#AntarcticLog is a series of comics by Karen Romano Young. You can find the originals here.

Why did the R/V Laurence M. Gould cross the fierce, fearsome Drake Passage? To get to the other side — to the Antarctic Peninsula and Palmer Station. 

The second U.S. research ship working in Antarctica (see last week’s post for the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer ties up here at Palmer’s old wharf. In an upcoming post I’ll feature new wharfs at three Antarctic research stations, and the ships (some still a twinkle in designers’ eyes) that will use them. 

Here are two more views of the old wharf at Palmer Station: in the first, jumping off the wharf is a tradition when saying goodbye to the Gould and those aboard. 

In the next, the wharf is shown without the Gould.  Once I stood on it and got stalked by a leopard seal. That story is in my new book with illustrator Angela Hsieh: Antarctica: The Melting Continent. See my website for more. 

–Karen Romano Young is a writer, artist, deep-sea diver, and polar explorer. Follow her on Twitter & Instagram.