The sea & the snow

Heard Island, an improbably remote speck in the far Southern Ocean, lies 4000km to the south-west of Australia - with Antarctica its nearest continent. By 1964 it had been the object of a number of expeditions, but none reaching the summit of its 9000-foot volcanic peak 'Big Ben.' In that year Warwick Deacock resolved to rectify this omission, and assembled a party of nine with impressive credentials embracing mountaineering, exploration, science and medicine, plus his own organisation and leadership skills as a former Major in the British Army. But first they had to get there. Heard had no airstrip and was on no steamer route: the only way was by sea in their own vessel. Approached from Australia, the island lay in the teeth of the prevailing westerlies of the 'Roaring Forties' and 'Furious Fifties.'