Shackleton's Heroes
Page 33
Richards: ‘Left Hut Point for Skipper.’ He added later: ‘It was necessary to recuperate before turning South again and repair some of our gear.’10
Joyce:
A beautiful day. Under way after lunch. One would think, looking at our party, that we were the most ragged lot one could meet in a day’s march; all our clothes past mending, our faces as black as niggers – a sort of crowd one would run away from. Going pretty good.
As soon as we rounded CA* a dead head wind with a temp of -18 so we are not in for a pleasant time. Arrived at Safety Camp 6 o’clock, turned in 8.30 – after getting everything ready.11
15 March 1916
Richards: ‘Good march. Cold at night. Dogs better than thought.’12
Joyce: ‘Under way as usual. Nice calm day. I had a very cold night temp going down to -30. Going along at a rattling good rate in spite of our swollen limbs we done about 20 miles. Very cold when we camped temp -20 turned in 9 o’clock.’13
They were now camped within 10 or 15 miles from Mackintosh.
16 March 1916
They travelled well and in the early afternoon they could see Mackintosh’s tent. Richards recalled at interviews that Mackintosh seemed a little dazed when they came up to him and gave him the news of Spencer-Smith’s death. It did not seem to make a big impression on him. Mackintosh ‘didn’t say bad luck or what have you’ and Richards put this down to his lonely vigil on the ice shelf. Mackintosh told them that at times his mind had been wandering and he found himself talking to imaginary people in the tent during their absence.14 Richards explained that it was fairly unemotional when they came up to Mackintosh because they were quite sure they would find him and quite sure he would be alright. To Richards it was ‘just all in a day’s work’; nothing like he felt when they went back and found the tent with Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild during the long blizzard.15
They found Mackintosh could only shuffle along with the aid of two sticks so they put him on the sledge and headed back towards Hut Point.16
Joyce:
Up before the sun 4.45 had a very cold night. Not much sky under way early. Good going passed Smith’s grave 10.45 + had lunch at Depot. Saw Skippers camp just after + looking through the glasses found him outside the tent much to the joy of all hands as we expected him to be down.
Picked him up 4.15. broke the news of Smiths death + no ship he took it very well + said it was the best time of his life to see us. I gave him the date of the 17th to look out for our returning. So he had a surprise.17
Wild: ‘We got to the Skipper’s camp about 4 o’clock yesterday & packed up & came a little way on the home track. He can still manage to get about hobbling.’18
That night Joyce wrote:
We struck his camp + went N. for about a mile + camped. We gave the Skipper + banquet of seal veg + blackcurrent jam, the feed of his life.
He explained every morning in his sleep as semi conscious state he had most peculiar dreams + always found himself talking to supposed people in the tent. I looked at him pretty straight + though he was still a little … [indecipherable] but I think he is all right. He seems in a very bad way all his legs badly swollen + black, eye distended gums very swollen + black. I hope to get home in 3 day’s + I think fresh food will improve him. We turned in 8 oclock. Distance done during day 18 miles.19
17 March 1916
Joyce: ‘Up at 5 oclock under way 8 – Skipper feeling much better after feeding him up. Lunched a few yards past Smiths grave. Had a good afternoon going fair. Dist about 20 miles.
‘Very cold night temp -30, what with wet bags + clothes rotten ------------.’20
Back at Hut Point Hayward wrote nothing more than: ‘Reading Thinking Eating.’21
18 March 1916
Joyce, Richards and Wild, with Mackintosh, reached Hut Point safely.
Joyce:
Turned out 5 oclock. Had rather a cold night. Temp -39 Surface very good, got the Skipper to have a walk for a little way which done him good. Lunched as usual. Pace good after lunch, going good arrived at Safety Camp 4.10. To our delight found the sea ice in the same conditions + arrived at Hut Pt 7 oclock.22
Wild:
Hut Point again. Hooray.
We have exceeded our utmost expectation. Getting back here last night at 6.30 doing about 84 geo miles in two days with the Skipper on the sledge. Skipper and Hayward can just manage to get about. We others are just about all right now.23
Richards: ‘Hut Point. Hayward safe. He had been left behind when we returned for the Skipper.’24
Hayward was very pleased: ‘Joyce & party with Skipper who I am glad to say is no worse, got back about 6 pm having made a jolly good trip of it.’25
Joyce wrote that evening:
Found Hayward still about the same, yet he made a good dinner + all hands seem in the best of spirits. Now we have arrived + got the party in remains to themselves to get better plenty of exercise + fresh food ought to do miracles. We have been out 202 days (* with September sledging) + done a distance of about 1900 miles a good record. I think the irony of fate was poor Smith going under a day before we got in.
Had a thorough exam of the Skipper + found from his right hip bone down to knee a heavy blue + hard (swollen) from the knee to ankle (blue stripe) ankle swollen out of proportion. gums swollen but not so black, white of eye distended. Appetite extraordinary good. Feels in himself a different man– a good improvement
Hayward, gums very swollen + black eyes as usual. Knees cannot bend at all not swollen or just slightly black walks like a bent up old man.
Richards right leg + gums slightly swollen.
Wild right leg behind knee black, slightly swollen gums very swollen.
Myself right leg behind knee still + gums slightly swollen I think we shall all soon be well turned in 10.30.
Before turning in Skipper shook us by the hand with great emotion thanking us for saving his life + said his wife + children will bless us.26
Always the realist, Wild wrote: ‘We shall settle down here now for a couple of months.’27
The five remaining men of the Mount Hope Party were now safe. Conditions at Discovery hut were primitive but they knew they would soon recover from scurvy on their diet of seal meat. Once mid-winter came they would be able to walk safely over the sea-ice to Cape Evans.
Mid-March to late April 1916
Their long journey was now over, and successful, except for the loss of Spencer-Smith. Joyce remembered being ‘as happy as a Piccadilly masher’.†28
Many years later Richards was still very proud of the work they had accomplished. In his book he wrote that they had the satisfaction of knowing that they had completed their task and that Shackleton would have had sufficient food over the latter part of his journey. He also added that man-hauling sledges for 1,500 miles with poor equipment and no support from a well-established base was a very notable task. To Richards it was an Antarctic journey that ‘could rank with most that had gone on before’.29
The hut was full of ice and snow which had come in through a broken window so they cleared out a small corner to live in. In their first two weeks at Hut Point, from 19 March to early April, they slowly recovered and their diary entries were sparse. They knew they would be there until mid-winter, at least.
It would be June or July before they could expect the open water between Hut Point and Cape Evans to freeze over. It was possible to go around the land to Cape Evans but they never thought of attempting to travel that way, and certainly not without the right equipment. Plus, the light was poor and by mid-April it was dark for twenty-four hours of the day. The only way they intended to cross the 13 miles to Cape Evans was directly over the sea-ice, and during a full moon; and then only when the sea-ice had frozen firmly. With two invalids they resigned themselves to a protracted stay at Hut Point.30 31
Hayward: ‘There will not be much to record, these days of residence at Hut Pt. Skipper & I did the goose step for an hour or so by way of exercise. His legs are very
much worse than mine, being practically blue all over.’32
Richards: ‘Fixing Hut for winter. Rubbed Mackintosh and Haywood with spirit to ease their legs. Skipper brighter. Haywood less cheerful.’33
Joyce:
Up at 7 oclock. Got a good scones breakfast of seal liver porridge scones etc. All hands to judge by appetites found are in better health than one thinks to see the way that they are stowing away. Spent all day in living quarters, fixing up things. Sent the invalids out for exercise. Lunch at 2 oclock same store of provisions. Carried on again fixed up the living room by 7 oclock had dinner. Turned in 1 oclock.
After enquiring found all hands in about the same condition except appetite much better, that is can eat twice as much as ordinary man. Skipper right ankle swelled a little more + legs are a bit stiffer. I think he had too much exercise to-day.34
20 March 1916
Joyce:
Up 8 oclock. Cooked break appetites marvelous [sic] after break un packed took stock of stores. Shall have to allow until the middle of June so have got to allowance until then. Found in some things full + plenty but dripping the most essential thing found only 9 tins so shall have to have more boiled stews.
Patients could not go out on as of the cold wind + drift from SE. Everyone in good spirits. Richards massaging which seems to ease the muscles greatly. Gums gradually going down except Hayward’s which are black. Turned in 9 oclock.35
Hayward: ‘Blowing pretty hard & not much doing.’36
22–29 March 1916
In his book Richards wrote that he, Joyce and Wild were able to go about their daily tasks with reasonable efficiency, but Mackintosh and Hayward required looking after. Mackintosh still had some internal haemorrhaging and neither he nor Hayward could straighten their legs more than a little past a right angle. At first everyone’s teeth were barely visible owing to the gums coming down over them. Richards remembered that it was impossible to eat a biscuit without first soaking it in tea first.37
In an interview six decades later Richards could still paint a word picture of their life in the hut. He says they ‘lived the life of troglodytes’ (ancient people who lived in caves) and that it would take a lot of imagination for anyone to realise just how primitive the conditions were. Discovery hut was only a shell with one layer of wooden boards between them and the outside. Richards remembered that most of the hut was full of ice and snow so they lived in one small area on the northern side which had been partially partitioned off with some empty cases. This enclosed a small portion of the hut and that was their living space. The hut was not windproof so the men lived in their clothes and stayed inside their sleeping bags when they were in the hut. Their sleeping bags rested on planks raised above the floor by wooden provision cases. Richards tells us it was not warm enough to even sit up in the bag; they would get down inside their bags ‘and get a bit of warmth that way’.38 39
Their sole heating came from burning seal blubber chunks, each chunk about 6 inches square and 2 inches thick, which they would simply throw into the stove (a plate on top of a few bricks). The blubber would flare up, melt and then burn with a fierce heat. Richards remembered that some of the blubber oil would run out of the back of the bricks and onto the floor and every so often, when there was too much on the floor they would shovel it up into a tin, and use it again for fuel. He explained that as soon as they put any blubber into the stove the hut filled up with smoke.
Their clothes soon became saturated with blubber and seal blood. When they were out sealing they would cut the throat of the seal and the seal’s arteries would spurt out blood all over them. In Richards’s words the blood came out ‘like a hose’. He says they never noticed the smell but they were all in a filthy condition, never taking their off their clothes or washing their hands – they had no facilities for heating water or any soap.40
There was virtually nothing at Hut Point in the way of food apart from a few dried vegetables which only lasted a few days. They had only a little flour, but no bread or cake or biscuits. They found some old biscuits that had been left there by Scott in 1901 but they found them so anaemic and musty they could not eat them. Virtually their sole food from the middle of March until the middle of June was seal meat. In Richards’s memory that was all they had, ‘morning, noon and night’.41
They had no lighting; all they could do was make an improvised blubber lamp – a bit of string in some blubber oil, in an old tin. When the wind forced the smoke down the flue of the stove it was difficult to even see the other side of the tiny partitioned off area in the dim light.42 Richards reminisced, when looking at an old photograph of the inside of the hut, that in his mind he could still see the dim figures of Mackintosh and Joyce crouching with hands outstretched over the blubber stove to get a bit of warmth.43
Joyce: ‘Wed 22nd – 29th. Patients recovering rapidly doing good exercise appetites not ceased one iota. Bay freezing + going out again. Richards + Wild still providing fuel + food killed 10 seals. Everything carrying on harmoniously.’44
Hayward: ‘22 Mar: Less windy & brighter, hope again to take some exercise later.’
In March and April of 1915 Mackintosh had painted a picture of living at Hut Point:
Here we are all huddled up alongside of the stove, applying lumps of blubber as the last piece gets burnt away, the stove being below us we are sitting over it in a bent up position like Indians over a fire, the blubber gurgles and splutters, the delightful sound of heat which one gets to know besides the feel.45
But the dirt, it’s too terrible, everything we touch is blubber which, added with the smoke is as a dirty a mixture for blackening one as could be manufactured, the worst of this is that it soaks into one’s clothes.
Already we are absorbed with it. What will it be like in another month, if we should be here? I can’t say. Meals somehow seem to be the principal event of the day.46
We can see the wind has blown all the surrounding ice out of the Sound. Chances of reaching Cape Evans are consequently postponed again. Hope not for long.47
Do so hope the sea will freeze over and release us. What a crowd of utter tramps we look; long matted hair, un-cropped straggling beards, grease all over ourselves, clothes – dirtiness personified. The weather continues fine, light Northerly air, sea frozen in patches.
Oh! For the weather to continue fine for a few days and the sea to freeze.48
Prisoners once more we remain.49
Oh! This filth – when will be released?50
We have now got into a state of savagery. I find myself having no scruples at picking up my food with blubbery fingers.51
A significant diary entry then was his observation that a gale could take away the sea-ice between Hut Point and Cape Evans: ‘The wind today is blowing fresh and later increasing to gale force; with this our slender hopes have vanished for the ice in the Sound has gone out en mass. Cape Evans is as distant as ever.’52
April 1916
Mackintosh recovered from his condition quickly but Richards tells us in an interview that he did not really assume command again.53 They had expected Mackintosh to lead the sledge parties and in the early stages of sledging his position as leader was never queried. However, as he became progressively weaker on the way back to Hut Point, Richards recalled that he seemed incapable of making any decisions, deferring to him, Joyce and Wild.54
The seal meat proved remarkably effective in curing their scurvy and Richards remembered the size of their meals as being truly prodigious. They did not plan it that way; their bodies seemed to demand an inordinate amount of meat. They could see each other gaining strength rapidly from day to day.55
Richards recalled that as the winter closed in they experienced blizzards with increasing frequency which prevented them from sealing and forced them to stay in the hut. During these periods there was little they could do, other than lie in their sleeping bags and ‘try to doze the time away’.56
Their diary entries were sparse in April.
Joyce:
Wed 19th – 26th. Been blowing for a whole week. Ice gone out I forgot to mention I walked out for 4 miles over the new ice on Thursday + found it about 2 inches thick and in about 2 days would have been able to traverse to C Evans but fate forbade. Wind eased about noon all hands out. Patients able to take long walks. The Ice has gone out within ½ mile of hut. In fact it seems that the whole lot is going out. Let us hope not Seals killed up to date 26 rather a good supply.58
26 to 3 May Ice all gone out up to point. Been blizzarding for days not been able to go out much for xercize [sic]. Invalids practically better. Skipper still black back of leg. Gums better all our nails seem to be indented.
Party of 30 Penguins paid us a visit 24 Returned. 6 kept us company in our … [indecipherable] Found heart + livers one of the best things we have tasted since civilization Everything same as usual time passing quickly Everyone sociable – Seals 39.59
Hayward: ‘10 April: Lovely day – out (-20° getting cold).’60
Towards the end of April Hayward’s diary notes were even less detailed: ‘22 April: Could not go out. 27 April: Out 30 April: Good Out.’61
At the end of April 1916 the five men were safe and recovering their health. There was now only one final scene to be played out.