The United States Navy brings the viewer “Seabees In The Antarctic: Base Construction,” a circa 1959 color film detailing the construction of scientific research stations by Task Force 43 as part of Operation Deep Freeze. The station was part of the US Navy’s contribution to the IGY (International Geophysical Year) in 1957. We learn, starting at mark 00:43, how the Navy’s Construction Battalion Center in Rhode Island established a special mobile construction battalion to construct and maintain such scientific outposts. Crews underwent specialized conditioning, shown at mark 01:30, to prepare them for the brutal temperatures in Antarctica and to enable them to construct a naval base at Little America on the coast of the Ross Sea as well as a naval air facility at McMurdo Sound. By mark 04:00 the film shows tons of supplies coming ashore as tractors smoothed the snow ahead of the job. As the film continues, sailors are shown laying foundations and erecting structures in the frigid air. By mark 10:50, the film shows crews preparing the area for what would become heavy air operations at McMurdo Sound including construction of heavy duty 250,000 gallon storage tanks to be used for fuel, which was pumped from a tanker anchored off shore. By mark 12:30, the Seabees roll was completed as both sites became operational. The construction crews would remain in the area, we are told, to construct other facilities including Ellsworth Station, Pole Station, Wilkes Station, Byrd Station, and Cape Hallett, all of which would be used to support various scientific operations of the IGY project. The USS Wyandot (AKA-92), an attack cargo ship, is shown unloading supplies at Ellsworth Station on the Weddell Sea at mark 13:33 during the operation, with scenes from other stations filling the remainder of the film.
A Seabee is a member of the United States Naval Construction Forces (NCF). The word “Seabee” is actually a heterograph of the first initials of the words “Construction Battalion” i.e. CB = Seabee. The Seabees legacy comes from the constructing of hundreds of miles of airstrips and roadways, the dredging of harbors and building of piers, while building anything and everything it took to accomplish the mission in whatever theater they were assigned going back to 1942.
In 1955, Seabees began deploying yearly to the continent of Antarctica. As participants in Operation Deep Freeze, their mission was to build and expand scientific bases located on the frozen continent. The first “wintering over” party included 200 Seabees who distinguished themselves by constructing a 6,000-foot (1,800 m) ice runway on McMurdo Sound. Despite a blizzard that once destroyed the entire project, the airstrip was completed in time for the advance party of Deep Freeze II to become the first to arrive at the South Pole by plane.
Over the following years and under adverse conditions, Seabees added to their list of accomplishments such things as snow-compacted roads, underground storage, laboratories, and living areas. One of the most notable achievements took place in 1962, when the Navy’s builders constructed Antarctica’s first nuclear power plant, at McMurdo Station. Another, in 1975, was the construction of the Buckminster Fuller Geodesic dome at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station with a diameter of 164′ x 52′ high.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
