Shackleton's Heroes (7 page)
Read Shackleton's Heroes Online
Authors: Wilson McOrist
Mackintosh described their departure from the ship but they did not reach Hut Point that day and camping on the ice worried Mackintosh. He may have remembered a narrow escape from floating sea-ice he had back in 1909 on the
Nimrod
Expedition. Then, he and a companion had camped on sea-ice and overnight conditions changed and the next morning they found open water between their tent and the land. Fortunately they were able to escape before the floating ice went out to sea.
Mackintosh seemed to enjoy his first night away from the ship. He mentions âhoosh', which was the name for their regular meal, eaten at breakfast,
lunch and dinner. It was pemmican, the staple food for Antarctic explorers of the day, which was a mixture of dried beef and fat, usually boiled up with crushed biscuits.
In the morning Mackintosh would give out a call to action and they would throw their sleeping bags open and jerk up into a sitting position. When they shook the side of the tent, down would come a shower of frost rime which had formed during the night, from their breathing and the previous night's cooking. Some of the rime would fall down their neck and they would start the day with a cold damp collar and jersey. The dogs could just be seen, their noses only visible out of the snow but, to Mackintosh, they appeared quite comfortable sleeping that way.
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He had shaped a course where he imagined Hut Point to be, but even after a second day's travel the sledge-meter showed 13 miles, and this was 4 miles in excess of the distance from the ship to Hut Point. So he decided to halt and camp again.
Mackintosh:
All day we have been busy on the ship getting prepared, prior to starting off â which we intend to do by the evening. At 7pm all was ready and shortly we started off. All hands came on to the ice to see us away, and lend a hand at the last lashings on the sledge, adjust the dogs' harness and keep them also from fighting.
My companions consist of Smith (the Padre) and Wild; the dogs are nine in number. When all was prepared a parting handshake all around, a shout and we were off â the dogs went splendidly for a while at least. We found it necessary at first for one to sit on the sledge, so eager were the dogs. As we started a cheer went up from those of the ship's party.
All went well until about ½ mile had been traversed when Pompey
*
felt he had had enough of this rapid mode of progression, so he turned back and headed for the ship. This naturally caused a mix up, the result of which was a riot, such a mix up one could hardly conceive â a mass of rolling, struggling fur and fury. It took all our beating to separate them which after a tussle we managed.
We proceeded as hard as we could, hoping to get to Hut Point by that night. In this direction our luck was out for we had not gone more than 5½ miles when it commenced to snow and everything became obscured. We were then forced to camp. It was against my wish to do this as I did not like the idea of a âpitch' on seaice, especially at this season when there is a danger of the ice breaking out.
However we were not disappointed for, being out of training, the excuse for a rest and a meal was welcome. We very soon heard the hum of the primus and our first hoosh was shortly going down our throat followed by a good brew of tea.
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Spencer-Smith:
The dogs at once snuggled into the snow and slept, while we unpacked the sledge, pitched the tent, with snow shovelled all around, got the Primus working and the hoosh water on the go.
The hoosh was very thin, but quite acceptable as we have had no food since lunch at 1pm. Also had tea and several smokes and are now in sleeping bags about to fall off for eight hours. Everything is very cosy: temperatures 28º F and snow falling.
We don't know where we are.
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Wild:
We have travelled 13 miles now by our meter, & we are still not at Hut Point. It's blowing a bit of a blizzard, & are not going to leave until we can see where we are going. We have got one of the new tents & are very pleased with it. It is easier to put up than the pole tents. Dogs have been pulling very well today & no scraps. Poor beggars, they have only had two biscuits for 48 hours.
Smith told us something else. i.e. Oates was born & died on his birthday. I forgot to say that the Skipper, Smith & myself form the party with nine dogs.
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Primus Box
1 Primus
1 spare parts
Toilet paper
1 medical bag
1 repair bag & spares
1 cooker
3 mugs & spoons
1 Alpine rope
1 Ice axe
1 shovel
3 sleeping bags
1 tent
3 skis & sticks
spare bamboo, lashings & bunting
2 pr sox
2 pr sleeping s
â
1 extra mits
2 pr finnesko
safety pins
senna grass
broom
matches
knife.
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Â
Mitts, which Wild spelt as âmits', were made of fur and usually hung around their shoulders by a lamp-wick.
Finnesko, sometimes spelt as finneskoe or finnesco, were their Antarctic boots, made from reindeer-skin with the fur on the outside. When short of boots in the winter of 1915 they made more out of an old horse rug.
Sennegrass, which Wild spelt as senna grass, is Norwegian dried hay with insulation and moisture-absorbing properties. It was placed inside their finnesko.
For three men their personal clothing weighed around 15 lb; tent and poles, 30 lb; sleeping bags, 30 lb; shovel, 12 lb; ice axe, 9 lb; flags and bamboo, 4 lb; alpine rope, 4 lb; a medical case, 5 lb; a repair bag, 3 lb; the primus cooker, 6 lb; senna grass, 4 lb; and the sledge, 60 lb. This was a total weight of 182 lb.
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Their food allowance was packed in lots for three men. A daily ration (for three men) was weighed and put into a linen bag, and seven of these
were placed in a canvas âtank', called the food bag. Each food bag weighed 44 lb 10 oz. This would be the ration for a three-man unit for one week and under all circumstances had to be made to last a week. Food was rationed by the week because depots, such as those to be laid at 79°S, 80°S, 81°S etc. were about 68 miles apart. The men would normally expect to march this distance in a week. In addition to their food ration, a little methylated spirits and a gallon of kerosene were allowed each week for lighting and running the primus stove.
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Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild reached Hut Point on 27 January, joining Joyce's party. Spencer-Smith described the
Discovery
hut as ânot nearly as nice as the one at Cape Evans and is in a horrible condition of dirt and untidiness'.
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The next step was to place two depots on the Great Ice Barrier, the first near the Minna Bluff location 70 miles out, and the second another 70 miles further south, at 80°S. Their route from Hut Point would run south for about a mile then turn east for 5 or 6 miles, at which point the ascent was made from the sea-ice to the ice shelf, the Great Ice Barrier.
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The Ice Barrier is where the sea-ice joins up to the land-ice and is 15 to 40 feet high.
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Joyce's party was first away from the hut and he makes a couple of diary entries for the three days it took his team to reach the Barrier. There is only a passing mention of any difficulties, such as falling through the sea-ice, or relaying heavy loads. In his book,
The South Polar Trail
, Joyce gives us some general information about their sledging routine, which he did not record in his diary. He says they wake at 5 a.m. and, except for the cook, have breakfast in their sleeping bags â a mug of pemmican with biscuits and a mug of tea. They extract their socks which had been placed inside their clothing (to stop them from freezing overnight) and then work at putting on their frozen boots, their finneskoe. After packing up, securing the sledges and harnessing the dogs, they are away, stopping every half-hour for a three-minute rest. He writes that sledging is a âhungry and starving
game' and after five hours pulling the leader calls out âLuncho' and up goes the tent where they have their lunch of tea, biscuits and chocolate. Their afternoon went through to around 6.30 p.m., when they again put up the tent and feed the dogs â who then simply coil up in the snow to sleep. Joyce says that it was useless building them any shelter as they would not use it.
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To erect their tent, six bamboo poles had to be slotted into a heavy canvas pole cap, and this was only possible if they took off their outer mitts. The poles had to be quickly put in position then the canvas skin of the tent had to be placed over the poles and then weighed down. Two men hauled the tent over the frame of poles while the other man raced around placing blocks of ice or snow on the skirting of the tent, before the wind lifted the canvas up and off the frame.
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Joyce:
27th â Under weigh. Found the going very sticky + slushy. Altered course to the W. At about 2 miles off Cape Armitage I fell through although the ice looks firm it is badly undercut + it is only snow covered. I carried on until firm ice was struck. Changed my wet clothes we managed to find enough for a shift.
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Â
30th â The haul was very heavy so decided to relay. Makes the work easier. Although it doubles the journey.
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Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild followed Joyce's team south from Hut Point but by the end of their day the three men were disappointed. For Spencer-Smith and Wild this was their first sledging experience and like Mackintosh they found relaying to be irksome. Through their diaries we can see these three men found sledge-hauling much harder than they had anticipated. However, from Joyce's diary it appears he did not find hauling particularly unpleasant. He had taken loaded sledges out onto the Barrier a number of times (with Scott in 1902â1903 and with Shackleton in 1908â1909) so it was probably all in a day's work for him. He makes one diary entry for
the eight days as his team went from the edge of the Barrier out to where the Minna Bluff depot was laid.
Wild:
We left Hut Point in grand form for about 40 yards then it took us 8 hours to go 400 yards. We stopped then & had some tea & then started again & have come four or five miles.
We got here at 3.0 AM so of course it is Friday now. The dogs have had about 10 scraps today & my arms are aching with banging & pulling them. About 4.0 AM now. Pack up, sleep.
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Woke up with a blizzard blowing, had breakfast & turned in again. Woke up again, nice & fine, had tea & biscuits, and got under âweigh', or tried to but couldn't budge the sledge.
Unloaded half & the Skipper & I went on with it for about 600 yds. The dogs couldn't or wouldn't go on, so unloaded & went back for the other half. Got it along about 80 yds past the first half & pitched tent.
Smithy got dinner ready, while we went & brought the other lot up. We are going to have another go tonight. Can't say much for the travelling, 680 yds., snow nearly up to our knees all the time.
Relay work no good makes one swear.
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Spencer-Smith:
We now know what utter exhaustion is! We could only do short spells, halting at hard spots and hard spots seemed very few and far between; I was too done to pray for them!
We had come only about four miles, though it seemed like twenty. At last the sledge nearly capsized and stuck in a deep place, and Mac, very disappointed, decided to camp. It was 3 am and felt like it.
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After the first 100 yards we, dogs and men, found it absolutely impossible to move the sledge. We tried again and again. âTeam. Come along then! What about it today? Getty-up!!!' And she hasn't moved an inch.
We used the boot, the whip, words and blandishment, but it was all in vain, and Mac had to give in to Fate, and order a relay.
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Mackintosh:
Try as we would, no movement could be produced. Reluctantly we unloaded and began the tedious task of relaying. The work, in spite of the lighter load on the sledge, proved terrific for ourselves and for the dogs. We struggled for four hours, and then set camp to await the evening, when the sun would not be so fierce and the surface might be better.
On waking this afternoon at 5 pm found it drifting, all land shut out! Therefore nothing to do but remain in our bags and await the God of Blizzard's orders.
It's a curious sensation remaining silently in the bags, with just the sound of gentle snow pattering on the tent, the great sense of comfort one finds in the bag, our keen sense of any untoward noise such as the ceasing of the snow or any sign of clearing weather. We are quietly reading in our bags, a jet of steam coming out of our openings â What a weird situation when you come to think of it â what on earth are we so keen about?
I must say I feel somewhat despondent, as we are not getting on as well as I expected, nor do we find it as easy as one would gather from reading.
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Joyce:
From the 31st of Jan until I picked up the Bluff Depot on Feb 9th was very hard work and took us over 16 days to trek the last 100 miles. We built up the depot to about 12 feet high put up flag poles making it about 24ft all told â A splendid mark. Gaze + Jack are two splendid tent mates. The dogs behaved splendidly.
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Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild, even with their team of dogs, struggled to start the sledge moving at times. All the men wore a harness that consisted of a broad waistband of double canvas. It was pierced at the back and fitted with an eye, through which passed the alpine rope leading back to the sledge. All the weight was taken by the waistband but the harness was suspended from the shoulders by a light canvas and leather shoulder straps attached to a buckle fixed on the main belt.
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