# U.S. NAVY SEABEES IN THE ANTARCTIC BASE CONSTRUCTION 1957-58 50024

The United States Navy brings the viewer “Seabees In The Antarctic: Base Construction,” a circa 1959 color film detailing the construction of scientific research stations by Task Force 43 as part of Operation Deep Freeze. The station was part of the US Navy's contribution to the IGY (International Geophysical Year) in 1957. We learn, starting at mark 00:43 , how the Navy’s Construction Battalion Center in Rhode Island established a special mobile construction battalion to construct and maintain such scientific outposts. Crews underwent specialized conditioning, shown at mark 01:30 , to prepare them for the brutal temperatures in Antarctica and to enable them to construct a naval base at Little America on the coast of the Ross Sea as well as a naval air facility at McMurdo Sound. By mark 04:00 the film shows tons of supplies coming ashore as tractors smoothed the snow ahead of the job. As the film continues, sailors are shown laying foundations and erecting structures in the frigid air. By mark 10:50 , the film shows crews preparing the area for what would become heavy air operations at McMurdo Sound including construction of heavy duty 250,000 gallon storage tanks to be used for fuel, which was pumped from a tanker anchored off shore. By mark 12:30 , the Seabees roll was completed as both sites became operational. The construction crews would remain in the area, we are told, to construct other facilities including Ellsworth Station, Pole Station, Wilkes Station, Byrd…

- Kind: Film
- Genres: Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/50024SeabeesInTheAntarcticBaseConstruction)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/50024SeabeesInTheAntarcticBaseConstruction?play=1)