About the Book
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 in the crushing ice pack, only to experience a three-hour fire that nearly killed one of the crew, followed by eighty foot waves that came close to capsizing the ship. Wind, Fire, and Ice is a story about a physician who starts out with a set of false assumptions—namely that he is going have an easy assignment and see numerous exotic ports, but then slowly comes to realize a much different hard reality.
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 rbunes@gmail.com.
Review :
"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
"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
