Pinto and the Nella Dan

By Catriona Maclaine and Wendy McLennan

Pinto is a robot penguin who has been created by Dave to help the Antarctic scientists with their field work. He is like a notebook computer and his camera eyes let him video and photograph images.

He can communicate with humans and animals. He operates on battery power which needs to be recharged and has a super power switch which often gets him out of scary and tricky situations.

Pinto can do what real penguins do, but much more. He is unaware that a shipwreck is on the horizon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Feb 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479713790

Catriona Maclaine

Wendy spent 7 years working in scientific co-ordination at the Australian Antarctic Division. She participated in three voyages from Hobart, Tasmania to the Antarctic and the sub-Antarctic islands of Heard Island and Macquarie Island. She worked with many scientists dedicated to the continuing study of this remote and intriguing part of our planet. Wendy currently lives with her husband Roger in Launceston, Tasmania, and enjoys the delights of life with their children and grandchildren. Wendy would like to think that Pinto can instil in our next generations a love of the earth and an enthusiasm to think about their life’s direction and enjoy learning and obtaining the skills to enable them to access the vast array of exciting jobs and opportunities available.

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Wendy McLennan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 02/21/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-800-618-969

www.Xlibris.com.au

[e-mail]

501675

Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Dear Reader

The Departure and Overboard

Pinto’s First Dive

Nella Dan Arrives

Macquarie Island Resupply

Almost Eaten Alive

Storm Brewing

Running Aground

Station is alerted

Station Overload

Offloading Nella Dan

Monitoring the Oil Spill

Saving Rosie

MV Icebird to the Rescue

The Salvage

Scuttling the Nella Dan

Farewell Nella Dan

More about Pinto’s World

image001.tif Scan for Pinto’s website

Dedication

Dedicated to my mother Marjorie Hansen who always believed in me. She was there to encourage, guide and enthuse about everything I attempted. She gave me an appreciation of the world—its intricacies, beauty, colour and complexity. She never questioned my decisions she just gave me the skills to be able to have a go.

Acknowledgments

Seven years of my working career was spent in the exciting and challenging environment of Australian Antarctic research. Going to Antarctica was a life changing opportunity. My extensive involvement in all areas of Antarctic operations and my network of friends and colleagues who freely give me their material to create novels based on their authentic experiences is appreciated.

Thank you to three special people who have brought Pinto alive. My editor Sally Odgers who has written many children’s books and kept me on track with Pinto, your mentoring and knowledge of writing for young readers is outstanding. My dear friend and artist Catriona MacLaine, your creativity with the delightful illustrations has given Pinto a personality. The professional photo editing skills of Kai Johnson has enhanced the story.

In particular I would like to thank Michael Mallis for his amazing photographs. His talent as a photographer and his love of Antarctica have made the photographs one of the main attractions of the book. I am fortunate that you were there at the right time.

The inspiration for this first book of Pinto was assisted by Professor Mark Hindle and his lifelong passion for seals and penguins and their future on Macquarie Island and in Antarctica. He thought a robotic penguin to help with research would be amazing. Gerry Nash is recognised in the novel for her bravery during the Nella Dan grounding and whose electron microscopic work contributed to Antarctic research for many years.

Colleagues and friends Rod Leddingham, Geoff Copson and the 2000 Macquarie Island Wintering Expeditioners provided me with the remaining photographs. Thank you for your generosity.

Thank you to my special friends who have kept me on track and given honest assessments and encouragement—Mez, Leonie, Fay, Cheyne, Frances, Kim, Dawn, Doug, Nell, Peter, Nicola and Margaret—thankyou.

My daughters Crystal and Angela gave me the inspiration 26 years ago and my son Sam whose knowledge of computer robotics transformed Pinto from a fluffy toy on the shelf to an intelligent interactive robot. Your input and support has been invaluable.

Thank you to the publishers Xlibris for their standards of excellence and assistance for first time publishers and enabling me to showcase this special region to the world.

Love and gratitude to my husband Roger. His keen intuition and unconditional support has always given me the freedom to follow my creative and artistic dreams.

Foreword

For some reason, wherever we go on earth (even in the far north where there are none), people, especially the young, love penguins. They also admire heroes. Here we have a combination of the two in the form of a superhuman penguin. Add the Antarctic and a famous ship and it is quite a recipe.

To many of us, MV Nella Dan—the little Red Ship—was a second home. It was somewhat idiosyncratic but loved. It was a genuine Expedition Ship, the type that can’t be built these days, lined with genuine wood panelling, its own smells and with self-sufficient cargo handling gear, able to operate anywhere. It led to strong associations between Danish captain and crew, and the Australian contingent which was itself often very international. Of course, it rolled greatly in heavy seas and we suspected that a 15° roll was possible in port. When not in use in the Antarctic, she was used to supply Danish interests in Greenland.

Penguins are of course, part of the Antarctic/sub-Antarctic mystique, these funny creatures that mimic formally-dressed humans but live in the frigid seas of the south, isolated and unknown for thousands of years. They are so endearing with their characteristic squawk and intimations of indignity when disturbed.

Wendy McLennan has played with the idea of Pinto for years and has now brought it to conclusion, aimed at a market of the young who will get great joy out of studying the little fellow as he processes through life’s adventures.

The sinking of the Nella Dan was a real event that affected the lives of many. All the people mentioned in the text are based on individuals well-known to many of us with the Australian Antarctic program and the sinking of the ship. They may have been fictionalised to some extent, but we know them. Pinto is unknown to all of us but does appear a lovable little fellow. Pinto is different. Named for his size (is ‘he’ a male? And how does one tell?) or is it because his name reflects the pioneering spirit of Columbus’s ship Pinta? Only the author knows.

One story is not told in this epic. Mrs Hannelore Lauritzen, head of the Lauritzen Line, was on the ship at the time of its loss. A tall, elegant lady in her 70s, she had painted an excellent mural of the Arctic on the wall of the ‘restaurant’. Most was lost with the ship, but one panel now resides over the bar at the Macquarie Island station.

Professor Patrick Quilty AM

Antarctic Division Chief Scientist at the time the book was written.

Now School of Earth Sciences and Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania.

Dear Reader

This is a story about Pinto the pint-sized battery-operated robotic penguin.

Pinto was created by Dave, an environmental scientist who also specialises in robotics. He is the chief planner of all research work and regularly travels to Antarctica. Dave made Pinto to help the scientists working outdoors, and now considers him a friend.

Dave keeps Pinto charged up and makes sure that he gets the right information into his little state-of-the-art microcomputer brain. This is done through the special front keypad which works like a mobile phone. Pinto asks lots of questions and is very aware of all that happens around him. He has a microphone which recognises and interprets voices and