Something quite dramatic happened! When halfway to the Gotley, across just a matter of minutes, the bottom dropped out of the wind almost completely and the cloud dispersed, again almost completely, to reveal the whole of the island, including ‘Big Ben’ puffing a bit of smoke, in all its glory.
Heard Island – The Rescue of Ian Holmes – A Rare Favourable Wind
– Martin Betts
I’m not a believer in miracles but obviously sometimes things happen for reasons it’s hard to explain. Such was the case regarding the rescue of Ian Holmes at Heard Island in February 1971 as referred to by Ian Allison in his article in the 2025 Midwinter edition of Aurora. I was on ’Nella’ at that time headed for a winter at Mawson.
Ian writes that ‘Nella’ arrived at Heard “about midnight on the 20th” and the “next morning, with the vessel off the Gotley Glacier, was a rare day for Heard when a helicopter could be operated under visual flight rules. Within about half an hour, Ian was located, winched to the helicopter.. .. and transferred to the ship”.
What Ian didn’t mention was that the plan for the day was for the ship to first visit Atlas Cove to pick up Ian Holme’s fellow trackers Graham Budd and Iain Dillon so that they could help locate Ian on the Gotley Glacier. However, when ’Nella’ edged into the Cove very early that morning, the winds were meaning around 50-60 knots, there was flying sea spray everywhere, the visibility was very poor and the cloud base was no higher than 200 feet. Despite the conditions, somehow a LARC was eventually launched and managed to bring Graham and Ian to the ship.
’Nella’ then made its way out of Atlas Cove and headed for the island’s southern coast with the wind and seas still raging. Then something quite dramatic happened! When halfway to the Gotley, across just a matter of minutes, the bottom dropped out of the wind almost completely and the cloud dispersed, again almost completely, to reveal the whole of the island, including ‘Big Ben’ puffing a bit of smoke, in all its glory. That meant plans to get to Ian “overland” from the shore were forgotten (thank goodness because Expedition Leader Eric Macklin had me as one of that party, and the glacier frankly looked horrible terrain).
As Ian Allison explained, Ian Holmes was quickly flown to the ship and his leg was put in plaster by doctor Tony Graff on one of the tables in the expeditioner’s mess. Tony asked me assist him (assistance wasn’t really needed), but I distinctly remember Ian’s calm demeanour as Tony went about his work, an approach that clearly helped him during his 11 days alone on the glacier.
That was my first visit to that magnificent place that is Heard Island. Across the other half-a-dozen visits there I was lucky enough to be involved in in the 30 plus years that followed, all that the place can hurl at visitors, like that of that morning in February 1971, was experienced. But I never saw the Big Ben again! The stars, or whatever, were certainly looking out for Ian Holmes that day!
Image above taken as we travelled back from picking up Ian Holmes to Atlas Cove, in order to deliver Graham and Ian Dillion back there to continue the summer program.
An amazing day! Great memories!!
Cheers,
Martin
