The Antarctic Experience

January 14th through January 18th, 2002


The Antarctic Team

We were priviledged to have on board a team of Antarctic scientists to enrich the Antarctic experience with lecturers and moment to moment intrepretation of the sights through the ships intercom system to the public areas and staterooms through closed-circuit radio channels. One of the team was an experienced ice pilot to keep our big unreinforced hull out of trouble in the ice.

This picture, borrowed from the site promoting Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, a giant-screen film about the man and the expedition, is included to give a better feel for the size of the icebergs in Antarctic waters. Click the image to find out about the expedition and the film.


Dr. Lawson Brigham - Expedition Leader & Lecturer

Dr. Lawson Brigham is a polar researcher and Senior Associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, UK. He is a 1970 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (BS), holds graduate degrees from Rensseslaer Polytechnic Institute (MS) and the University of Cambridge (MPhil & PhD), and is also an honor graduate of the U.S. Naval War College. When he retired in 1995 from the U.S. Coast Guard, he held the rank of Captain. As a career officer Lawson Brigham served at sea in command of four Coast Guard cutters including a patrol boat, Great Lakes icebreaker, medium endurance cutter in the Caribbean, and the polar icebreaker "Polar Sea". He has participated in 17 Arctic and Antarctic expeditions including voyages aboard six different icebreakers. While in command of the "Polar Sea" 1993-95, the ship completed two scientific voyages in the Arctic Ocean and two, 8-month deployments to the Antarctic. On February 5, 1994 while conducting scientific operations in the Antarctic, "Polar Sea" reached the southernmost point navigable by ship. "Polar Sea" reached the North Pole on August 22, 1994 during a scientific expedition across the Arctic Ocean, becoming the first ship in history to reach the extreme limits of the global ocean. Dr. Brigham has been on the faculty of the Coast Guard Academy, and served as the Chief of Strategic Planning in Washington DC. During 1989-90 he was a research fellow at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and, in 1996-97 held the Office of Naval Research Arctic Chair at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. He has published widely on ice navigation, the Russian Arctic, Antarctic science and Arctic oceanography, and in 1991 edited the volume "The Soviet Maritime Arctic."


Dr. Bernard Stonehouse - Lecturer

After service with the Royal Navy during World War II, Bernard Stonehouse joined the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey. Spending three years in Antarctica as meteorologist, pilot, dog-sledder, surveyor and biologist, he discovered an emperor penguin colony, and spent his third winter under canvas studying the then-unknown breeding cycle. After graduating with a BSc in zoology at University College, London, he served 18 months as a biologist on South Georgia, studying king penguins and skuas. There followed six years at the Edward Grey Institute, Oxford, where he was awarded a doctorate, and led an expedition to study tropical seabirds on Ascension Island. In 1960 Dr. Stonehouse moved with his family to New Zealand, where he became Reader in Zoology in the University of Canterbury. Later he held visiting appointments at Yale University (USA) and the University of British Columbia (Canada). He returned to the UK, where he headed undergraduate and postgraduate Schools of Environmental Science in the University of Bradford. In 1982 he moved to the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, where for many years he was the editor at the journal "Polar Record". For more than four decades Dr. Stonehouse has returned to Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic and has also worked in the Arctic. Though retired from teaching, he currently leads the Institute's research group in Polar Ecology and Management, specializing in studies of the ecological implications of tourism in both polar regions. Dr. Stonehouse has written books on penguins, polar biology & ecology, and Arctic/Antarctic comparisons. His most recent is a popular guidebook, "The Last Continent-Discovering Antarctica", published February 2000.


Captain Carl Swedberg - Antarctic Pilot & Lecturer

Captain Carl A. Swedberg is a 1971 graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy. After an active duty career of over 30 years, he retired on June 30, 2001. With more than 13 years of sea duty, Captain Swedberg has over 11 years of icebreaking experience. He has served in the icebreaker USCGC NORTHWIND and as Commanding Officer of three Coast Guard Cutters; USCGC CAPE HEDGE, a patrol boat, USCGC MACKINAW, the Coast Guard's largest Great Lakes icebreaker and USCGC POLAR STAR, the Coast Guard's most powerful icebreaker. He has participated in four Operation Deep Freeze deployments to Antarctica and three extended Arctic scientific expeditions, including circumnavigating North America via the Northwest Passage twice. Captain Swedberg is also a 1978 graduate of the University of Miami Law School and has rotated his extensive operational assignments with Legal Office tours in the 13" Coast Guard District in Seattle and the International and Maritime Law Division of Coast Guard Headquarters. Because of his extensive icebreaking experience, during his final assignment as Legal Officer in Seattle he was selected as President of the panel which conducted sea and acceptance trials of the Coast Guard's newest icebreaker, USCGC HEALY.