Shackleton's Heroes

by Wilson McOrist

  We have just had a meal, cocoa mixed with biscuit crumbs; this has warmed us a little, but the cold on empty stomachs is penetrating.

  All kinds of gloomy thoughts come to one lying in bag. How one longs to be out of this infernal region – the dear ones at home what are they doing? After this meal we have a sing-song which has cheered us up. But food is our one thought, what will we eat when we get back? Even dog biscuits now would be a luxury.36

  Joyce: ‘Our food biscuit crumbs + cocoa. The temp well below 50.’37

  24 March 1915

  However, the next day, 24 March, the blizzard stopped and they managed to reach the Safety Camp depot where Wild ran into more problems.

  After leaving the depot they went onto the edge of the Great Ice Barrier but the final step, from the edge of the Barrier to Hut Point, was not straightforward. The direct route was across sea-ice but if the ice was not strong they would have to take a longer and more circuitous route around the edge of the Barrier. This would involve climbing up pressure ridges and ice cliffs and camping for one or two nights. Unfortunately they could not take the direct route.

  Mackintosh:

  We have some biscuit-crumbs in the bag and that is all. Our start was made under most bitter circumstances, all of us being attacked by frost-bites. It was an effort to bare hands for an instant. After much rubbing and ‘bringing back’ of extremities we started. Wild is a mass of bites, and we are all in a bad way.

  We plugged on, but warmth would not come into our bodies. We had been pulling about two hours when Joyce’s smart eyes picked up a flag. We shoved on for all we were worth, and as we got closer, sure enough, the cases of provisions loomed up. Then what feeds we promised to give ourselves.

  While Wild was getting the Primus lighted he called out to us that he believed his ear had gone. This was the last piece of his face left whole — nose, cheeks, and neck all having bites. I went into the tent and had a look. The ear was a pale green. I quickly put the palm of my hand to it and brought it round.

  Then his fingers went, and to stop this and bring back the circulation he put them over the lighted Primus, a terrible thing to do. As a result he was in agony.

  It was not long before we were putting our gastronomic capabilities to the test. Pemmican was brought down from the depot, with oatmeal to thicken it, as well as sugar. We felt like new beings. We simply ate till we were full, mug after mug.38

  Joyce:

  At the physiological moment Provi.§§ gave us a chance.

  The 1st mug of pemmican had the machine pumping the blood through our veins the 2nd we began to feel the thrill of warmth. It was essential to be cautious in regard to the amount of food we consumed after starvation diet. Still a starving man has little conscience when the cross roads meet.

  After our meal, a banquet to us, we got under weigh with the sufficiencies of the glories of the Great Ice Barrier for a time.39

  Mackintosh:

  When we got to the Barrier-edge we found the ice-cliff on to the newly formed seaice not safe enough to bear us, so we had to make a detour along the Barrier-edge and, if the sea-ice was not negotiable, find a way up by Castle Rock.

  At 7 p.m., not having found any suitable place to descend to the sea-ice we camped. To-night we have the Primus going and warming our frozen selves. I hope to make Hut Point to-morrow.40

  A day out from the hut, Joyce jotted down a Browning poem, ‘By the Fire-Side’:

  The little more + how much it is

  The little less + how far away – Br.41

  Other depots were also laid, closer to Hut Point

  Meanwhile, while Mackintosh, Joyce and Wild were out on the Barrier, Richards and Hayward, with Cope, Ninnis, Jack and Hooke, had been laying depots closer to Hut Point. (Stevens had returned to Hut Point with Spencer-Smith and Jack had taken his place.)

  Richards wrote in later years that the loads were far too heavy and in his opinion Cope was the last man in the world to be in charge. He tells us that he regarded this particular part of his experience in Antarctica as a good comic opera, but he does admit that they learnt a good deal from it.42 Hayward, Richards and Ninnis were critical and mocking of the other three-man team – of Cope, Jack and Hooke. They even wrote their own ‘poem’ at one stage, when complaining about the speed and efforts of the others. Hayward called it a ‘little ditty’ entitled ‘What the Hell’ and the first few lines are shown below.

  9 February 1915

  Hayward:

  Myself supported by Richards, Ninnis, raised a protest on the slow progress we are making, due to the way the other three potter about, having spells for breathers & ‘nibbles’. Last night for instance we spent an hour & a half over the midday meal & consequently had to march well over routine.43

  10 February 1915

  Hayward: ‘Eventually the 2nd sledge was hauled up to the first & by this time 2 of the other party nicknamed Tanglefoot owing to his acrobatic feats to retain his equilibrium for Skis & Sparrow Knees owing to the decided affection his knees show for one another, were walloped.’44

  Richards: ‘Marched 3¼ miles in (with) one relay. Bandsmen held their own. (For some rediculous [sic] reason we in our tent called ourselves the Bandsmen. We rather looked down on the pulling capabilities of the other tent and fancied ourselves as sort of supermen!)’45

  Hayward:

  I am sorry to say that I have had occasion to do a roar to-night, which was heartily endorsed by Ninnis & Richards my fellow ‘tenties’ & their opinions are the only ones worth having, as the others have no experience of cold weather travel & conditions & are moreover hopelessly inefficient & incapable of even pulling their pound.

  Really they are the biggest messrs humbugs that it has been my misfortune to be up against & instead of realizing that we have a duty to perform and hard work in front of us they think it is a bally afternoon tea party, they will certainly be shaken up by us before we are through.46

  A Penguin sat upon the Barrier Edge

  Singing what have you been doing all the day?

  Six great men a tiny little sledge

  You must have been stopping on the way

  What the Hell? What the Hell? What the Hell is it all about?

  You’ve got to put your back to it

  Before you can do a shout.47

  12 February 1915

  Richards:

  My rupture is a bit painful tonight and we are all fairly tired … Most of the party are not taking too kindly to their rations – especially pemmican … Sledging is monotonous. Very often too short of wind to talk and travel for hours without a word spoken. The bunk at night on the hard snow is relished as much as any feather bed.48

  In a note added later he said:

  The rupture had been sustained at football the previous season and under medical advice at the time I used a truss. I cannot imagine how incredibly foolish I was to conceal this disability which could have had disastrous results had things gone wrong badly with me the following year. In the upshot I threw the truss away when discarding everything possible in our retreat from Mt. Hope the following year.49

  Early diary entries of Hayward

  As well as making comments about the other sledging team, Hayward often mused in his diary, always with his fiancée Ethel on his mind – he had a picture of her which he kept in his diary. He is reading Lorna Doone, an 1869 romantic novel, by Richard Doddridge Blackmore and he wistfully writes about a man who was in love but this love was not returned. He even transcribes a paragraph or two from Lorna Doone into his diary. In two long and convoluted (but intriguing) sentences he describes a time when they had a quarrel, and he pens two ‘champagne supper’ menus they would have on his return. At this stage, through his diary, he is in a conversation with his loved one.

  12 February 1915

  You ought really to see me now in my bag writing this to you thinking sweet thoughts of you & feasting my eyes on your dear picture, which by the way, I have fastened on to the fly leaf of this note-book.50r />
  14 February 1915

  We have just finished our Hoosh & tea & I am just beginning to feel comparatively warm once more. I have brought with me on this trip my old favourite Lorna Doone & am about to have a rasp of it. Did you ever read it? I have an idea that I got it for you, to do so, but somehow think that you said you could not tackle it. When I come back I am going to insist upon you reading it, but in case you defy me, I will insist upon reading it to you.

  At last we are on the move again, very hot day travelling, have had to divest myself of quite a lot of sweaters & things. Relayed 2 sledges 1½ miles. I have had a piece of rotten luck to-day.

  When we were ready to haul up 2nd sledge, we found it was stuck in the loose snow & after Ninnis had had several unsuccessful attempts to start her up I got hold of the thing & gave a terrific wrench to get it out, the bally thing didn’t budge & I strained my back pretty badly, it has been very painful hauling.51

  15 February 1915

  I am sorry to find that my back is awfully stiff this morning and I know it means a rough passage for me for a few days at least. Camped for midday meal, the cold made it very comfortless & we were glad to get going again 4 o/c pm.

  We tried an experiment for tea – had Pemmican, Plasmon, Biscuit Hoosh & found it quite a success, it will certainly become a frequent addition to the menu.

  The total distance covered today is barely 4 miles not much result for so much real hard work. Anyhow this I do know & I want you when you read this to see that it is carried out. Just you and I are going to have 2 champagne suppers. 1) At the Crown Stanmore & 2) At ‘Ye Old Cheshire Cheese’ Fleet St.

  Menus suggested by me are

  1) Thick gravy soup

  Salmon mayonnaise

  Spring chicken in aspic

  Roast Rib Beef & Yorkshire Pudding Sauté Potatoes

  Black Currant boiled Jam Roll

  Stewed mixed Fruits

  Gorgonzola Cheese (Ripe)

  Black Coffee & Kummel

  & for me a Pkt of Wills Gold Flake Cigs

  2) Real Turtle Soup (Thick)

  Braised Gosling & Red Currant Jelly

  Pigeon Pie

  The Pudding (Beef, Steak, Lark & Oyster)

  Some other dish optional

  Toasted Cheshire Cheese

  Black Coffee &c

  Now please do not forget to remind me of this, not that I think it will be necessary. Marching along here, with a lot on one’s mind & very little in ones ‘innards’ I feel like breaking something when I think of it just your dear little self and myself making veritable ‘gormandizers’ of ourselves. By jingo would it be good.

  I am in my bag at present it is about 1 o/c Tuesday aft. Writing this occasionally lending the others a hand, to prepare our frugal breakfast. Half a mug of Skilly oatmeal, a Pannikin of tea, 10 lumps of sugar & 2 very Hard biscuits.

  However it’s all in the game & I can keep on thinking of the good times to come eh!

  However in my bag & reading Lorna Doone does me alright, but I cannot help feeling that there is too much pottering going on this trip which is by no means satisfactory. The following strikes me as being a jolly nice expression of thought & sentiment by the Girt Jan Ridd the strong man in love with the sweet Lorna Doone, but whose love at this time is not reciprocated don’t you think it nice. He had promised not to try see her again till a month had passed & during this time was working on his farm, thinking naturally more of Lorna than of the work he was engaged upon so:–

  ‘Perhaps it is needless for me to say, that all this time while my month was running or rather crawling, for never month went so slow as that with me, neither weed nor seed, nor cattle, nor my own mothers anxiety, nor any care for my sister, kept me from looking once every day & even twice on Sunday for any sign of Lorna … All the beauty of the Spring went for happy men to think of, all the increase of the year was for other eyes to mark, not a sign of any Sunrise for me, from my fount of life: not a breath to stir the dead leaves fallen on my hearts spring.’

  Ethel I can appreciate all this fully & even if I could not write it so beautifully I can at any rate substituting you for Lorna Doone remember when I have thought exactly similar thoughts. In any case I am sure you will understand how, down here, where everything breathes of the unknown & appears so vast & limitless, how nice it is to be reminded in such a nice way of other & more pleasant scenes, even though certain of them are bitter-sweet.

  I have been thinking of those lovely times of which I have such a vivid recollection, those times which we have spent together at Pinner, Stanmore, Chorleywood & Woldingham & really I find it difficult to find any one occasion which appeals more strongly to me than another, in fact I would not detract from the merit of either by trying to do so, they are all such sweet episodes, full of interest & delight & this applies none the less to those times when no doubt we have both experienced the ‘bitter sweetness’ of a combat of wills, or indeed when this has developed into open conflict, it has always been sufficient for me to just have been with you & under all circumstances I have been so satisfied.

  Nevertheless as you will understand some episodes retain their freshness with us more than others naturally & I have been thinking particularly of that Sunday when it was raining hard & we went to Chorleywood this was after a few days of silence between us, & I shall never forget the sweet, gentle way in which you accepted my, obvious & apparent efforts to fix things up which of course were successful. I wonder if you can call to mind what took place, with the same accuracy as I can.52

  Richards, a man of twenty-two years of age, with no romantic connections we know of, writes matter-of-fact notes.

  Richards:

  It turned very cool towards evening and when I came to take my boots off socks were frozen hard to the boots and were with difficulty removed without damage. The sleeping bag was frozen. On running my hand inside I could feel ice all over the bottom. However, notwithstanding managed to get through a fairly comfortable night. I am changing my footwear for today’s march. In place of boots which freeze as hard as boards and are very cold I shall wear pair of finneskoe.53

  17 February 1915

  Smoking, of cigarettes or a pipe, was the luxury all the men enjoyed.

  Hayward:

  Am now just having a nice smoke. For some time I have been making my cigarettes with tissue paper from the biscuit tins, but just now I am in clover, as yesterday I swapped a black silk navy neckerchief with Ninnis for 20 Virginian cigarettes & consider I made a good bargain, anyway I am enjoying one immensely just at present especially as my sleeping bag is nice & warm & DRY.54

  18 February 1915

  Hayward:

  I have had a desperate time, trying to get comfortable in my bag, & when I tell you that the temperature dropped to 50 degrees below freezing point¶¶ you will understand why.

  You can have no idea what this means every breath one takes condenses in the atmosphere of the tent & makes everything damp for the time, this then freezes up, then when we get the cooker going as we just have for the Pemmican, all this thaws out & down drops the moisture all over one, wetting one through, then to complete the operation this freezes hard & cold, when the cooker is turned off.55

  19 February 1915

  Hayward:

  Spent a very comfortable night, the most comfortable since starting as a matter of fact we placed our bags close together & of course had the benefit of our combined warmth.

  Have had breakfast, very good too, by Jingo, a man feels good after his pannikin of Porridge & Hut Tea, he is ready to push Mount Erebus over, the only thing preventing him is that although it looks quite close it is something like 60 miles off & therefore quite safe.

  We have had a regular gorge to-night, Pemmican & oatmeal Hoosh thick, & a pannikin of tea with 20 lumps of sugar in it each it was a feed for the Gods & I have the most comfortable feeling inside that I have known for some time. It is going to be very cold to-night in fact even now I can hardly hold the pencil I am wri
ting with & shall have to chuck it, till it gets warmer.56

  Richards: ‘We are getting thinner. (Seems as though we were getting a wee bit sorry for ourselves too).’57

  Hayward and Richards, with Cope, Ninnis, Hooke and Jack put down their first depot of supplies on the Great Ice Barrier, approximately 25 miles from Hut Point. This was known as Cope No. 1 depot.

  21 February 1915

  Hayward continues his detailed diary, including his feelings when visited by the men of the other team (Cope, Jack and Hooke).

  Hayward:

  This morning we have been laying a depôt here, & making up our load on the one sledge according to arrangement made yesterday. Depot consists of, 1 sledge 1 Case Biscuits 1 Box provisions 1 Pr ski, 2 Coils Rope 1 Kit Box, 3 tins Kerosene & Sundries. Sledge buried at the bows to amidships Cairn erected & surmounted by flag. Sledge to go on weighs 1200 lb.

  The weather to-day has been delightful, it has been possible to potter around with no hat or mitts & to feel quite warm, whilst lying here smoking we actually have the tent door open as it is quite unbearable inside without.

  I meant to make reference to the remarkable phenomenon noticed yesterday with regard to the sun, over & under the sun appeared two small concave patches of rainbow effect & on the outsides two converse patches of a similar kind, whilst the sun itself shone with a quite white light.

  This was distinctly visible for about 1 hour & a half, from 9 AM till 10.30., when it gradually disappeared. Nobody of our party which includes two meteorologists have seen or heard of anything like it & it must be quite unique.