LAST NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE

11/27/2020

This is the last of my near death experiences. Of the 6, this one seems to be the favorite of them all. Maybe it is because we are fascinated by polar bears. I don't know. This post also includes a happening during the same time period. I have called this episode "Polar Bear Food and Falling Through the Ice. I hope you enjoy.

POLAR BEAR FOOD. In 1977, we had a joint project with the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) to collect environmental ambient measurements in the northern part of Baffin Bay (See Figure 3 posted earlier). NSWC had developed a system to simultaneously measure naturally occurring acoustic, magnetic, pressure, and seismic signals. These were all important parameters for detecting submarines and for use in anti-submarine sea mines. Our mission was to test this system in an area of strategic importance. It was important for this test to be conducted in a sea ice covered area because the movement of sea ice can wreak havoc with the ambient acoustic and pressure conditions of the area, thereby making the detection of a submarine more difficult. Because of this requirement, it was necessary to establish a manned camp on the ice where we could deploy the NSWC system for several days.
We used a Coast Guard icebreaker to take us to the edge of the ice pack in Baffin Bay and to provide helicopter support for the mission. Once at the ice pack’s edge, my co-worker Jim Skeen and I packed our scientific and ice camp equipment aboard the Coast Guard helicopter. We were also issued a 30.06 high powered rifle with 200-grain ammunition for protection against polar bears. Prior to departure, we were given a 20-minute lesson on how to use the rifle and how to deal with polar bears. From what we were told, killing a polar bear bent on eating you is a difficult thing to do.

        Figure 12. Polar Bear Running On the Ice As We Searched For A Camp Site

                        Figure 13. Another Polar Bear Running On the Ice

Head shots were discouraged because the shot had to be very accurate. The head is a small target, and the skull is so thick that a glancing blow of the bullet will be more likely than a skull penetration, thereby angering the bear even more. In any event, an encounter with a polar bear by a couple of greenhorns (Jim and me) was not a good thing.
On the helicopter flight to the ice pack, I noticed a horrible, horrible sight. Polar bears were everywhere (See Figures 12 and 13). On the 10- to 15-mile flight over the pack, I must have seen 10 bears or so. This was very disconcerting to us.
After searching for 10 or 15 minutes, we selected a desirable area for our camp and unloaded the helicopter. It is hard to say how we felt as the helicopter lifted off and flew away leaving us totally alone in a very hostile environment. However, we had a lot of work to do, so we got busy, but we were still very scared.
At first, we were very busy. We had to set up 2 tents; one for us to sleep in and one to house our test equipment. We then drilled a hole through the ice canopy, deployed our gear through the hole, calibrated it, and began collecting the data.
At this point, we had little to do except monitor our equipment’s performance. We could now consider the perilous situation we were in. This was the middle of summer in the high latitudes, so it was daylight 24 hours a day. At this time on our mission, the weather was beautiful. We were scheduled to collect data for 3 days. Periodically, we would hear a blood curdling scream; or so it seemed to us. We felt that it was probably a scream from an unfortunate seal that had been found by a bear. But the screams were unsettling and seemed very close to us. At “night”, I had trouble sleeping because of the constant daylight and these screams. Also, our tents were made of nylon which allowed the sun’s light to illuminate the inside of our tent. I had horrible visions of the silhouette of a polar bear looming against our tent wall as it approached us for the kill. I gripped the rifle with white knuckles at night.
On the second day, we had little to do but monitor our data collection efforts and keep a watch for polar bears. The weather remained beautiful. We actually got a little bored. Our camp was set up about a mile from northern Greenland. The coastline looked very close to us. In our reverie, we determined that if we went there that we would probably be walking on ground that no other human being had been on. We then made a very dumb decision to walk the mile to Greenland. We, along with our trusty rifle, set off for Greenland. Well, our mile was much longer than we had estimated. Also, the arctic sea ice canopy is not flat like an ice -covered pond. It is a very difficult terrain to deal with. But we kept going because the coastline looked so close. Periodically, we would stand on a large piece of ice to see if we could still see the tents of our camp. We could. When we got near the land, we found that there was water between us and the land. However, there were large ice floes that we could jump onto to continue our journey. We finally reached the solid ground of the north Greenland coast. We could still see our tents.
After about an hour of exploring this virgin territory for valuable gemstones, we noticed that a thick fog was beginning to wash over us. We looked to see if we could see our tents, and of course, we could not. The fog was getting thicker and thicker by the minute. We immediately began our return trip to our camp. But we did not know where the camp was. We made our best guess as to the direction we should head. When we encountered the open water between the land and the ice pack, we noticed that there were not nearly as many ice floes to use to hop/jump to the solid ice pack. We did the best we could, and when we were just about 20 or 30 yards from the solid ice, I jumped onto a floe, and it broke into a large piece and a small piece. I was standing on the small piece. Down I went into the 32-degree water. I was wearing my full arctic gear of a heavy-duty parka and thick, insulated pants. Also, of course, I had on heavy boots. Fortunately, I have always had quick reflexes, and I immediately grabbed ahold of the surface of the broken floe. I went down into the water up to my neck, but my head never entered the water. I was able to pull myself back onto the floe despite the fact that my arctic gear was full of water. I made my way back to the solid ice, but I was badly shaken and freezing to death.
Well, I survived that ordeal, but we still had the problem of finding our camp in the fog. The fact that I was shaking from the cold did not help. We set off, but we did not know if we were heading toward our camp or away from it. We could not see more than a few feet in front of us because of the fog. We knew that we could walk by our camp and not even see it. And, and course, our fear of a polar bear encounter was always on our minds. Our biggest hope was that we would be able to hear the generator supplying power to our equipment. Then, by the grace of God (I can

Figure 14. Photo Shows How Rough the Arctic Pack Ice Can Be. See Footprints For Reference

think of no other reason), I had to walk around a large chunk of ice, and I saw our footprints that we had made going to land (See Figure 14 to see ice similar to what I encountered). We were not heading in the right direction. We were able to follow our footprints back to our camp. I immediately went into the equipment tent which housed the generator and was warmer. I stripped down to my skin to remove all my wet clothing. I was freezing to death, but I knew that I was not going to die from that. We still had the polar bears to worry about.
We were scheduled to return to the ship the next afternoon. At that time, we would have our necessary 3 days of data. However, the fog was not going away. In communication with the icebreaker, we were told that the fog was just as bad for them; even worse because they were stationed at the water/ice edge. The third day came, and the fog conditions did not improve. This meant that the helicopter could not be deployed for two reasons; they may not be able to find us in the fog, and flying conditions were below minimums for them to deploy the helicopter.
We were now stranded on the ice until the fog lifted. In packing for the experiment, we packed ham sandwiches for 3 days. Also, we had a large box of Frito Lay corn chips. It turned out that the fog did not lift for 2 more days. And we were finally “rescued”. In the 5 days on the ice, we had eaten all our sandwiches and were living on the awful tasting corn chips. To this day, I can not put a Frito Lay corn chip into my mouth.
The fear of a polar bear encounter did not go away. In fact, it got worse because we felt that the longer we stayed out there, the greater the chance that a bear would wander by and find us.
I have included this adventure in my Near Death chapter. Perhaps Jim and I were never really in an imminent death situation. However, we were in a very hostile environment for 5 days. In fact, we were probably closer to death because of our silly decision to walk to Greenland. My falling through the ice and our close scrape of getting lost on the ice probably had us closer to death than that posed by the polar bears. It is a 5-day period in my life that I will never forget.