11 March Joyce, Wild, Richards and Hayward reach Discovery hut at Hut Point
14 March Joyce, Wild and Richards set off to bring in Mackintosh
16 March Mackintosh is rescued
18 March The five remaining men of the Mount Hope Party are at Hut Point
March–April The men recover, and wait for the sea-ice to freeze so they can walk to Cape Evans
8 May Mackintosh and Hayward leave, to walk to Cape Evans
15 July Joyce, Wild and Richards, and the four dogs, walk to Cape Evans
July 1916–January 1917 Joyce, Wild and Richards (with Cope, Gaze, Jack and Stevens) are at Cape Evans
1917
10 January The relief ship arrives
SOURCES
ABBREVIATIONS
ATL: Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand
RGS-IBG: Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), London, United Kingdom
CM: Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand
NMM: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, United Kingdom.
SPRI: Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, United Kingdom
PRIMARY SOURCES
Diaries
1. Hayward, Victor George, original field diary. JOD/231/1. NMM.
2. Joyce, Ernest Edward Mills, original field diary, private collection of Betsy Krementz. Log transcript of Ernest E. Joyce (MS-Papers-0217-01, microfilmed at MS-Copy-Micro-0629), ATL.
3. Mackintosh, Aeneas Lionel Acton, diary notes 31 Dec 1914–24 Jan 1915, and 5 Jun 1915–30 Sep 1915, SPRI. MS 1537/4/1/1; D Mackintosh Aeneas, Diary 5 Jun 1915 to 30 Sep 1915 and diary notes, 25 Jan–15 Apr 1915. SSC/112 (Mackintosh, A. L. A. Journal of 1915). RGS-IBG.
4. Richards, Richard Walter, original field diary. Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition [Ross Sea Party] 1914–1917, Richard W. Richards’s papers, MS 285. Item 3, 1 February 1915–19 February 1915, and MS 154, 23 February 1916–19 March 1916, CM.
5. Spencer-Smith, Arnold Patrick, original field diary. Diary 25 Jan 1915–11 Mar 1915, and 1 Oct 1915–7 Mar 1916. MS 1390; BJ. SPRI.
6. Wild, Harry Ernest, original field diary. 31 Oct 1914 to 19 Mar 1916. MS 928/3; BJ. SPRI.
SECONDARY SOURCES
Other diaries and 1914–1917 related documents
Cope, J. L. ‘Medical Report of the Ross Sea Base ITAE, January 1917’. MS 1537/4/4/3; D. SPRI.
Gaze, I. O., diary note, January 1916, MS 105, CM.
Hayward, postcard to his parents, 16 November 1914. JOD/231/2. NMM.
Hayward, radio telegram to Ethel Bridson, 31 December 1914, MS 1590/2/133. SPRI.
Joyce, letter to James Paton, 2 October 1915. ATL.
Joyce, letter to Mackintosh, 15 November 1915. MS 1537/4/4/6/7;D. SPRI.
Joyce, letter to Mackintosh, 6 January 1916. MS 1537/4/4/6/7;D. SPRI.
Joyce, transcripts of his field diary, ATL.
Mackintosh, letter to G. Marston, 27 February 1913. SPRI.
Mackintosh, letter, written 28 February 1916, transcribed by Richards, MS 285. Item 1 & Item 2, CM.
Mackintosh, letters to Ernest Joyce of 28 October 1915, 25 November 1915, 5 December 1915 and 1 January 1916. MS 1537/4/4/6/1-8;D. SPRI.
Richards Agreement with Shackleton, written 18 January 1916 in Antarctica. MS 99, CM.
Richards Agreement with Shackleton, written December 1914, at Sydney, Australia. MS 1537/4/5/1;D. SPRI.
Richards, letter-gram to Mackintosh, 2 December 1914. MS1590/2/120; D. SPRI.
Richards, letters to Mackintosh, 21 November 1914. MS 1590/2/26;D. and 26 November 1914. MS 1590/2/27;D. SPRI.
Richards, telegrams to Mackintosh, 30 November 1914. MS 1590/2/118;D and 2 December 1914. MS1590/2/120; D. SPRI.
Shackleton, letter to A. L. A. Mackintosh. 18 September 1914. MS 1537/4/4/22;D. SPRI.
Shackleton, letter to his wife Emily, 17 August 1914. MS 1537/2/30/42;D. SPRI.
Spencer-Smith, A. P., letter to parents November 1914, MS 277, ITEM No 22. CM.
Stevens, A. Report 1914–1917 ATAE. MS 100 / 136; BJ. SPRI.
Letters, audio and other manuscript sources
Hayward, Peter John, grand-nephew of Victor Hayward, private papers.
Horsman, Debby, grand-niece of Arnold Patrick Spencer-Smith, private papers.
Phillips, Anne, granddaughter of Aeneas Mackintosh, private papers, and interview, 5 July 2011. Twickenham, UK.
Naval Service Record of Ernest Edward Mills Joyce, No: 160823. Naval Historical Branch, Ministry of Defence, Portsmouth, UK.
Naval Service Record of Harry Ernest Wild, No: 181904. Naval Historical Branch, Ministry of Defence, Portsmouth, UK.
P&O Officers Register, NMM.
Report of Proceedings of the Aurora Relief Expedition 1916–1917. MS 1598/1–2;D. SPRI.
Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976. TRC 495, National Library of Australia.
Richards, interview with P. Lathlean, 1976.
Richards, interview with P. Law, December 1980.
Richards, interview, Australian Broadcasting Commission, Verbatim programme, 1977. Broadcast in 2002.
Richards, papers at the Art & Historical Collection, Federation University (formerly University of Ballarat), Victoria, Australia.
Richards, various letters to historians A. J. T. Fraser and L. B. Quartermain, from 1956 to 1969. MS 1, 285 and 303. CM.
Newspapers, journals and periodicals
Australasian Post, Wellington, New Zealand.
Daily Mirror, London, UK, 1909, 1913.
Old Woodbridgian, school magazine, Woodbridge School, Suffolk, UK.
Scottish Geographical Magazine, Vol. 30, No. 2, 1914.
The Argus, Melbourne, Australia.
The Dial, college magazine, Queens’ College, Cambridge, UK, 1907.
The Eagle, school magazine, Bedford Modern School (BMS Archives). Journal of 1917.
The Mercury, Hobart, Tasmania, 12 December 1911.
Sydney Morning Herald.
The Times, London, UK.
The West Australian, Perth, WA, 13 July 1914.
Willesden Chronicle, Willesden Green, UK.
Published works
Antarctic Historic Huts, New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust booklet.
Ballantyne, R. The World of Ice. London, Thomas Nelson, 1860.
Caesar, A. The White: Last Days in the Antarctic Journeys of Scott and Mawson, 1911-1913. Picador, Sydney, 1999.
Davis, J. K., With the Aurora in the Antarctic 1911-1914. Andrew Melrose, London, 1919.
Debenham, F., In the Antarctic: Stories of Scott’s Last Expedition. John Murray, London, 1952.
Joyce, E. The South Polar Trail: The Log of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Duckworth, London, 1929.
Mackintosh, A. L. A., Shackleton’s Lieutenant: The Nimrod diary of A. L. A. Mackintosh, British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–09, ed. Stanley Newman. Polar Publications, Christchurch, 1990.
Marston, G. & Murray, J., Antarctic Days: Sketches of the Homely Side of Polar Life by Two of Shackleton’s Men. Andrew Melrose, London, 1913.
Mawson, D. Antarctic Diaries. Unwin Hyman, London, 1988.
Mills, L., Frank Wild. Caedmon of Whitby, 1999.
Priestley, R. E. Antarctic Adventure. T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1914.
Richards, R. W. The Ross Sea Shore Party 1914–17. Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, 1962.
Scott, Capt. R. F., Scott’s Last Expedition: The Journals, Location and Catalogue: 51024-42, 46272. British Library.
Scott, R. F., The Voyage of the Discovery. Smith Elder, London, 1905.
Shackleton, E. H., South. Heinemann, London, 1919.
Shackleton, E. H., The Heart of the Antarctic, Vol. 1. Heinemann, London, 1909.
Wilson, E., Antarctic Notebooks, Reardon, Cheltenham, 2011
Unpublished works
Jones, A. G. E., ‘Tubby’, Polar Record, Vol. 18, pp. 43–45. SPRI.
Fraser, A. J. T., ‘Antarctic Padre’, Canterbury Museum, New Zealand.
1914 – Aeneas Mackintosh says goodbye to his daughter Pamela before leaving England.
8 November 1914 – In Sydney, Spencer-Smith writes a long letter to his parents.
16 November 1914 – A special dinner menu made for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition from the Australia Hotel in Sydney, sent by Spencer-Smith to his parents. The menu was signed by Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith, Hayward and others.
December 1914 – Th e Aurora is about to leave Sydney. Th e photograph includes, in the top row, Hayward (third from left), Mackintosh in the light-coloured jacket, and Spencer-Smith to his left.
9 January 1915 – As the Aurora is approaching McMurdo Sound in the Ross Sea, the men can see the active volcano Mount Erebus, which Richards described as ‘a magnificent sight rising steeply some 13,000 ft. from sea level’.
24 January 1915 – On arrival in Antarctica, the men of the Mount Hope Party were issued with these diaries.
24 January 1915 – Joyce’s first diary entry, where he writes of his disagreements with two of Mackintosh’s decisions. Like the majority of their diary pages, it is difficult to read, being smudged with dirt and sea-blubber oil.
12 February 1915 – A page from Hayward’s diary, with a sketch of his fiancée, Ethel Bridson.
25 February 1915 – Discovery hut. On 25 March Wild tells us he and others first reached it after skiing over the sea ice from the ship. He adds that there was a blubber stove there which they lit and put some seal blubber on, but the smoke drove everybody out, except two men, who in Wild’s words were ‘Scotch so they could stick it’.
11 March 1915 – The final stage of the journey back to Discovery hut was over sea ice between the Barrier and Hut Point. If the ice was not firm they would have to travel around the hills, rather than take a direct route to the hut.
6 May 1915 – Richards goes outside the hut at Cape Evans to take a meteorological reading and cannot see the Aurora, which was anchored close by the shore. All he finds are broken cables and anchors which were embedded in the frozen gravel to prevent the ship being blown away.
June to August 1915 – Inside the hut at Cape Evans. The men worked there over the winter months to prepare for the main season of sledging. The hut was very comfortable for the men to live in. It was insulated, with lighting, heating, bunks and a good supply of tinned food, jams, sugar, flour and biscuits, to supplement their main diet of seal meat. PHOTO BY DAVID BARNES
June to August 1915 – Each man was issued with two pairs of finnesko boots, made from reindeer skin with the fur on the outside.
June to August 1915 – After the loss of the Aurora, Wild wrote that he and Joyce were very busy making clothes. First of all they cut up a canvas tent and made a pair of trousers for everybody, which Joyce said looked like ‘Oxford bags’.
30 September 1915 – At Cape Evans, Spencer-Smith writes a letter to his parents. He tells his ‘Dear Father and Mother’ they are setting out for the second season’s sledging and that this is a ‘short note to say “au revoir” in case I should not come back’.
March to June 1916 – The Discovery hut’s sole heating came from burning seal blubber chunks on this stove. 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.
March to June 1916 – There was no lighting in the Discovery hut. The men were there over the winter months – the sun did not return until mid-August – so for lighting all they could do was make an improvised blubber lamp which was a bit of string or wick in some blubber oil, in an old tin, usually an empty corned-beef tin like this.
March to June 1916 – The axe the men used to chop up the frozen planks of seal blubber sits next to the blubber stove, in which seal chunks are still to be found.
11 March 1916 – Cans of McDoddies rhubarb. Joyce tells us that there were a few cans of these at Discovery hut when they arrived on 11 March, but they were soon eaten, and thereafter, at Discovery hut, the men ate only seal meat.
8 May 1916 – There is a hill by Discovery hut which has a cross on it, Vince’s Cross, in memory of George Vince, who was a member of the Discovery Expedition. He died in 1902, the first man known to have lost his life in the McMurdo Sound region. Joyce, Wild and Richards stood at the top of this hill to watch Mackintosh and Hayward walk towards Cape Evans.
January 1917 – A wooden cross was erected on the hill behind Cape Evans in memory of the lost men from the Mount Hope Party. PHOTO BY DAVID BARNES
Copyright
First published in Great Britain in 2015 by
The Robson Press (an imprint of Biteback Publishing Ltd)
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Copyright © Wilson McOrist 2015
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