Wind, Fire, and Ice: The Perils of a Coast Guard Icebreaker in Antarctica

by Robert M. Bunes

Overview

Between 1955 and 1987, the United States Coast Guard Cutter Glacier was the largest and most powerful icebreaker in the free world. Consequently, it was often given the most difficult and dangerous Antarctic missions. This is the dramatic first-person account of its most legendary voyage. In 1970, the author was the Chief Medical Officer on the Glacier when it became trapped deep in the Weddell Sea, pressured by 100 miles of wind-blown icepack. Glacier was beset within seventy miles of where Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, was imprisoned in 1915. His stout wooden ship succumbed to the crushing pressure of the infamous Weddell Sea pack ice and sank, leading to an unbelievable two-year saga of hardship, heroism and survival. The sailors aboard the Glacier feared they would suffer Shackleton’s fate, or one even worse. Freakishly good luck eventually saved the Glacier from destruction, but the story is told as the author, who was not part of the chain of command, experienced it. More imminent threats later occurred involving a three-hour inferno, as well as eight-story waves that drove the ship to the brink of disaster. Wind, Fire, and Ice is the story about a physician fresh-out-of-internship who naïvely assumes he is going to have an easy assignment and see numerous exotic ports. Instead, he experiences adventures and adversities beyond his imagination, as well as jarring conflicts with an obsessed captain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493060344
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/01/2021
Pages:	296
Sales rank:	123,642
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert Bunes is a writer, filmmaker, retired physician, adventurer, and avid traveler. He has traveled to all seven continents and has sailed to within 400 miles of the North Pole and to the southern edge of the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. Dr. Bunes grew up in Minnesota but ski-bummed in Colorado, surfed in Mexico, worked as a general Practitioner in Maine, and taken a sabbatical in Paris. Following his work in general medicine, he completed a psychiatry residency at UCLA and finished his medical career as a legal psychiatrist, specializing in civil litigation. He now lives in the coastal mountains of Southern California with his wife, not far from his daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren. When not writing, traveling, or spending time with family, he likes to golf, swim, garden, cook, or trade stories with friends. His first book, Yellowstone’s Restless “Savages”, a semifictional work based on the four summers he worked in Yellowstone, will soon be joined by a fictional work, Will White Eagle and the Mystery of the Missing Medicine Man. Visit him at robertbunesmd.com, view his films on YouTube or contact him at [e-mail].

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

A brilliant slice of Polar history.   Written by Dr Robert Bunes, the ships doctor on board of the icebreaker Glacier in the early 70s, he takes the reader on a journey into the icy waters of Antarctica.  There his ship, ‘the largest, toughest and most powerful icebreaker in the free world, is besieged in the ice pack of the Weddell sea.  Ironically this modern wonder of power is stuck exactly in the same location where Shacklton’s Endurance was crushed.  Bunes does a fine job documenting the past history of ships that entered Antarctic’s ice pack and what happen in these socially isolated conditions where leadership is stretched to its very limits and often snaps.  

Editorial Reviews

"A brilliant slice of Polar history. Written by Dr Robert Bunes, the ships doctor on board of the icebreaker Glacier in the early 70s, he takes the reader on a journey into the icy waters of Antarctica. There his ship, ‘the largest, toughest and most powerful icebreaker in the free world, is besieged in the ice pack of the Weddell sea. Ironically this modern wonder of power is stuck exactly in the same location where Shacklton’s Endurance was crushed. Bunes does a fine job documenting the past history of ships that entered Antarctic’s ice pack and what happen in these socially isolated conditions where leadership is stretched to its very limits and often snaps." —Will Steger, world famous Polar explorer

"This riveting true-life tale of crisis and adventure grips the reader from the first page to the last. The extreme conditions of the Antarctic are vividly drawn, as is the fragility and tenacity of human life in the face of unimaginably stark circumstances. A must-read!"

—-Ellen Keigh, author of Streets of Silver

“Fresh out of his internship and hoping to see the world, Dr. Robert Bunes, signs up for a seven-month cruise on a Coast Guard icebreaker. What follows is a harrowing tale of paralyzing Antarctic ice sheets, a life-threatening shipboard fire, and a collision with an iceberg.”

Pamela Nagami MD, author of “The Woman with the Worm in her Head” and “Bitten”

"Dr. Robert Bunes has written a fascinating account of his adventures as the physician assigned to a Coast Guard icebreaker, USCGC GLACIER , on an operation in the Wedell Sea. This is the same Sea in which Sir Ernest Shackleton came to an unhappy end, losing his ENDURANCE. The title refers to storms, a fire, and the possibility of achieving the same end as ENDURANCE. But it is also a story of differences of personalities, differences of attitudes, and differences of approach to life post Viet Nam. The book is of particular interest to me because I have also commanded in Antarctica, know and have sailed with one of the main personalities, have worked for another, and have encountered many of the same problems faced by GLACIER and her doughty crew. My approach to leadership problems and operational problems was different than the Good Doctor encountered. Not necessarily better, just different. And I have never had to deal personally with a fire at sea. But I have drilled and trained all of my crews for this, as did the command in GLACIER. I recommend this book to all who have sailed in the deep ice, who have encountered differences with their Captain in particular, and who have solved leadership and operational problems. And that is just about all of us!"

Captain Joe-Joseph H. Wubbold III CAPT USCG (Ret)

NetGalley Review: 5 stars

Last updated on 25 Sep 2021

"Dr. Robert M. Bunes volunteered to serve on an ice breaker (called the Glacier) headed to Antarctica in the U.S. Coast Guard at the height of the Vietnam War. Bunes explains he didn’t agree with the war, but he also wanted to serve his country. The Public Health Service offered a way to serve without having to serve directly in Vietnam.

He joins the Coast Guard as a way to avoid fighting in Vietnam without acting with cowardice, but he soon discovers so many great things accompanying Coast Guard service—a sense of pride in serving a branch that has rescued more than one million people (according to Coast Guard historians), fellow service members who share his mission to save lives, even some whom become personal friends, and better pay than being a medical intern. Readers quickly learn it takes a brave individual to serve on an ice breaker headed to Antarctica.

This is a memoir—most readers will already know this—so, if you are expecting a clinical approach, your expectations might be dashed. However, I really enjoyed the conversational style of the writing. I really felt like I was there with Bunes, his boss Captain Brennan, and the uptight chief who loves crew cuts and hates Bunes’ mustache. Bunes includes photos and maps as visual aids (it’s really helpful when he is describing the specifics of Antarctica).

I really enjoyed how Bunes uses Ernest Shackleton as a comparison to his predicament. Of course, Shackleton and his crew were heroes for their explorations and brave survival in frigid conditions in Antarctica, but, while Bunes and his crew aren’t afforded the same reverence and don’t experience the same conditions, they do have to demonstrate similar traits, particularly perseverance as they face multiple obstacles. Overall, a great read. Thanks to the author, Rowman & Littlefield and NetGalley for the ARC."—Erich Hilkert, reviewer

“The author’s remembrance is brimming with insights as well as captivating photographs… full of riveting details.”

— Kirkus Reviews

"On the surface Robert M. Bunes new book Wind, Fire and Ice: The Perils of a Coast Guard Icebreaker in Antarctica is an autobiographical take on a young physician’s deployment on USCGC Glacier to Antarctica in the early 1970s. As such it is a welcome addition to the body of literature on the maritime history of the Antarctic region in particular as it covers a period seldom covered by polar or maritime historians who still tend to focus mainly on the so-called heroic age of Antarctic exploration. But reading deeper into the book, it becomes obvious that there is much more to the book and that it needs to be recommended not only to the small group of maritime and polar historians interested in the history of navigating the frozen waters adjacent to the seventh continent, but also to everybody interested in maritime leadership, the debate if and why the US needs to maintain a fleet of heavy ice-breakers capable to operate in Antarctic waters, and even Antarctic expedition cruise tourism as it tells a cautious tale on how standard operations have the potential to turn into disaster and to substantially affect other Antarctic operations."

—Ingo Heidbrink, Ph.D. for the Naval Historical Foundation

"Delves into the entanglement of science, adventure, and leadership." — The Boston Review

"A great book for anyone wishing to discover the realities of polar sea travel in modern times…very difficult to put down once started.”

— Stephen Scott-Fawcett, Head of the Sir Earnest H. Shackleton Appreciation Society

From the Publisher

2022-03-23
In this memoir, a man recounts his adventures as a physician on an icebreaker’s voyage to Antarctica.

Amid the tumult of 1969, Bunes volunteered to be the doctor aboard the United States Coast Guard Cutter Glacier, the “largest, toughest, and most powerful icebreaker in the free world.” The author was partly motivated by a desire to avoid deployment to Vietnam but also by a longing for the excitement of travel to exotic locales. Yet he was unprepared for the perils of a mission in the “most remote place in the world” as well as the coldest and the freight of responsibilities with which he would be saddled as the ship’s physician. While navigating the treacherous Bismarck Strait, the vessel collided with a glacier, and later became “imprisoned” in the Weddell Sea—the crew of 200 was trapped in a cage of ice, with the nearest open water 100 miles away. Bunes places the drama of the ship’s immobility at the center of his memoir, which also briefly chronicles his life before service on the Glacier. He repeatedly draws parallels between the vessel’s plight and the famous explorations of Antarctica accomplished by Ernest Shackleton, who sailed on the “ill-fated” ship the Endurance. The author’s remembrance is brimming with insights as well as captivating photographs by Bunes and others. But the comparison with the Endurancesometimes diminishes the drama the author relates. Rather than let the powerful facts speak for themselves, he tirelessly reminds readers of the perilousness of the Coast Guard ship’s position. Commenting on the turbulence experienced during a storm, Bunes writes: “I thought we were all going to die. And that brink-of-disaster scenario kept happening over and over. It was a nightmare. It felt like someone was holding a six-gun to my head and playing Russian Roulette. He’d pull the trigger and the hammer would fall on one of the five empty chambers. Then he’d grab a new gun and repeat the whole process.” This theatrical style finally becomes exhausting, a shame since the author’s memoir is full of riveting details.

A gripping but uneven account of a dangerous voyage.

Kirkus Reviews