Taking Rabaul’s
pp. 63-65 · Read in the full issue
Pulse
From a Staff Correspondent in Rabaul Climbing Tavuvur’s 800 feet of rock-strewn slopes proved iot and humid work for Danish cameraman , Arvid Klemensen 'i March.
IMED with Bolex movie camera, tripod and film packs, Klemen made the climb as part of his md-harbour tour of Rabaul’s hot s. Edited and with sound com itary the movie will be shown Danish TV viewers within the ith. imanating from Copenhagen, the i will give viewers an opportunity see what few Rabaul residents e seen at close quarters —the cess of temperature taking at a re or more sites about beautiful ipson Harbour.
Accompanied by vulcanologist’s istant Magir Gaiam, from Rabaul servatory, Klemensen travelled by ministration launch Tilburra to Beehives, an outcrop in the har ar, where the first reading was :en from a permanent gauge. (Over)
[?]ul, above, is encorcled by volcanoes-extinct and otherwise. On Tavuvur's barren rim, [?]sh camerman Klemrnsen, right, lines up for crater shots. Below he shakes hands [?]rd "Quest" with Max Honey's co-partner in croc shooting-which is the theme for another of Klemensen's films.
Moviemaker Arvid Klemensen went along for the ride when Magir Gaiam made his weekly temperature-taking rounds of Rabaul’s volcanoes. Result —cold country Danes will learn by film what it is like to live in the shadow of a volcano.
; next readings were taken on )reshores of Vulcan where ther prings continue to emerge much sy did in the days prior to this qo’s 1937 eruption, unensen got some good footage as the Tilburra anchored off and Magir was sculled to the srature gauges where he made ladings. ese readings, entered in a note on the spot, are later collated e Observatory by vulcanologist large, I. H. Latter, to provide a nual record of temperature s. This method of keeping :, in operation more or less con ly since the early ’so’s, is ul’s assurance of early warning Id pressure build-up indicate a / eruption. > such indication has been shown “cent years, yet the process of crature checking and seismo h reading goes tirelessly on, pro ig written record of the volcanic i that beats beneath the waters Labaul. ick aboard the Tilburra, course set for Vulcan’s southern shore re more readings were taken, all this island being in the 60 deg. t. range. avuvur, commonly called upi, was next stop, with Klemen- Magir and boat party toiling up steep slopes to the crater. Trun d and unlovely Tavuvur, unlike brother Vulcan, still fumes from ral score openings and fissures ed about its walls and floor.
Hot Shots d eleven separate sites marked by 5 and tubes inserted into the hot ;h Magir makes readings. Eerie fidings and hissings indicate hot ts where thin vapour issues under >sure, leaving a residue of bril t sulphur crystals about the open respite its bare and menacing k, with clouds of vapour rising to st the morning sun, Tavuvur has led since its wild outburst in the ly ’4o’s, now registers regular tem atures of 98-100 deg. Cent, with fluctuation.
Tere again Klemensen made a film ord in colour of the ascent by ie into the crater and of Magir’s efoot trek from one measuring nt to another. \gain on the steep slopes that foot the sulphur-stained sea more tem ■ature sites were visited while emensen, Bolex whirring, braced nself on the Tilburra’s deck and ide a colour record of the reading Magir’s chore did not finish with
his visit to Tavuvur. A dozen or* more readings were taken at hot* springs about Matupi Bay, where shoreline rocks of old lava flows are stained brick-brown by sulphur.
Impressed and confident he had a feature story on film that would be of immense interest to fellow Danes, Klemensen reeled off several hun dreds of feet of colour and black and white movie, plus a number of still shots during his tour.
Also a journalist, Klemensen has achieved national fame in Denmark for his films and features of out-of the-way places. While in Rabaul he gathered data on its volcanic history and this will form yet another nu cleus of information for the re
rmainder of his party now in New Guinea waters—the Noona Dan Indo-Archipelago Expedition.
One of six scientist-investigators now exploring and collecting speci mens in the islands, Klemensen has shot thousands of feet depicting native industry and culture, bird and animal life and other aspects of the expedition’s work.
An unremitting worker, Klemensen quit the rest of the Noona Dan party when opportunity offered to travel to Pondo on Mark Honey’s ketch, Quest. Croc hunting was the lure and this will be the theme of his next film before he travels on to the wild Baining country in search of more primitive cultures.