Historical Photos

The Hero met impenetrable ice on 3 December 1977 at the entrance to Arthur Harbor on the first
trip of the season to Palmer Station. Here Captain Pieter Lenie views ice conditions for the one-mile
walk to the station (Photo by Miguel L. Brand-Wiener, Antarctic Journal, December 1977).

This page is a sampling of Hero photos by others...since the few photos I took have already been used. I've been asked to show more, and in particular to mention Captain Lenie, but the above photo is the only one I have at present. So if anyone has any more photos and/or stories to go with them, please send them along.

stamped out The original cachet (left), denoting Marine Acoustical Services, the first contractor to operate the vessel as well as the lab at Palmer.

At right, Hero cruises the Antarctic Peninsula in this undated photo by Bill Curtsinger (Antarctic Journal, March/April 1970). Bill has worked extensively in the Antarctic for National Geographic and other publications.

At left, Hero meets the other NSF Antarctic research ship, the USNS Eltanin, for the first time--at the pier in Punta Arenas, April 1970 (Antarctic Journal, January/February 1971, photo from La Prensa).

At right, one of the early QSL cards...
this one, dated 1972 was issued by
another of the early contractors.

At left, a patch from the early years of the H&N
contract, which began in 1973-74. I don't know
how long the subcontract with GOI lasted.

At right, the Hero during the 1972-73 season; this photo (photographer not identified) appeared in the DF-73 U. S. Navy cruisebook.

At left is Norm Deniston, who captained Hero
during some of the mid-1970s H&N years. This
photo is from his daughter Donna Deniston Rose.

Two photographs from 1976-77 from Team Palmer 77 medic Gary Cullen. At left, Hero is parked at the pier in front of Palmer Station; at right she is in the harbor next to the Coast Guard icebreaker Burton Island.

These two are from Allen Cull, who wintered at Palmer in 1979. At left is Hero in her natural element near Palmer Station during the 1978-79 summer. At right she is tied up to the British vessel Bransfield early in the 1979-80 summer. Allen Cull had an excellent website collection of photos and Palmer sitreps which unfortunately has disappeared.

Another undated photo of Hero in Antarctic Peninsula waters,
by Bill Curtsinger. (Antarctic Journal, September, 1979).

Above, the Hero docked at Palmer Station on a January evening in 1980. With a bunch of loose ice. This photo was taken by
Maggie Amsler on her first visit to Palmer Station. She's been to Palmer many times...here's a blog post from the fall and early winter of 2007.

This photo was taken by writer Michael Parfit, who spent
much of the 1983-84 season traveling about Antarctica
researching what would become the book South Light.
He transited from McMurdo to Palmer aboard the Polar
Sea, where he boarded the Hero for the last part of the
season. The book is highly recommended, it contains
detailed descriptions of life aboard ship, the science,
and Captain Lenie, but no pictures. (Antarctic Journal,
October 1984.)

I see ice

Another view of Hero in her element. This undated shot was originally on Bill Wechter's site, and was later found on this page on the Bosuns Watch web site (archive). This British site by Jim Porter was devoted to trawlers and commercial fishing; the Hero page featured more fine historical photos.

The photo at right appeared on the back cover of the June
2004 NZ Antarctic Journal. It was taken by Colin Monteath
in the Bransfield Strait during the 1983-84 season, the last
full year of Hero Antarctic service (and veteran photographer
Colin's first year of travels on the Peninsula side of the continent).

Next...photo documentation of a November 1979 Hero cruise studying leopard seals, with photos from Joe Gill.