Shackleton's Heroes

by Wilson McOrist

  I wonder if you understand what all this means to me, coming down here away from you & everything I live for with only my hopes & future plans as an incentive, of course I find it easier, when as you know my hopes & future plans are centred in you & you only, this of course would make anything possible as far as I am concerned.

  Well the hoosh is underway & when disposed of it will be a case of stow sledges, ‘up & at it’, so, so long.

  Yesterday we tried skiing after the first 2 miles & found it a great advantage, it is quite good fun, 6 men hauling a sledge on skis all in time.42

  Within a week of arrival at McMurdo Sound Joyce’s team and Mackintosh’s team had reached the Barrier. They were to then push on south, to place a depot at Minna Bluff at latitude 79°S, and another 70 miles further on, at 80°S. Hayward and Richards had started sledging supplies out, closer to Hut Point.

  Notes

  1. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party

  2. Joyce, The South Polar Trail

  3. Mackintosh diary, 12 January 1915

  4. Joyce diary transcripts, 16 January 1915

  5. Mackintosh diary, 16 January 1915

  6. Shackleton letter to Mackintosh, 18 September 1914

  7. Richards letter to L. B. Quartermain, unknown date

  8. Joyce field diary, 24 January 1915

  9. F. Debenham, In the Antarctic: Stories of Scott’s Last Expedition (London: John Murray, 1952)

  10. Mackintosh diary, 24 January 1915

  11. Wild diary, 25 January 1915

  12. Mackintosh, Shackleton’s Lieutenant

  13. Mackintosh diary, 25 January 1915

  14. Spencer-Smith diary, 25 January 1915

  15. Wild diary, 27 January 1915

  16. Ibid., 9 October 1915

  17. Joyce, The South Polar Trail

  18. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party

  19. Spencer-Smith diary, 27 January 1915

  20. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party

  21. Joyce diary transcripts, 30 January 1915

  22. Joyce, The South Polar Trail

  23. Caesar, A., The White (Sydney: Picador, 1999)

  24. Joyce field diary, 27 January 1915

  25. Ibid., 30 January 1915

  26. Wild diary, 28 January 1915

  27. Ibid., 30 January 1915

  28. Spencer-Smith diary, 28 January 1915

  29. Ibid., 29 January 1915

  30. Mackintosh diary, 28 January 1915

  31. Joyce field diary, 9 February 1915

  32. R. E. Priestley, Antarctic Adventure (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1914)

  33. Spencer-Smith diary, 30 January 1915

  34. Wild diary, 30 January 1915

  35. Mackintosh diary, 30 January 1915

  36. Wild diary, 31 January 1915

  37. Mackintosh diary, 1 February 1915

  38. Ibid., 2 February 1915

  39. Spencer-Smith diary, 31 January 1915

  40. Ibid., 7 February 1915

  41. Richards diary, 23 January 1915

  42. Hayward diary, 31 January 1915

  * Pompey – one of the dogs in Mackintosh’s team.

  † sleeping s – sleeping socks.

  Chapter 4

  ‘THE OTHER TWO ARE SNORING PEACEFULLY ALONGSIDE OF ME’

  February – The trek to Minna Bluff

  OUT ON THE Barrier, Mackintosh’s and Joyce’s team travelled near to each other, with Joyce travelling by daytime hours and Mackintosh travelling at night. They found the surface much better than the sea-ice surface between Hut Point and the Barrier and Mackintosh even challenged Joyce’s team to a race to Minna Bluff.

  At times they travelled over a surface they called ‘the Barrier Hush’. This occurred when a surface crust lay over softer snow and the weight of the sledging party would break the crust and the air from underneath it was expelled in a long ‘hush-sh’. The noise began sharply and then slowly and eerily died away in the distance.1 Another type of surface they commented on was sastrugi, which, in his book The Ross Sea Shore Party, Richards described this way: ‘Large hard parallel furrows running south-east and north-west, called sastrugi, are sculptured by the blizzards which blow with great regularity in these fixed directions.’2 To Spencer-Smith, sastrugi looked like a frozen sea.

  There was no undressing at night. They turned in fully clothed. Their wet socks were taken off and sometimes hung up so they would lose some moisture, but in the morning they would be stiff as a board. To put them on then required beating and bending and tugging, all of which took time. If they put their wet socks in their sleeping bags they would stay wet and soft but they found them a horror to put on that way in the morning.

  Their boots were wet and would freeze overnight so they had to be shaped carefully so they could get the tips of their toes inside the opening. First of all they would roll up their sleeping bags and sit on these while wrestling with their boots – pushing and pulling until their foot was completely inside.3

  Mackintosh: ‘Smith wrote facetious messages in the snow for Joyce’s party to read: BUCK UP. SHIP WILL CATCH YOU UP YOU CRIPPLES. Wild added by way of encouragement: PUB AHEAD.’4

  2 February 1915

  Sledging with the dogs was now quite enjoyable at times for Spencer-Smith and he compared the yelling to being at a football game at Merchiston. Wild was looking forward to the day when they made 12 miles.

  Spencer-Smith:

  Joyce and co. came by at 4.15pm. The barking of our team woke us; and we found that our Jock had joined them and that they had their full load and were proceeding merrily. We passed Joyce a little before lunchtime, amidst a tremendous howling of the combined teams. Our lot made a great spurt as we drew near and were much disappointed when we turned aside to go on.

  There was quite a good crust on top of the snow, and the dogs went well: also Mac and I were able to get into our harness and do useful work on the ski. The surface was undulating and we soon found it necessary to haul like demons up the slopes, with plenty of ‘getty-up’ at the critical moment: the snow was inclined to be soft, on the slope.

  Three or four times we were stuck in these drifts and had to dig to get the sledge on an even keel for starting. We had 3 good sprints – 2 mile, 1 mile, 1 mile and are fairly satisfied with the work done. Given such a surface, we ought soon to be doing our daily 12 miles, or perhaps more.

  Apart from the ‘hoicking’ and the sprint to catch up after it, this pulling on a good surface is great fun, though the continual shouting rather takes one’s breath – compare a very long football match at Merchiston.5

  Wild:

  Joyce passed us while we were turned in. We passed him again to-day & have left him five miles behind. He travels when we are asleep & we travel while his party sleeps so when we wake up I expect he will have passed us again. Seven miles today, we are bucking up.

  When we do 12 miles in one day, we are going to splice the main-brace (with brandy) so I hope it will be tomorrow.6

  3 February 1915

  After checking the food supply Spencer-Smith found out that he, Mackintosh and Wild had been underfeeding themselves. The biscuits, although they were hard, had what has been described as ‘a flavour a combination of nuttiness, meatiness and plain fillingess’.7 The most satisfactory aspect of the biscuits for the men was that they took a long time to eat.

  Spencer-Smith: ‘In future the tea is to be stronger and the hoosh more abundant both in oatmeal & pemmican. We have decided to have butter (which is extra) only at lunch, so that our 4 or 5 lbs may be made to spin out the 7 weeks.’8

  Mackintosh was again critical of Towser:

  When we started off again Towser would keep stopping the team; also committing the heinous offence of getting out of his harness, so he had a good beating as his crime was premeditated we are sure. We had to wait some considerable time for him whilst he was wandering about, but he thought the devil he knew was preferable.9

  4 February 1915

  Mackintosh was encouraged by words fro
m a book he was carrying, Being and Doing (a 1897 book on life studies), so much so he added a poem from the book, one by Ralph Waldo Emerson, into his diary.

  So nigh is grandeur to our dust,

  So near is God to man,

  When duty whispers well I must,

  The Youth replies ‘I can!’10

  5 February 1915

  Spencer-Smith:

  The low temperature helped us greatly: the Minimum Thermometer touched -22 F today but we did not notice the cold until the wind set in, when our beards etc (which are always thick with frost) stiffened into ice in a moment. It was quite painful once I opened my mouth rather wide to shout – and every hair on my face seemed to be tearing out at the roots.

  The range of temperatures is amazing. -22 to +20 in 12 hours. So one has burns from the cooker when hot and burns from the cooker when cold, and it’s all in the game.

  The whole plain looks as if a vast sea, slightly troubled, had frozen in an instant, the tops of waves are smooth and slippery and one has to be careful on the ski.11

  6 February 1915

  Spencer-Smith created a special hoosh, diarising the ingredients.

  Recipe for Hoosh deluxe, for 3 men:

  1 mug Pemmican (¾ lb)

  6 lumps sugar

  ¾ spoonful salt

  9 spoonful oatmeal

  (6 crushed biscuit) extra

  Tea for 3 men.

  3 spoonful Glaxo*

  3 spoonful Tea

  24 lumps sugar (at lunch 30 lumps)

  The pemmican is only taken at Bkft & Supper. Lunch consist of Tea, Biscuit, Chocolate (1 stick each) and Butter (if any).

  Each man gets 2 Biscuits at Brft & Supper and 3 at lunch.

  A hard day. 11 miles 25 yards. It is to be noted that these miles are all geographical miles (2028 yards) which makes a considerable difference to one accustomed to statute miles.12

  7 February 1915

  Mackintosh gives us an outline of their normal morning ritual. (The ‘cooker’ he refers to was a Nansen cooker, designed by the Norwegian Arctic explorer. It was made up of five parts. There was a shallow dish in which a primus stove stood. Then there were two pots in which water was heated and meals cooked with one lid covering both pots. One pot sat inside the other and the meal was cooked in the inner one. This allowed food to be cooked and snow melted simultaneously. An outer cover was lowered gently over the whole apparatus in order to keep in as much heat as possible. The primus stove burnt paraffin, after being started with methylated spirits. A small amount of spirit was poured into a cup at the base of the stove, lit and when it was almost burnt up an air-valve was screwed up and a few tentative pumps made. If the paraffin in the pipes was not heated sufficiently pure paraffin would come through the stove jets, which was a bright yellow flame of 2 or 3 feet long. But with patience, they could have the right mixture of paraffin vapour and air rushing up and then a blue flame would start from under the top of the burner. They would increase the air pressure with more pumping and the burner would then be surrounded by a halo of intensely hot bluish flame. Many explorers of the era made notes of the ‘cheery hum of the primus’.)

  He also explains their method of dividing up the food, a game that ensured a fair distribution. One man, the cook, would divide up or pour out roughly equal portions into each bowl and then turn his back to the food; another would point to a bowl and say ‘whose?’, and the cook would say one of their names, and so on. (Shackleton is said to have made up the game on the Nimrod Expedition when he noted that the men stared at each other’s portions as if one had deliberately received a bigger portion.)

  Mackintosh:

  I am usually good at waking myself, the order of things go: I wake, get out watch usually hitting the correct hour, shake self out of bag, call the others, Smith usually gets out first, I go out, fill up cooker and pass it in. By this time, Wild is up, Smith gets the primus going during this time I build a cairn, – breakfast we always find our longest period.

  We always try to hustle but so far have not succeeded to an ideal routine. Today for instance. Temp +3 for us quite ‘nippy’. Hoosh does not take long and once down a fine tingle passes over one. – then the struggle, boots as hard as iron, this operation takes the longest, after this the rest of the gear, bags folded, sledge packed.

  Wild attends dogs I attend sledge lashings. Smith takes tent down. With this completed 2½ hours have gone.

  Played the sledge game of Shut Eye for our portion of butter which we have brought a small portion of as a luxury.

  He added:

  Tested time it takes primus to melt snow which is as follows:

  Snow melts: 15 mins

  Water boils: 20 mins

  Total: 35 mins.13

  8 February 1915

  Mackintosh on Towser, again: ‘A fool, morose skulker, yellow and dashed with white; lazy and fat, always has to be hustled, gets plenty of beatings, never yelps or barks – quite hopeless for this task. Has absolutely no brains or energy.’14

  9 February 1915

  Mackintosh: ‘I had a weird dream, something about an operation, and I had just been wheeled to the tent and would not be able to proceed any further as a warm bed awaited me. I was soon disillusioned however on waking.’15

  10 February 1915

  From Mackintosh’s words we can visualise the three men waking up and having their morning breakfast – a cup of hoosh. Note: after less than two weeks of sledging, scurvy was on their minds.

  Mackintosh:

  Greeted on wakening by the pattering off drift against the tent and hissing of wind outside! Smith is making some hoosh, which as we are unable to proceed, are going to have in our bags.

  A little later – we have just finished sitting in bag both hands clasped round the mug as to lose no warmth; then when hands get nicely warmed, the biscuit is broken into the hoosh by cracking it up first with our teeth – then the first spoonful gives a delicious glowing tingle right through the body. When this is over a cup of tea which is the end of the meal – but we are nicely warmed up again.16

  Spencer-Smith: ‘Dressed Mac’s finger: his right ear seems affected in a similar way and the gland beneath is also swollen. We must start the lime juice tonight. I feel sure that my toes and his hand are missing vegetables.’17

  11 February 1915

  The two parties at Minna Bluff

  Joyce’s party had reached a point near Minna Bluff – where the depot was established – on 9 February. It was about 70 miles south from Hut Point. Two days later Mackintosh’s party joined them and the parties were then rearranged. The three navy men, Mackintosh, Joyce and Wild, and the majority of the dogs, continued on south to lay another depot 70 miles further on, and Spencer-Smith returned to Hut Point – with Jack, Gaze and a few of the dogs.

  At this depot point, Mackintosh wrote a letter of instruction for Spencer-Smith.

  Letter from Captain A. E. Mackintosh to Spencer-Smith

  11 February 1915.

  … it is with deep regret that I have to part with your company as a sledging companion for it has been through your ready aid and shoulders that we have enabled to reach so far on our journey.

  I now depute to you the charge of the Bluff depot laying party, as I consider by your tact, discretion and character you are a fit person to take over this responsible position.18

  Spencer-Smith returns to Hut Point

  Spencer-Smith’s trek back to Hut Point was uneventful, but he made occasional notes in his diary. His charitable nature shows through by the way he writes about one of the dogs he names as ‘Gunboat’. This dog (called Gunboat here but he was usually called Gunner) survived the first sledging season and was one of the four dogs that went out to Mount Hope in 1916.

  14 February 1915

  Spencer-Smith:

  There is, of course, practically no incident to record on these marches. But one’s thoughts go in curious cycles. First one’s orations and a certain amount of meditation: as cairns and other definite po
ints draw near one makes guesses of the number of paces and starts counting, and often continuously mechanically long after the spot is passed.

  As meal-camps draw near, food is the predominate thought – I incline usually towards sardines, jam and chocolate (all of which we shall find at Hut Point in due course). The other two are more ambitious. Jack wants oyster soup & Irvine salmon, poached eggs and grilled steak.19

  16 February 1915

  Spencer-Smith includes a quote from a Robert Browning poem, ‘Andrea del Sarto’, and in a portent of what was to come, he mentions a pain in his chest.

  Poor old ‘Gunboat’ saw a fragment of dog biscuit on the track – grabbed at it and missed it – and for the next 2 or 3 minutes sulked and refuse to pull.

  Thoughtlessly I let them see the biscuits I was carrying for lunch today, and it was painful to see them look piteously at them as I passed.

  Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp. Or what’s heaven for?

  People at home are just finishing their after-church supper. One wonders if they are thinking of us at all – and how the war is proceeding.20

  I am a little strained on the left side intercostals, I hope not heart, and shall have to be careful. Put a few Kola Compds in my pocket and think them very useful.21

  Most annoying – snapped a gold tooth clean off at supper time tonight, the nearest dentist being in New Zealand.22