they 'd cut a hole in the ice , our roving reporter informed us , and flown their ship into the freezing ocean , displacing , it was calculated by a government scientist , a canadian working for the americans on a field project labelled top secret , approximately 240 million gallons of water and eleven pilot whales , which , quipped the scientist , lived up to their name by piloting themselves an estimated fifty-three kilometres before coming down on an ice floe to the heat-engendering applause of sundry eskimo .