The Worst Journey in the World (79 page)

Their stories of the winter are most amusing—of "Placing the Plug, or
Sports in the Antarctic"; of lectures; of how dirty they were; of their
books, of which they had four, including David Copperfield. They had a
spare tent, which was lucky, for the bamboos of one of theirs were blown
in during a big wind, and the men inside it crept along the piedmont on
hands and knees to the igloo and slept two in a bag. How the seal seemed
as if they would give out, and they were on half rations and very hungry:
and they were thinking they would have to come down in the winter, when
they got two seals: of the fish they got from the stomach of a seal—"the
best feed they had"—the blubber they have eaten.

But they were buried deep in the snow and quite warm. Big winds all the
time from the W.S.W., cold winds off the plateau—in the igloo they could
hear almost nothing outside—how they just had a biscuit a day at times,
sugar on Sundays, etc.

And so all is well in this direction, and we have done right in going
south, and we have at least succeeded in getting all records. I suppose
any news is better than no news.

Evening.
The Pole Party photos of themselves at the Pole and at the
Norwegian cairn (a Norwegian tent, post and two flags) are very good
indeed—one film is unused, one used on these two subjects: taken with
Birdie's camera. All the party look fit and well, and their clothes are
not iced up. It was calm at the time: the surface looks rather soft.

Atkinson and Campbell have gone to Hut Point with one dog-team, and we
are all to forgather here. The ice still seems good from here to Hut
Point: all else open water as far as can be seen.

A steady southerly wind has been blowing here for three days now. The
mules should get into Hut Point to-day.

It is the happiest day for nearly a year—almost the only happy one.

DON JUAN. This creature Man, who in his own selfish affairs is a
coward to the backbone, will fight for an idea like a hero. He
may be abject as a citizen; but he is dangerous as a fanatic. He
can only be enslaved while he is spiritually weak enough to
listen to reason. I tell you, gentlemen, if you can show a man a
piece of what he now calls God's work to do, and what he will
later on call by many new names, you can make him entirely
reckless of the consequences to himself personally....

DON JUAN. Every idea for which Man will die will be a Catholic
idea. When the Spaniard learns at last that he is no better than
the Saracen, and his prophet no better than Mahomet, he will
arise, more Catholic than ever, and die on a barricade across the
filthy slum he starves in, for universal liberty and equality.

THE STATUE. Bosh!

DON JUAN. What you call bosh is the only thing men dare die for.
Later on, Liberty will not be Catholic enough: men will die for
human perfection, to which they will sacrifice all their liberty
gladly.

BERNARD SHAW,
Man and Superman.

V. THE POLE AND AFTER

The Polar Party.
Depôts.

SCOTT One Ton
(79° 29')
.
WILSON Upper Barrier or Mount Hooper
(80° 32')
.
BOWERS Middle Barrier
(81° 35')
.
OATES Lower Barrier
(82° 47')
.
Seaman EVANS Shambles Camp
(N. of Gateway)
.
Lower Glacier
(S. of Gateway)
.
Middle Glacier
(Cloudmaker)
.
Upper Glacier
(Mt. Darwin)
.
Three Degree
(86° 56')
.
1½ Degree
(88° 29')
.
Last Depôt
(89° 32')
.

Scott returned from the Discovery Expedition impressed by the value of
youth in polar work; but the five who went forward from 87° 32' were all
grown men, chosen from a body which was largely recruited on a basis of
youth. Four of them were men who were accustomed to take responsibility
and to lead others. Four of them had wide sledging experience and were
accustomed to cold temperatures. They were none of them likely to get
flurried in emergency, to panic under any circumstances, or to wear
themselves out by loss of nervous control. Scott and Wilson were the most
highly strung of the party: I believe that the anxiety which Scott
suffered served as a stimulus against mental monotony rather than as a
drain upon his energy. Scott was 43, Wilson 39, Evans 37, Oates 32, and
Bowers 28 years old. Bowers was exceptionally old for his age.

In the event of one man crocking a five-man party may be better able to
cope with the situation, but with this doubtful exception Scott had
nothing to gain and a good deal to lose by taking an extra man to the
Pole. That he did so means, I think, that he considered his position a
very good one at this time. He was anxious to take as many men with him
as possible. I have an impression that he wanted the army represented as
well as the navy. Be that as it may, he took five men: he decided to take
the extra man at the last moment, and in doing so he added one more link
to a chain. But he was content; and four days after the Last Return Party
left them, as he lay out a blizzard, quite warm in his sleeping-bag
though the mid-day temperature was -20°, he wrote a long diary praising
his companions very highly indeed "so our five people are perhaps as
happily selected as it is possible to imagine."
^[277]
He speaks of Seaman
Evans as being a giant worker with a really remarkable headpiece. There
is no mention of the party feeling the cold, though they were now at the
greatest height of their journey; the food satisfied them thoroughly.
There is no shadow of trouble here: only Evans has got a nasty cut on his
hand!

There were more disadvantages in this five-man party than you might
think. There was 5½ weeks' food for four men: five men would eat this in
about four weeks. In addition to the extra risk of breakdown, there was
a certain amount of discomfort involved, for everything was arranged for
four men as I have already explained; the tent was a four-man tent, and
an inner lining had been lashed to the bamboos making it smaller still:
when stretched out for the night the sleeping-bags of the two outside men
must have been partly off the floor-cloth, and probably on the snow:
their bags must have been touching the inner tent and collecting the rime
which was formed there: cooking for five took about half an hour longer
in the day than cooking for four—half an hour off your sleep, or half an
hour off your march? I do not believe that five men on the lid of a
crevasse are as safe as four. Wilson writes that the stow of the sledge
with five sleeping-bags was pretty high: this makes it top-heavy and
liable to capsize in rough country.

But what would have paralysed anybody except Bowers was the fact that
they had only four pairs of ski between the five of them. To slog along
on foot, in soft snow, in the middle of four men pulling rhythmically on
ski, must have been tiring and even painful; and Birdie's legs were very
short. No steady swing for him, and little chance of getting his mind off
the job in hand. Scott could never have meant to take on five men when he
told his supporting team to leave their ski behind, only four days before
he reorganized.

"May I be there!" wrote Wilson of the men chosen to travel the ice-cap to
the Pole. "About this time next year may I be there or thereabouts! With
so many young bloods in the heyday of youth and strength beyond my own I
feel there will be a most difficult task in making choice towards the
end." "I should like to have Bill to hold my hand when we get to the
Pole," said Scott.

Wilson
was
there and his diary is that of an artist, watching the
clouds and mountains, of a scientist observing ice and rock and snow, of
a doctor, and above all of a man with good judgment. You will understand
that the thing which really interested him in this journey was the
acquisition of knowledge. It is a restrained, and for the most part a
simple, record of facts. There is seldom any comment, and when there is
you feel that, for this very reason, it carries more weight. Just about
this time: "December 24. Very promising, thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon
march": "Christmas Day, and a real good and happy one with a very long
march": "January 1, 1912. We had only 6 hours' sleep last night by a
mistake, but I had mine solid in one piece, actually waking in exactly
the same position as I fell asleep in 6 hours before—never moved":
"January 2. We were surprised to-day by seeing a Skua gull flying over
us—evidently hungry but not weak. Its droppings, however, were clear
mucus, nothing in them at all. It appeared in the afternoon and
disappeared again about ½ hour after." And then on January 3: "Last night
Scott told us what the plans were for the South Pole. Scott, Oates,
Bowers, Petty Officer Evans and I are to go to the Pole. Teddie Evans is
to return from here to-morrow with Crean and Lashly. Scott finished his
week's cooking to-night and I begin mine to-morrow." Just that.

The next day Bowers wrote: "I had my farewell breakfast in the tent with
Teddy Evans, Crean and Lashly. After so little sleep the previous night I
rather dreaded the march. We gave our various notes, messages and letters
to the returning party and started off. They accompanied us for about a
mile before returning, to see that all was going well. Our party were on
ski with the exception of myself: I first made fast to the central span,
but afterwards connected up to the toggle of the sledge, pulling in the
centre between the inner ends of Captain Scott's and Dr. Wilson's traces.
This was found to be the best place, as I had to go my own step.

"Teddy and party gave us three cheers, and Crean was half in tears. They
have a feather-weight sledge to go back with of course, and ought to run
down their distance easily.
^[278]
We found we could manage our load
easily, and did 6.3 miles before lunch, completing 12.5 by 7.15 P.M. Our
marching hours are nine per day. It is a long slog with a well-loaded
sledge, and more tiring for me than the others, as I have no ski.
However, as long as I can do my share all day and keep fit it does not
matter much one way or the other.

"We had our first northerly wind on the plateau to-day, and a deposit of
snow crystals made the surface like sand latterly on the march. The
sledge dragged like lead. In the evening it fell calm, and although the
temperature was -16° it was positively pleasant to stand about outside
the tent and bask in the sun's rays. It was our first calm since we
reached the summit too. Our socks and other damp articles which we hang
out to dry at night become immediately covered with long feathery
crystals exactly like plumes. Socks, mitts and finnesko dry splendidly up
here during the night. We have little trouble with them compared with
spring and winter journeys. I generally spread my bag out in the sun
during the 1½ hours of lunch time, which gives the reindeer hair a chance
to get rid of the damage done by the deposit of breath and any
perspiration during the night."
^[279]

Plenty of sun, heavy surfaces, iridescent clouds ... the worst windcut
sastrugi I have seen, covered with bunches of crystals like gorse ... ice
blink all round ... hairy faces and mouths dreadfully iced up on the
march ... hot and sweaty days' work, but sometimes cold hands in the
loops of the ski sticks ... windy streaky cirrus in every direction, all
thin and filmy and scrappy ... horizon clouds all being wafted about....
These are some of the impressions here and there in Wilson's diary during
the first ten days of the party's solitary march. On the whole he is
enjoying himself, I think.

You should read Scott's diary yourself and form your own opinions, but I
think that after the Last Return Party left him there is a load off his
mind. The thing had worked so far, it was up to
them
now: that great
mass of figures and weights and averages, those years of preparation,
those months of anxiety—no one of them had been in vain. They were up
to date in distance, and there was a very good amount of food, probably
more than was necessary to see them to the Pole and off the plateau on
full rations. Best thought of all, perhaps, the motors with their
uncertainties, the ponies with their suffering, the glacier with its
possibilities of disaster, all were behind: and the two main supporting
parties were safely on their way home. Here with him was a fine party,
tested and strong, and only 148 miles from the Pole.

I can see them, working with a business-like air, with no fuss and no
unnecessary talk, each man knowing his job and doing it: pitching the
tent: finishing the camp work and sitting round on their sleeping-bags
while their meal was cooked: warming their hands on their mugs: saving a
biscuit to eat when they woke in the night: packing the sledge with a
good neat stow: marching with a solid swing—we have seen them do it so
often, and they did it jolly well.

And the conditions did not seem so bad. "To-night it is flat calm; the
sun so warm that in spite of the temperature we can stand about outside
in the greatest comfort. It is amusing to stand thus and remember the
constant horrors of our situation as they were painted for us: the sun is
melting the snow on the ski, etc. The plateau is now very flat, but we
are still ascending slowly. The sastrugi are getting more confused,
predominant from the S.E. I wonder what is in store for us. At present
everything seems to be going with extraordinary smoothness.... We feel
the cold very little, the great comfort of our situation is the excellent
drying effect of the sun.... Our food continues to amply satisfy. What
luck to have hit on such an excellent ration. We really are an
excellently found party ... we lie so very comfortably, warmly clothed in
our comfortable bags, within our double-walled tent."
^[280]