EEXXPPLLOORREERR’’SS GGAAZZEETTTTEE Published Quarterly in Pensacola, Florida USA for the Old Antarctic Explorers Association Uniting All OAEs in Perpetuating the Memory of United States Involvement in Antarctica Volume 18, Issue 3 Old Antarctic Explorers Association, Inc Jul-Sep 2018 Photo courtesy of Sydney Cullis The HMS Terra Nova departing Simon’s Bay for Antarctica in 1910. Painting commissioned by Sydney Cullis The Antarctic-African Connection By Ed Hamblin off our tour with four nights there. I thought we might be hen one thinks of Africa, probably jungles, rugged able to get together for a drink or something and socialize a W landscapes, and wild animals are what come to mind. bit. After a series of back and forth e-mails, we had a date But Antarctica? during some of our tour “dead time” to meet up. Also Last fall, my wife and I decided to take a trip to South through those e-mails, Dr. Cullis started apprising me of the Africa, as part of an organized tour in order to get an Cape Town area Antarctic points of interest, and forwarded opportunity to see routine African “stuff”. We booked a me a few pictures. Thanks to the pictures, I found out Cape two-week trip for April of 2018 with some “travel buddies” Town has been a stopping off point for Antarctic we had met previously in the Galapagos Islands. Shortly expeditions dating to the 18th century. Many of the early after that, I decided to see if I could connect with one of our explorers we are all familiar with spent time in Cape Town international OAEA members, Dr. Sydney Cullis who lives and Simon’s Town. in a suburb of Cape Town where we were scheduled to start Continued on page 4 E X P L O R E R ‘ S G A Z E T T E V O L U M E 18, I S S U E 3 J U L S E P 2 0 1 8 P R E S I D E N T ’ S C O R N E R Ed Hamblin—OAEA President TO ALL OAEs—I hope the arrival of fall finds everyone doing well. Wanted to let you know three of our active OAEA members live in the New Bern NC area; that area was particularly hard hit during the recent hurricane Florence. Major flooding occurred throughout North Carolina, and New Bern was one of the coastal areas that suffered. Keep them in your thoughts. Life member Dr. Dewey Painter has the 2020 GROWLERS & BERGY BYTES Jacksonville FL reunion on track. OAEA Reunion Feature Stories, Odds & Ends, Collected, Compiled, number 10 is scheduled for the period 11–13 November Edited, & Written by Billy-Ace Penguin Baker 2020 at the Lexington Hotel & Conference Center on the Jacksonville Riverwalk. Special event rates will be Page honored for the week starting 9 November. He has put Cover StoryThe Antarctic-African Connection…….1, 4 together an impressive package. This is one you won’t § Chesapeake, VAPresident’s Corner…………………2, 3 want to miss. § Pensacola, FLSANAE……………………….…….…….7 § Here and There—Feedback & Letters to the Editor……18 § Pensacola, FL—Burn, Bang, Booze…………………….. 25 § West Jefferson, NC—Lionel Wafer……………………. 27 § Pensacola, FL—Days Gone By. Seven Churches…….…32 § Here and There—In Memory: Obituaries………………36 § This year’s scholarship committee finished their Virginia, Beach, VA—Chaplain’s Corner………………40 deliberations for this year’s awards during the summer. § Chaired by Life member Linda Hamblin, the committee Chesapeake, VA—Tidewater Group Meeting………..…41 consisted of voting Life members Billy-Ace Baker, Brad § Pensacola, FL—The White Horizon (Book Review)…… 43 Miller, and Lisle Rose; more about this year’s awards § will be in the next issue. My hat is off to the scholarship Brunswick, ME—New England Chapter Meeting……...47 committee; they have a tough job to determine awards § especially when there are so many deserving candidates Pensacola, FL—New Members & Reunions…………….50 § to choose from. Awards are funded solely by mutual fund Here and There—Locator Column……………………… 51 earnings from donations received, so keep those § donations coming! The more we take in, the more we can Pensacola, FL—GCG Chapter Meetings………………..51 potentially award annually. At the beginning of the year, the Scholarship Committee Chairperson levied a DISCLAIMER STATEMENT successful challenge where she would match to a certain The Old Antarctic Explorers Association publishes the amount donated. Well done! Explorer’s Gazette quarterly. Opinions expressed by the We have kicked off the Explorer’s Gazette editorial staff or contained in articles submitted by members, subscription service with the April-June issue of the and non-members are not official expressions of the OAEA Gazette. It was offered to our members without Internet nor does the mention of books, products, or events constitute access for $22.00 a year. So far, 25 have subscribed. endorsement by the OAEA. In accordance with Title 17 On our local Tidewater Virginia front, Life member U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this newsletter Wayne Rogers has reached out to Old Dominion is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for University to see if our local OAE group can be of some non-profit research and educational purposes only. service to their polar research academics. Don’t know where it may go, but it may be an interesting partnership if anything comes of it. (Continued on page 3) 2 E X P L O R E R ‘ S G A Z E T T E V O L U M E 18, I S S U E 3 J U L S E P 2 0 1 8 PRESIDENT’S CORNER (Continued from page 2) Interested in a “job” with the OAEA, and a chance to learn some new skills? Our site web master Life member Bob Gaboury aka “Gabby” is looking for a relief. Training is available. Bob has done a lot of the “heavy lifting” over the last two years in setting up a new site using up to date technology, and generally “figuring things out”. He would now like to pass the torch. If interested, The Explorer’s Gazette is contact me [email protected] or Gabby directly at the official publication of the [email protected]. By now, you have probably been contacted to let you know we Old Antarctic Explorers are going with a new OAEA e-mail notification service. That was Association, Inc. necessitated by a cost increase by our previous service. Please National Headquarters subscribe to the new email service; this service is how we 10819 Berryhill Road shotgun OAEA business matters out to the membership to keep Pensacola, FL 32506 USA the information flow going. IT IS NOT SPAM! Phone 850 456 3556 Let us know when you move or change e-mail addresses so we can keep our records updated. Most of our business gets And is published four times annually transacted via e-mail, but we use snail mail for mailing of the reunion Gazette and materials. Editor Finally, the holiday season will be on us before the next issue Billy-Ace Baker of the Gazette hits the streets. Stay safe, stay warm, and happy Editorial Assistants holidays! Gus Shinn Kerry Konrad Ed Hamblin John Stewart Pam Landy Gravity Physicist John Stewart Editor Emeritus Jim O’Connell 2001–2003 Association Officers President – Ed Hamblin Vice President – John Lamont West Secretary – Marty Diller Treasurer – Bill Rouzer Life Director – Billy-Ace Baker Past President – Laura Snow Looking Back At San Antonio Director – David Bresnahan By Billy-Ace Director – Rob Buettner I only received a hand-full of the comment cards. About the Director – Allen Cox only complaint I heard was that the names on the name tags were Director – Wayne Germann too small Director – Thomas Henderson I put out an appeal for donations for memory book extra pages and I received enough to fund the extra pages with some money Director – Robert Conner left over. That money was donated to the OAEA Scholarship Director – William Smith Fund. Documentation of said donation will appear in the Penguin Director – Dick Spaulding Club report in the Jan-Mar 2019 issue of the Gazette. Chaplain – Johnnie Draughon Pete Kearney made a late donation for memory book extra pages. Pete did not attend the reunion. Dick Cameron also made Historian – Billy-Ace Baker a late donation. Their donations also went into the Scholarship Parliamentarian – Vacant Fund 3 E X P L O R E R ‘ S G A Z E T T E V O L U M E 18, I S S U E 3 J U L S E P 2 0 1 8 Africa Trip From Page 1 have helped the Boulder’s Beach colony grow to where it is Before we met with Dr. Cullis, as part of the tour, we had today. We were able to spend about an hour walking the a daylong tour of the Cape Town region that covered some stretch of beach observing the penguins. 140 miles. Part of our tour took us through Simon’s Town, at which Simon’s Bay Scott’s ship Terra Nova anchored from mid-August to early September in 1910 on Scott’s ill-fated final trip south. An accompanying picture with the article was taken by Dr. Cullis at the Simon’s Town Museum and it shows a copy of a painting (he also commissioned the painting) of Scott’s ship Terra Nova leaving Simon’s Bay for the Antarctic in 1910. Right next door to Simon’s Town is African penguin coming out of the wasser Photo courtesy of Sydney Cullis Display in Simons Town Historical Museum iconic Boulder’s Beach, home of a very viable colony of African Penguins numbering around 3000 birds.