We’ve had a pretty stiff time, taking it all round, but I can’t feel any regret about it all, except that I should have liked to have been with you during the horror of the war.
Believe me that if anything does happen to me I will face it as cheerfully as I can – with a hope that is really ‘sure & certain’ of seeing you all again with everything unworthy in myself done away with. I have tried to be ‘good’ & to do good without preaching – & even so I don’t feel worthy of you two dear ones.
Goodbye for the moment.
I am your loving son
Arnold.
Please keep the communion vessels in the family.7
Sledging starts from Hut Point, to the south
In early October, stage two of the second season started, the sledging of stores from Hut Point to replenish depots on the Barrier that had been laid back in February and March. They were delayed by a blizzard until 9 October then a start was made with nine men pulling three sledges, one behind the other. Progress was very slow towards the start of the Barrier, owing to overladen sledges and a heavy surface, and camp was made that first evening by a very tired and dispirited party.8
10 October 1915
Joyce: ‘Distance done during day about 4 miles. I don’t think in all my experience down here I have had harder pulling – Temp -18. Turned in wet through.’9
11 October 1915
They tried nine men hauling three sledges at first and then three men pulling one sledge, but their progress was still slow. Joyce was very critical of Mackintosh and some (or all) of the Australians (Richards, Gaze and Jack) did not impress Wild.
Joyce:
Started away on our physical farce, found loads worse to pull than yesterday. Hauled up + took weights + found out there was about 2,000 lbs instead of 1566 proposed in the 1st place.
I think the man must be mad to think it is possible to pull such a load in the conditions on which we are placed. Only one thing he thinks of that is the men at the other end but he won’t take good solid advice how to make good out of a bad thing.
There is not the physical status here to pull heavy loads. Hearts are willing but strength will not avail. Why won’t he say take 180 lbs a man and get the journey done in a fortnight + make 5 trips out instead of 4 + try and save the men a bit instead of dragging here 220 odd pounds pr man.
I suppose he will learn to his regret that he has not taken good advice. Well after this hard struggle we hauled up in a snowstorm at half past three having struggled 4 miles. I think I shall have to tell the Skipper off.
Turned in 6 o’clock. Weary, worn + sad.10
Hayward: ‘After loading up got under way for a couple of hours & did 3 miles. Going slow & heavy in fact I am quite sure that with such loads it will be imposs. to carry out the seasons programme.’11
Wild: ‘We pulled the heaviest sledges & the others couldn’t keep up. It’s the foreigners that do it; they give everybody a bad heart.’12
12 October 1915
Mackintosh then decided that he, Spencer-Smith and Wild would travel as a separate unit, while the others (Joyce, Richards, Hayward, Cope, Gaze and Jack) would operate as a six-man party under Joyce’s leadership. There is no indication from their diaries why Mackintosh decided to split up the party. All Richards could say later was that progress was almost impossible with the heavy loads so Mackintosh, Wild and Smith went on as an independent party while the rest under Joyce’s command undertook four depot-laying journeys from Hut Point to the Bluff depot, some 70 miles south.13
Joyce:
Blizzarding. Spent half an hour in the Skippers tent regarding the load etc. The same old thing he is going on ahead with Smith + Wild with his load and to push on.
I to take over the other 5 + use discretion + to carry on from here to Bluff + visa-versa to get things out the best way I can. Now this proposition sounds alright on paper but if we sum up things it is impossible to carry on in these conditions. Why he is deserting this party which is supposed to be the weakest no one knows.14
Wild felt for (Ernest) Joyce: ‘We’ve left the others behind with poor old Ern in charge, d___d glad.’15
Two teams: Mackintosh’s team of three and Joyce’s team of six
From this date, 12 October 1915, until early January 1916, Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild travelled separately from the others. Possibly Mackintosh preferred working with only two men, leaving Joyce in charge of five others. Travelling away from Joyce meant he could leave him written instructions from time to time; which he did, placing notes for Joyce at various depot points.
Their first task for both teams was to restock the Bluff depot. Joyce’s team immediately started relaying. Joyce was now maintaining a daily diary record and his 18 October diary entry is similar to many other days. He writes without any fanfare. The first trip to the Bluff depot for Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild was also uneventful, but now and again they commented on the conditions.
‘Rouse out! Rouse out!’ would be a common call to the men start a day. ‘Right-oh’, would come any replies. To pull down their tents they would first clear snow blocks from the skirting, lift it up from the windward side so it blew out and then shake off some of the more icy lumps, then fold it up. After packing they would look at each other’s faces for frostbite. A dead-white nose tip or a white spot on a cheek were common signs and these would be nursed back to life with the warmth of their bare hands.16
Joyce:
12 Oct: The Skipper + party started off Noon. We started 12.30 found load too hard started relaying found it much easier work but 3 times the distance to do carried on until 5 o’clock. Skipper just in front. Camped. Temp -26.17
18 Oct: All hands had a good night’s rest. Temp rather warmer + 0–12. Very fine sunny day blowing slightly from the SE. Under way usual time passed over several crevasses some as wide as streets. Came onto very hard sastrugi as white + hard as marble at about 10.30.
Lunched noon. After lunch clouds obscured sun very bad for the eyes as everything is obscured + one cannot see the hummocks on the snow everyone falling about, looking so much like classical dancers, done very good pace as the sledge comes over very easy. Distance done 9 to 10 miles record?18
Spencer-Smith:
17 Oct: A severe day: overcast and a strong and very cold wind from nearly dead ahead. Temp -10° F rising to +1° F in the evening.
The whole day was a long slip, stumble and fall: all glare surface and quite impossible to see where to place one’s foot even when the drift ceased. The wind was so strong that it actually blew Wild and self backwards sliding on our feet at one halt.
We did 6 miles 1150 yds nevertheless and camped at 3 o’clock, quite fed up. If only the wind would stop, the surface is perfect for quick work.19
Wild:
20 Oct: Had to pack up at three o’clock on account of a strong head wind. I fell down or was blown down 5 times. Once the wind blew me 3 or 4 paces to the rear. I was just sliding. It would have been a lovely surface for travelling had there been no wind.20
More stores are laid at Minna Bluff
In late October Mackintosh and Joyce’s parties added provisions to those already at the Minna Bluff depot and went back to Hut Point to pick up more supplies. With a southerly wind behind them and lighter loads (having deposited stores at the Bluff depot), the trek back was much quicker than coming out. Diary entries casually mention some of the hardships they endured.
In one diary entry by Joyce we learn of his party finding a note written in 1912, left by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, for Scott. Cherry-Garrard was the youngest member of Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition. In early 1912, while Scott’s party was struggling back from the South Pole, Cherry-Garrard made a supply run to a depot called ‘One Ton Depot’, about 140 miles from Hut Point – he had hoped he might meet Scott returning from the Pole.
Joyce:
23 Oct: Had another bad night. Cold + shivering warm when we turned in but got very cold in the night. Temp -30.
Under weigh
usual time a cold S wind temp –20 –2. Just before we started Hayward + Jack opened sleeping bags + a very heavy drift struck us + before they could be closed were filled up. Hard luck.
Could not see anything to steer by so going by drift. Set sail found we had to run to keep up to sledge. Came on to an ivory surface. So had to take sail off. The wind was so strong that it still carried the sledge forward one man had to brake. We came some awful croppers on the hard Sastrugi. Going along between 2 + 3 miles an hour. Lunched usual time took all hand to spread out tent + then it took some 20 minutes. Under way usual in the afternoon drift eased but wind + surface the same as forenoon, going at a good rate. Slipped all about the place.
Camped @ 6 oclock. Distance done from 16 to 18 miles. I am bruised all over. Temp –20.21
Spencer-Smith: ‘Spent the morning playing hunt the crevasse. Wild went down 2 little ones. We spotted 12 in all, including 4 or 5 large ones ranging from 7 to 30 feet width.’22
Joyce:
26 Oct: Sighted a sledge or part stuck up. NW. Made for it arrived at 4-10. Started digging out, then found it would be a long job decided to camp, made cocoa + carried on.
Came across a note from Cherry Garrard to Capt Scott, tied on a 12ft ice pick as follows:
19 March.
Dear Sir.
We leave here this morning with the dogs for Hut Point. We have laid no Depots on the way as being off course all the way. I have not been able to leave a note before.
Yours Sincerely
Cherry Garrard
Rather pathetic picking this note up + dated I think after Scotts death.
Finish digging about 8. Found 4 cases of Spratts Biscuits + some Wolseley Motor Oil. Made a Depot, had dinner, turned in 9 o’clock. Temp -26.23
Late October 1915: All the men are back at Hut Point
The dogs at Cape Evans had not been used, except for taking stores to Hut Point in September. This was in spite of Joyce’s experience with dogs – he first worked with them on Scott’s 1901–04 Discovery Expedition and then again on Shackleton’s 1907–09 Nimrod Expedition. Richards, in one of his interviews, tells us that they had decided not to use the dogs because they felt that men and dogs were not compatible. The pace of a man hauling a sledge with a heavy load behind him was just trudge, trudge, with one foot a few inches in front of another in the snow. Dogs liked to go at a reasonable trot when they were pulling sledges. They thought it would be quite impossible to marry the two.24
It is not clear why they then decided, in late October, to start using the dogs to help with the sledge-hauling. Joyce wrote there were five dogs used but only four were taken, Oscar, Gunner, Con and Towser.
Richards recalled that it was not Mackintosh’s idea to take the dogs. He tells us that he (Richards) persuaded Joyce to try out the four dogs and that Joyce then had to ‘sell’ the notion to Mackintosh. The dogs were then brought from Cape Evans to Hut Point and they required some time to adapt themselves to the men’s slower rate of progress, but to Richards the decision to take them was justified. He wrote later: ‘None of us who made the southern journey will ever forget those faithful friends of the dog world – Con, Gunner, Oscar and Towser.’25
The men enjoyed travelling with the dogs, yelling instructions such as ‘Ready’ for the dogs to stand and be ready to start, ‘Mush’ for the dogs to go, ‘Ha’ to turn right, ‘Gee’ to turn left and ‘Whoa’ to stop.26 Oscar was Richards’s favourite. He described him as a powerful brute, a massive dog at about 110 lb, but not a lovely-looking dog. He had a broad leonine head and a low ‘criminal type’ forehead. Richards thought he was disliked by the other dogs on account of his homosexual activities. To Richards he was a lazy brute usually but ‘when the chips were down he came through, when the other three chucked their hands in’.
Gunner (called Gunboat by some of the men) was as big as Oscar. Towser was the lightest and not much use for pulling in Richards view. Those three were Canadian huskies and Richards remembered them as lazy and quarrelsome, with no interest in hunting seals or anything else. Whereas Con was a samoyed dog and completely different in character. Richards described him as a ‘good living dog’, lively and keen on hunting seals. He believed that the other three dogs ‘hated his guts’ and they often tried to kill him.27 But as far as he and the others were concerned, in the sledging, they all did ‘yeoman’s service’.28
Neither Joyce nor any of the others write on the sledging arrangement used at this time. From photographs we can see the dogs usually travelled in single file, not a fan formation, harnessed onto one rope back to the sledge. At the front of them was the leading man who the dogs followed. The other men were attached to the sledge separately, not in single file like the dogs.
Joyce:
28 Oct: Had a very good night’s rest. Rather too warm with a roaring fire going all night. Temp +16 +30. Southerly blizzard was drying clothes + Bags.
Had a yarn with the Skipper about things. So we have decided to take on the 5 dogs next trip + see what we can do.
All our appetites are of the best so having a good stock of seal meat such as Liver Kidneys Steak etc. We found a seal with young so they are breeding now + we shall be getting up a great many. Had a bonzer dinner of seal. Turned in 9 o’clock.29
Hayward: ‘23–27 Oct 15. Arrived Hut Point after very favourable run back. Have decided to make use of dogs next trip.’30
Additional stores are taken out to the Bluff depot
From late October through to late December the two parties trekked out to the Barrier and to the Bluff depot, also loading up other depots on the way. Mackintosh’s party (he, Spencer-Smith and Wild) would now not return to Hut Point, preferring to pick up supplies from other depots on the Barrier, such as the one at Safety Camp, and go back south from there. Joyce’s party, now with the dogs, would return to Hut Point on a number of occasions.
Some of the men maintained a daily log over these three months but most of their notes relate to day-to-day activities, or simple aspects of their existence. Wild seems to keep his peace with Mackintosh as there is no mention of any arguments, although he often included diary comments on Mackintosh, for dropping and losing things, and acting irrationally. Spencer-Smith often wrote of his thoughts and his dreams. Hayward’s diary entries, so detailed when he first arrived in Antarctica and on his early sledging journeys of February and March 1915, had now become quite brief, and devoid of any reference to his fiancée, but he regularly made a note of the distance travelled each day.
Mackintosh gave Joyce instructions to place more stores at the Bluff depot:
28 October 1915
Dear Joyce,
The plans for you to carry out your next trip to the Bluff Depot will be as follows The above is what I require you to do, anything you can to better this or to accelerate the speed (3 weeks out and back) will be to your credit.31
Stores to be left at the Bluff by each unit (3 men) to be 159 lbs. To enable you to undertake this five of the dogs will be used each day to pull a weight equal to 70 lbs, their ration to be 1.5 lbs per diem.§
To enable two efficient sledge parties, they should consist of yourself (in charge) Hayward and Gaze. For the other party, Richards, Cope & Jack with the dogs.
The party under you then can pull the load according to the programme (560 lbs), while the other party with the dogs should easily manage that amount or I hope over without undue overloading.
Joyce:
5 Nov: …broke our shovel a rather serious thing, as it will mean both parties to use one.32
6 Nov: Dogs doing their best. I suppose they find it strange pulling in harness with the men. Now + again we would get a heavy snow drop making a great noise + the dogs would get frightened and jump forward with gusto.33
Wild:
16 Oct: We saw one of Scott’s bamboos with the remains of a flag on it this morning. We dug down about 8 feet but didn’t come across any bacco. Still on Hut Point mixture.34
21 Oct: I found one of Skipper’s finnesko
es which had dropped off on the way out.35
1 Nov: Skipper lost his watch & I found it on the sledge.36
2 Nov: Another record, the Skipper didn’t drop any mitts today.37
9 Nov: Started back at 10.15 & have come 9 miles that’s without counting & meter & a few trifles. I took meter off when Skipper wasn’t looking because I knew he would want it on if he saw me. Ha-ha.38
17 Nov: Skipper broke the compass and we had to mend it between us.39
19 Nov: Skipper acted wet just now & took his boots & socks off & ran around in the snow. He says he reckons it will be alright to go on the march with them off. I’d like to see him.40
9 Dec: Skipper’s boot fell off. Smithy went back ¼ mile for it.41
Spencer-Smith:
5 Nov: Cam¶ has been trotting in and out of my mind all day. I Wonder why? A huge halo has encircled the sun all day; sun very warm, almost windless. Temp morn +13, evening +8°F.42
7 Nov: Graft! Graft! Graft! Even the sun deserted us at 10am and the sky became overcast, so that steering became very difficult: we must have passed within 150 yards of a cairn without seeing it.
Shackleton's Heroes Page 17