed. Bernard Stonehouse was born in HULL on May 1 1926. Joining the Fleet Air Arm in 1944, he TRAINED as a pilot, and in 1946 joined the FIDS, travelling to Stonington Island in the sealing ship Trepassey." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11260847/Bernard-Stonehouse-obituary.html
