We've heard the story for years, how Grandma's cousin was captain of an icebreaker and had a place in Antarctica named for him. But is it Truth or Tapioca? Thanks to the Australian Antarctic Data Center and the U.S.G.S. Geographic Names Information System, we now have Evidence! (Click here for an interactive map.)
| Feature Name: | Porters Pinnacles |
| Class: | Island |
| Latitude: | 713300S |
| Longitude: | 0990900W |
| Description: | A group of low ice-covered rocks forming a menace to navigation along the N coast of Thurston Island, located about 4 mi N of the E extremity of Glacier Bight. Discovered by the USN Bellingshausen Sea Expedition in February 1960, and named for Cdr. Philip W. Porter, Jr., USN, commander of the icebreaker USS Glacier which made this discovery. |
Cool. I'll be sure to show the boys.
We are working on our Antarctica unit now. We are currently reading about the various explorers in Antarctica. We have read about Amundsen and Scott and Shackleton among others and recently watched a Nova movie about Shackleton. His story never ceases to amaze me.
We are also reading a book my father loaned us called "Alone" by Admiral Richard E. Byrd. The boys have found it quite interesting and the other day they were in absolute hysterics over his description of what he calls The Corn Meal Incident:
"Into a boiler I dumped what seemed a moderate quantity of meal, added a little water, and stood it on the stove to boil. That simple formula gave birth to a Hydra-headed monster. The stuff began to swell and dry up, swell and dry up, with fearful blowing and sucking noises. All innocently I added water, more water and still more water. Whereupon the boiler erupted like Vesuvius. All the pots and pans within reach couldn't begin to contain the cornmeal that overflowed. It oozed over the stove. It spattered the ceiling. It covered me from head to foot. If I hadn't acted resolutely, I might have been drowned in corn meal. Seizing the container in my mittened hands, I rushed it to the door and hurled it far into the food tunnel. There it continued to give off deadly golden lava until the cold finally stilled the crater."
We had to take a break after reading that passage because the boys could barely breathe, they were laughing so hard.
I will be sure to tell them about Porters Pinnacles and perhaps we will mark them on our maps.
Though Porter's relationship is much closer, the boys are also related to Captain Porter: seventh cousins twice removed.
I apologize for the lack of an apostrophe in "Porters Pinnacles," which annoys me every time I see it, but apparently the official name is sans punctuation.
DSTB, you should talk with Stephan. :) He has a line on the World's Most Spectacular Homeschool Field Trip. Unfortunately, it's close to the World's Most Expensive Homeschool Field Trip, but hey, per person it's less than one year's tuition at our local Christian school, and all four of you could go for the cost of a year at a fancier private school I checked out.
