Shackleton's Heroes
Page 24
7–11 February: The trek from 81˚S to 80˚S
Spencer-Smith often recorded what his thoughts were during the day but the other five men rarely let on in their diaries what was on their mind as they trudged along, hour after hour, day after day. In an interview sixty years later Richards gave an insight into his thoughts. He tells us he could not talk to the other fellows as they were too far away so he had a world of his own to think about. Sometimes he would look at the peaks of the western mountains and guess the bearing when they were starting the day. Then he would guess the bearing when they had finished. He did it by eye, without the compass, and just for purely something to do, trying to work out in his own mind, the angle between the first two from the known distance they had travelled.
He tells us he did this sort of thing to keep his mind occupied because there was such intense monotony as they trudged along ‘one step a little in front of the other’ on the snowy surface. He believed that the others must have had something that occupied their mind because there was not much to see. The Barrier was a featureless surface although when they were close to the Trans-Antarctic Mountains they could look and admire them when it was clear, but there were parts of the journey where they were out of sight.50
At these times he simply pondered on the simple things that made up his day’s existence. He remembered that he seldom thought of the outside world as he had heard nothing from it since December 1914; he had left all that behind. The only reality was what he and the other men saw. However, the pleasures of their day were just as satisfying as for someone in civilisation. There was the shelter of the tent at the end of the day, the easing of a blizzard, a smooth-running snow surface, the sighting of a food depot and ample food after being on short rations. These to Richards were the peaks above the drudgery of their day-to-day existence and he wrote in his book it ‘produced a feeling of profound well-being’.51
Hayward’s diary notes over the five days they took to travel the 70 miles between the 81°S and 80°S depots were very brief but he was now keeping a simple table of the date, distance travelled and miles left to reach Hut Point. The entries over the days from 81°S to 80°S were:
7 14 209
8 11 195
9 15 184
10 14 169
11 16 15552
(The first line means on 7 February they had travelled 14 miles and had 209 miles to Hut Point. The last line means that on 11 February they had travelled 16 miles and had 155 miles to Hut Point.)
Hayward: ‘8 Feb: Snow which fell during night made going very difficult, however with some effort we managed to put in for the day 11 miles not too bad. Old man very bad.
11 Feb: Made depot (80° S) at 14 miles. Time 5 o/c. Camped 1½ miles N. Total 15½ M.’53
Spencer-Smith:
7 Feb: I have spent most of the day with my Edinburgh pals (J. and C.).54
8 Feb: Spent the afternoon imagining ‘tired man’s’ jobs for myself. Gums sore for two days – on lime juice.55
9 Feb: Pleasant afternoon in South Square, Gray’s Inn. Gums are better.56
10 Feb: Feel very weak … Dreamt of the Stevens twins. I going to call on Mrs S. see twins in front garden and say ‘Hello twins, you don’t know who I am.’ The reply in duet sans hesitation was ‘Oh no, but you look like the devil!’57
11 Feb: A rather more comfortable day – mostly hovering around Gray’s Inn, furnishing, &c, &c. If only the dream cd come true.58
Wild: ‘8 Feb: Short day & rotten surface. 9 Feb: Fair wind and rotten surface.’59
Joyce maintained a daily log, such as:
8 Feb: Blowing + Snowing all night Turned out 5-30 found it still snowing + too thick to get under way called hands 7-20 underway 9-50 very thick + bad light for steering but managed to pick up some of the Cairns.
Lunch 1 o’clock. After lunch it cleared up with a good blue sky very strange in this lat as we call this the gloomy stretch, as no party has experienced good weather in this Lat. Camped 6-40 surface got so bad that we were sometimes up to our knees. I think it is the hardest afternoon we have experienced. Dist during day 11¼ miles.60
On 11 February they reached the 80°S depot, 155 miles from Hut Point, where they again replenished their supplies and carried on.
12–17 February: They close in on the Minna Bluff depot
Richards recalled that from the 12th onwards their progress became slower because none of the men were in good shape and Mackintosh was usually hanging on to the sledge. As their weakness increased, they gradually jettisoned everything they could to lighten their load. They had already left the second sledge behind and then the sledge-meter, shovels, ice picks and other items were tossed aside.61
Over these days, lying on the sledge, Spencer-Smith dreamt or thought of England almost every day. He does not gripe or grumble, but simply puts down a brief statement of his ailments now and again. In his book The Ross Sea Shore Party Richards tells us that at every camp and at every midday halt Spencer-Smith was lifted from sledge to tent in his bag. Mackintosh, his tent-mate, was also an invalid so practically the entire care of Spencer-Smith fell on Wild’s shoulders, he being the only other occupant of that tent. Wild tended to him for forty days with a devotion that in Richards’s view could not be surpassed, and for upwards of 300 miles in increasingly difficult circumstances. Spencer-Smith never once complained although his thoughts wandered and at other times he lost consciousness. He was, however, often ready with a cheery word and he did his best to make their task as easy as possible.62
All their diary entries were meagre over these seven days although they wrote about seeing familiar landmarks. Joyce, who was leading the party out front, may have been becoming despondent at this time, and he was clearly annoyed with Mackintosh. Hayward’s table of distances covered for the seven days from 12 February to 18 February shows their slow progress after the 80°S depot to reach a position of 81 miles from Hut Point. On the last three days they only travelled 8 miles a day.
Joyce:
12 Feb: There are about 4 lines of Cairns about. Another of the Skips silly whims & it is hard to keep on a straight course.
Sighted Bluff in the forenoon, miraged up & also Mt. Discovery in the afternoon.63 14 Feb: Surface pretty fair in the forenoon. In the afternoon came across the most rotten surface we have experienced since we have been out. I would not mind if we were all pulling our weight in but I am afraid not.64
17 Feb: Surface very rotten sinking in up to the knees. S----- pulling about the same 1 rat power.65
Hayward’s table of distances:
12 12 139
13 12 127
14 10 115
15 8 105
16 8 97
17 8 89
18 Blizzard 8166
His other diary notes were scarce:
12 Feb. Very hard going. Mileage 12½ for day.
13 Feb. Dull steering difficult. 12 M
14 Feb. Going execrable, still dull. 10 M for day
15 Feb. Rottener & rottener could only do 8 m today.
16 Feb. The surface on this stretch is like ploughing ones way through treacle on stilts & we could only do 8 M
17 Feb. Surface similar to that before mentioned. 8 M again. Skipper very lame.67
Spencer-Smith:
12 Feb. Hardly any breeze and therefore very hard work all day. Spent the morning as above and the afternoon at Ardingley!‡
‘Gunboat’ got adrift while they were putting up the tent and came to visit me. Day’s march about 12 miles. The sledge upsets occasionally but without damage to me or it.
13 Feb. A dull, grey day – lit. and metaphor. Days march about 12. Gums rather sore again and feel cranky generally.
14 Feb. A dull day but cleared up beautifully in the evening. It is getting much colder now: the minimum showed -9° F last night.
I had a fierce argument with Wild at lunch ‘de lege talionis’§ in Belgium, S Africa, &c.: and spent the afternoon trying to see why he and I hold such opposite views. The simplicity
of the solution made me kick myself – of course one’s views of right and wrong here and elsewhere depend on belief in the Absolute Good = God – and this he has not realised yet: hence the strange contrast between his really fine character and his wild opinions.
Dreamt of Christmas day at All Saints last night – Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, hundreds of candles, incense, &c., the organ crashing out the first few bars of ‘Adeste Fideles’.
The wretched Oscar loose outside woke me up – nor could I re-capture the vision.68
Wild:
12 Feb: 12½ m roughly. The meter has busted so we have to estimate it how we can. Sighted Old Discovery and the Bluff so we are getting among familiar places again.
13 Feb: Cold day & hard going.
14 Feb: 8½ miles. Hard pulling. Rotten soft surface. Hardest day & shortest distance since we joined up with the others.
15 Feb: 8m ditto. It’s snowing like anything now.
16 Feb: 9m. Good fair wind or else we would have done about two.
17 Feb: 8½ Fair wind, hard going. Smithy still keeps pretty cheerful. He doesn’t howl much, like I should. He is still very weak.69
17 February 1916
On the evening of 17 February, they camped, worn out but with less than 10 miles to reach the Bluff depot. Richards tells us in an interview that during the day their progress was particularly slow, and towards evening, with a low drift blowing, that they had lost their line of cairns (those laid on the way out to Mount Hope).70 They had lost them because they had what Richards called ‘carpet sweepers’; that is, snow drift, up to perhaps 4 or 5 feet. That day they had been going on a bearing which Richards recalled as being ‘pretty right’ but they were not on the line of cairns when they camped that night. They were not anxious as they thought they would pick up the line again in the morning.71
The men knew they still had a difficult job ahead of them but Richards does not remember feeling worried at that particular stage.72 From their diaries of 17 February the others also appear unconcerned and their thoughts were on reaching the Minna Bluff depot, with its ample supply of provisions. However, their serious problems were about to begin, or as Richards remembered, from that time on things began to get ‘distinctly sticky’.73
Wild: ‘Hope to reach Bluff Depot tomorrow.’74
Joyce: ‘If fine tomorrow, very doubtful heavy clouds flying around, we ought to reach the Depot.’75
Spencer-Smith prayed, ‘Oh God hear O Lord’: ‘Given light we should be at the Bluff tomorrow afternoon. “Domine Deus exaudi”.’76
It was 17 February and the six men, one being the incapacitated Spencer-Smith on a sledge, were only 80 miles from the complete safety of Hut Point. Autumn was now closing in.
Notes
1. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
2. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
3. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
4. Ibid.
5. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
6. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
7. Richards diagram, provided by D. Harrowfield
8. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
9. Spencer-Smith diary, 29 January 1916
10. Joyce field diary, 29 January 1916
11. Wild diary, 29 January 1916
12. Hayward diary, 29 January 1916
13. Joyce field diary, 29 January 1916
14. Spencer-Smith diary, 29 January 1916
15. Ibid.
16. Wild diary, 30 January 1916
17. Hayward diary, 30 January 1916
18. Mackintosh diary, 7 March 1915
19. Joyce field diary, 30 January 1916
20. Spencer-Smith diary, 30 January 1916
21. Joyce field diary, 31 January 1916
22. Spencer-Smith diary, 31 January 1916
23. Hayward diary, 31 January 1916
24. Mackintosh diary, 12 March 1915
25. Ibid., 13 March 1915
26. Wild diary, 31 January 1916
27. Joyce field diary, 1 February 1916
28. Joyce diary transcript, 1 February 1916
29. Spencer-Smith diary, 1 February 1916
30. Wild diary, 1 February 1916
31. Joyce field diary, 2 February 1916
32. Ibid.
33. Spencer-Smith diary, 2 February 1916
34. Hayward diary, 2 February 1916
35. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
36. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
37. Debenham, In the Antarctic
38. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
39. Joyce field diary, 3 February 1916
40. Spencer-Smith diary, 4 February 1916
41. Hayward diary, 4 February 1916
42. Joyce field diary, 4 February 1916
43. Spencer-Smith diary, 5 February 1916
44. Joyce field diary, 5 February 1916
45. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
46. Spencer-Smith diary, 6 February 1916
47. Hayward diary, 6 February 1916
48. Wild diary, 6 February 1916
49. Joyce field diary, 6 February 1916
50. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
51. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
52. Hayward diary, February 1916
53. Ibid.
54. Spencer-Smith diary, 7 February 1916
55. Ibid., 8 February 1916
56. Ibid., 9 February 1916
57. Ibid., 10 February 1916
58. Ibid., 11 February 1916
59. Wild diary, 7–10 February 1916
60. Joyce field diary, 8 February 1916
61. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
62. Ibid.
63. Joyce field diary, 12 February 1916
64. Ibid., 14 February 1916
65. Ibid., 17 February 1916
66. Hayward diary, February 1916
67. Ibid.
68. Spencer-Smith diary, 14 February 1916
69. Wild diary, February 1916
70. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
71. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
72. Ibid.
73. Ibid.
74. Wild diary, 17 February 1916
75. Joyce field diary, 17 February 1916
76. Spencer-Smith diary, 17 February 1916
* His term ‘que routes runs’ means ‘what runs, runs’, or what will be, will be.
† S may refer to Spencer-Smith, or possibly Skipper, that is Mackintosh.
‡ Ardingley is possibly Ardingly, a village in West Sussex.
§ ‘de lege talionis’ is an analysis of the Laws of Moses. Spencer-Smith and Wild seemed to have different views on the laws as they apply to social living.
Chapter 12
‘OR ELSE WE SHALL BE SHARING THE FATE OF SCOTT & HIS PARTY’
HAYWARD’S DIARY TABLE summarises the six days from 18 February:
18 Blizzard 81
19 do 81
20 do 81
21 do 81
22 do 81
23 do 811
‘Do’ means ditto. They remained 81 miles from Hut Point. They did not move.
18 February 1916
On the first morning of the blizzard, they found conditions were too thick for travelling. It had been blowing a blizzard all night so they decided to wait and see if it would clear. With the dogs curled up in the snow outside their tents, the men lay in their sleeping bags and waited for the blizzard to stop. They were not perturbed and even thought the enforced rest might even be of some benefit. Spencer-Smith was the only one to portray any unease in his diary that day.
Wild:
Blizzard. Nothing doing.2
Strong wind from S.S.W. accompanied by much drift & heavy snowfall, making it impossible to get under way, at this time, & we had 3 days provisions in our bag & perhaps a gallon of kerosene for the 2 parties of course ample in an ordinary way on which to make the Bluff depot.
Following our customary practice during lay ups we had to-day 2 meals only.3
Joyce:
Turned out 5-30 found it too thick to carry on before. 8 o’clock it came on to blow very hard with drift. 1 Days lay-up although against our grain will not harm us especially the Skipper, he is keeping up pretty fair, better than we expected.4
Spencer-Smith: ‘A real fierce blizzard all night and all day so we are still in situ quo. The wind – still howling – seems about the strongest I remember and almost carries a note of personal animus. This tent stands it magnificently.’5
19 February 1916
Richards wrote later that they were not really worried at this stage. They went onto half rations but the depot was only 10 miles ahead, and they expected the weather would soon lift and enable them to travel again.6
Joyce: ‘Still Blizzarding. Put ourselves on 2 meals a day for case of emergency let us hope for a June day tomorrow.’7
Hayward: ‘No apparent change in weather conditions, & we further decreased our rations, having all day 2 pots of hoosh between the 3 of us.’8
Spencer-Smith: ‘Wind eased a bit between 9 and 10 but still very thick. No chance of travelling: last Primus full of oil began for supper tonight. Unutterably boring. Dogs ate biscuits. 80 left.’9
20 February 1916
For the six men, Joyce, Richards, Hayward in one tent, and Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild in the other, this was their third day of blizzard. During the blizzard they could not get out of the tent, so they had to stay in the tent to have what Richards termed their ‘natural motions’. He tells us that the man needing to go to the toilet would say ‘heads under’ and the other two would put their heads under their sleeping bags. That man would get up and with a knife dig a square out of the snow and lift it out. In Richards’s words he would ‘have a bog there’ and put it back again. Richards tells us it ‘was perfectly odourless and quite all right’.10 Spencer-Smith had to be helped by Wild.