Willie Lonie worked as a Plater for Salvesen & Co working in the whaling around the early 1960s.
Murray Thomson, a colleague of Willie’s at R.G.C. at Methil, Fife in the 1980s, recorded anecdotes from Willie’s time in South Georgia:
‘Willie was of a quiet disposition and this advice stood him in good for the rest of his time in the whole time in Antarctica. His first impression when docking at the Leith whaling station, the sea was covered in blood as far as the eye could see. Good days, it wasn’t all work and there was the odd football match, he said (the penguins always came to his end!).
Late one night the foreman knocked on his accommodations door and came in “Get you gear on and come with me”. It was late at night and never the best of weather conditions to do anything. The foreman pointed to one of the rowing boats equipped with burning gear for steel with oxygen and an acetylene bottle with tubes and a cutter on the end. The foreman rowed out to a large ship in the bay. There was a large buoy attached to a chain from the ship, he gave me the burning gear and pointed where to sever the chain with the burning gear. I got out the boat on to the buoy with the burning torch in my hand and immediately he pointed to get back in the rowing boat. It was very awkward to reach the chain. The foreman steadied the rowing boat with an oar, eventually the moment I cut the chain the buoy sank! The foreman had a hold on me and pulled me onto the seat on the rowing boats and rowed away. On reflection he had saved my life as going into the icy water was fatal, with his knowledge and experience he knew the buoy was hanging on the chain from the ship! It was hard to ascertain in Antarctic weather temperatures. Such was the danger we had to face.’