Session July 23, 1956, at 13.30 (c) 
The President opened the session and introduced Mr. P. G. Mott, Great 
Britain, who gave a paper entitled »Aerial Survey in the Antarctic». Summary: 
Early in 1955 the British Government decided to put into effect a plan that 
had been maturing for several years for an aerial survey covering the South 
Shetland Islands and that part of the Antarctic Continent known as the 
Grahamland Peninsula. The combined programme of vertical air photography 
and ground control, for the first time in Polar history, has been entrusted to 
a civil operating company, Hunting Aerosurveys Ltd., who have been given 
a two year contract for the survey of an area totalling 60 000 square miles of 
unmapped territory. 
The paper gives an outline of the initial planning of the expedition and goes 
on to describe some of the problems and experiences during the first season’s 
operations. 
A 950-ton freighter, the »Oluf Sven», was chartered and specially modified 
to enable her to serve in the several capacities of transport, tanker and heli 
copter base. The removable flight deck, which occupied nearly haft the total 
length of the ship, had to be so designed that it could be stored in the hold 
during the outward voyage and reconstructed after discharge of all cargo at the 
Expedition Base. 
Two Canso aircraft (the amphibean version of the Catalina) were selected 
to carry out the air photography, on account of their very long range and the 
fact that they could be beached, if necessary, away from the danger of damage 
from ice. 
Deception Island, where the expedition made its base, is thought to provide 
the only safe anchorage for flying boats in the whole of the Antarctic. Of 
volcanic origin, and still subject to thermal activity, is consists of an outer 
ring of mountains with only one narrow entrance to the inner harbour, which 
is eight miles long and usually free of ice during the summer months. 
The »Oluf Sven» reached Deception Island on the 4th December, 1955 and 
immediately began the task of unloading 600 tons of stores and aircraft fuel. 
Within five weeks, a large hut had been built, a radio control station set up, 
and a slipway and moorings laid down for the aircraft. This essential prepara 
tion delayed the arrival of the planes until the middle of January, by which 
time the short season was already well advanced and the weather, which had 
been fine throughout December, took a decided turn for the worse. Due to 
persistent high winds and cloud, the first photographic flights were not made 
until early February, when cover was obtained of several large islands and 
part of the Palmer Coast on the mainland. As a result of these flights, a great 
deal of valuable experience was gained towards the solution of problems 
connected with exposure and processing of the aerial films and visual methods 
of navigation over completely glaciated terrain. 
The final part of the paper describes the work of the control survey, in which 
an S.51 Sikorsky helicopter, based on the ship, was used for reconnaissance 
and subsequent positioning of survey parties on or near the selected control 
points, which are to be included in a major triangulation framework which it 
is planned to extend over the whole area to be photographed. 
Although the practical results of the first season have been limited by the 
need to set up a large and complex base, the operation was nevertheless carried 
out without any major hitch, and has demonstrated the successful employment 
of aerial photogrammetric techniques which must be considered the only 
practical means of mapping any part of the Antarctic within a foreseeable 
period of time. 
P. G. Mott: 
Aerial Survey 
the Antarctic.