From Ice Floes to Battlefields

by Anne Strathie

  Here we are in a gale, hove to and waiting to pick up Evans & Co. … he has scurvy & Jane is with him and got back a note to C. Evans just in time as the ice is now out. All approach to Campbell has been cut off up to date … I should be landing in place of Evans but if he is an invalid of course cannot do so. Naturally though desirous of landing I shall feel quite satisfied if the expedition has the best use of my services in whatever capacity. The non-relief of Campbell up to date is rather a worry … either the pack has cleared & he can be reached or it is there & he cannot …

  Once he had brought Evans and Atkinson on board Pennell was able to consider making another attempt to relieve Campbell’s party and try to bring them back to Cape Evans. But when Pennell encountered a 35-mile wide band of compacted ice floes and frozen slush between him and Campbell’s location he was forced to admit defeat.

  Scott had, it transpired, given Evans a written order confirming that the two lieutenants could exchange duties. As Pennell wrote in his journal:25

  The slip between cup & lip in this case has been a narrow one and however much one would like to have landed there can be no doubt as to my duty keeping me in the ship. A year with Jane & Bill etc. would indeed have been bliss.

  On 4 March 1912 the Terra Nova left McMurdo Sound with Teddy Evans, Ponting, Meares, Taylor, Simpson, Day, Forde, Clissold and groom Anton all aboard. Pennell had safely stowed away home-bound mail from those still on the ice and a report Scott had left at Cape Evans for Pennell to pass on to Central News Agency.

  Pennell, his crew and passengers had bade farewell to Debenham, Nelson, Wright, PO Thomas Williamson (replacing Forde) and steward William Archer (replacing Clissold) at Cape Evans. Atkinson and Keohane travelled with the ship to Hut Point, where they disembarked to await the return of Cherry-Garrard, Demetri and the South Pole party.

  On 7 March, following a final, frustrating and failed attempt to reach Evans Cove and pick up Campbell’s party, Pennell set course for New Zealand. Now all he could do was hope that when the Terra Nova returned to McMurdo Sound in early 1913 all those still on the ice would be safely gathered at Cape Evans.

  Notes

  1. MS107, 15 December 1911, and MS433, 5 December 1911.

  2. Pennell to Dennistoun, 7 and 11 October 1911, published in Dennistoun, The Peaks & Passes of J.R.D., pp. 212–14.

  3. Scott’s Last Expedition, Vol. II, p. 373.

  4. The mules, supplied courtesy of the army in India, replaced ponies which had not been expected to survive the first season on the ice.

  5. MS107, 30 December 1911.

  6. MS107, 1–8 January 1912.

  7. The Northern Party’s experiences are described in more detail in Campbell and Hooper.

  8. MS107, 9–18 January 1912.

  9. MS107, 21–3 January 1912.

  10. MS107, 4 February 1912.

  11. Strathie, chapter 14; May and Airrless, ‘Could Captain Scott have been saved?’.

  12. The implications of Meares’ late return to Cape Evans and early 1912 departure for New Zealand are referred to in May and Airrless, ‘Could Captain Scott have been saved?’.

  13. Meares’ rescue was described in the Oregon News, 23 September 1914. No other references to it have been found, suggesting that Meares told few people about it. The experience may also have contributed to Meares’ reluctance to leave Cape Evans for One Ton Depot after the Terra Nova had been sighted in early 1912.

  14. Ponting, The Great White South, p. 4.

  15. Ibid., chapter 21.

  16. MS107, 11 February 1912.

  17. Atkinson to Pennell, 26 October 1911, RGS/HLP/2/2.

  18. Bowers to Pennell, 16 and 18 October 1911, RGS/HLP/2/6 and /7.

  19. Scott to Pennell, October 1911, RGS/HLP/2/15.

  20. Evans to Pennell, 23 October 1911, RGS/HLP/2/10.

  21. Emperor penguins, unlike other penguin species, lay their eggs in winter on Antarctic sea ice.

  22. MS107, 16 February 1912.

  23. The IMD’s Director had fallen ill (M. E. Crewe, 2009, The Met Office Grows Up: In War and Peace, available at www.rmets.org/sites/default/files/hist08.pdf).

  24. Pennell to Wilson, 27 February 1912, RGS/HLP/2/14.

  25. MS433, 3 March 1912.

  3

  Breaking News – and a Mysterious Death

  On 10 March 1912, as the Terra Nova headed north, Harry Pennell considered what had happened since the ship had arrived in McMurdo Sound.1 The fact that Teddy Evans had fallen prey to scurvy obviously gave rise to concerns about the health of the South Pole party. The early onset of ice had forced an early departure from Cape Evans (without knowing whether Scott and his party had reached the Pole) and prevented Pennell from relieving Campbell’s party and returning them to Cape Evans. On the positive side Pennell felt that Scott had chosen the best men to take to Pole and that Wilson, Bowers, Oates and ‘Taff’ Evans all merited their places. On the scientific side, Simpson’s meteorological results had exceeded expectations, Lillie’s marine biology work was going well and Taylor’s party had brought back specimens of coal and fossil traces. With strong sledgers, mules and additional dogs available, the prospects for the 1912–13 season’s scientific work also looked promising.

  As for his own situation, Pennell looked forward to captaining the Terra Nova back to Cape Evans the following season and to working with Rennick on his dredging and surveying work. In terms of his personal disappointment about not landing, Pennell reminded himself that two years ago he considered ‘the ship billet all that could be desired’. He was determined not to succumb to the ‘promotion craze’ which appeared to be infecting his fellow-officers:

  Teddy Evans thinks of it incessantly, even Scott seems to think one is down here to get promotion & Rennick is disappointed with his billet because it will not help him on his promotion. [Atkinson] originally thought it would help him but now has had a sickness of promotion-catching talk …

  By 21 March the Terra Nova had crossed the Antarctic Circle and icebergs were increasingly few and far between.2 The repeated attempts to relieve Campbell’s party had taken their toll on coal stocks but they were making good progress and everyone, bar ‘the few exceptions who are not so keen on civilisation’, was looking forward to an early arrival in New Zealand.

  The next day Pennell and his shipmates found themselves in the middle of the worst storm they had experienced since leaving Britain.3 Force 11 gales sent them bobbing to the crest of 50ft waves, then crashing down into the trough between them. But as helmsman McCarthy wrestled with the wheel, all the sailors stuck to their task and everyone accepted ‘a good dose of work and plenty of spray on them … as part of the day’s joke’. Ponting even managed to capture some ‘capital cinematograph films’ and Lillie to stop his ‘multitudinous bottles’ from hitting the deck.

  Pennell was rather enjoying himself:

  The sight of the ship in the sea particularly during the night, with the howl of the wind, formed a spectacle that few are now privileged to see and nearly all spent some time on the bridge … so this gale will probably not lose out in the telling in future. A curious feature of the squalls at their worst was that they come up absolutely black, as if there was heavy snow or rain in them, while as a matter of fact there was little precipitation & the blackness was that of the squall itself; so dark that one could see nothing more than a ship’s length off.

  The storm lasted for four days but by 29 March they were within 400 miles of New Zealand with just enough coal in hand to reach Akaroa, where Pennell would hand over his and Scott’s reports to a representative of Central News Agency.4 As the ship approached land Pennell wrote to relatives of the South Pole party, explaining that the latest news they would have was on letters dated 3 or 4 January 1912. This did not, he assured them, suggest anything amiss, other than that the early onset of ice had hastened the Terra Nova’s departure from Cape Evans. Pennell knew that newspapers would report the fact that Teddy Evans had scurvy, so he also assured them that this did n
ot mean that members of the South Pole party would succumb to it.5

  Pennell told Emily Bowers that her son was the ‘heart and soul’ of the expedition’s work and that Wilson had sung his praises after they had returned from the Cape Crozier journey. He explained to her and others he was writing to that there would now be no further news until early 1913, after the Terra Nova had completed her final return voyage and brought all the remaining members of the landing party back to New Zealand.

  In the early hours of Monday, 1 April 1912, under cover of darkness, the Terra Nova slipped into Akaroa’s ‘remarkably pretty’ natural harbour.6 Ponting was quite moved to see green foliage and pasture-covered hills after over a year photographing the barren ice and lava rocks of Antarctica.7

  Pennell and Drake took the cutter ashore to meet Central News Agency’s representative. Bertie John (byline ‘B.J.’) Hodson had served as a soldier in the 2nd Boer War before learning his craft on his local paper and moving to London, where he lived with his German-born wife and young son. Having travelled the world on behalf of Central News Agency, he hoped to be the one to secure what could be CNA’s greatest ‘scoop’ since 1885, when they announced the fall of Khartoum and General Gordon’s death twelve hours ahead of rival agencies.8 Hodson had already been in Akaroa for several weeks and had, to avoid arousing the suspicions of local journalists, registered at his lodgings as ‘Mr Newbury’, an English tourist who played tennis and enjoyed mountain-climbing.

  Pennell and Drake explained that Scott was not on the ship and that they did not know whether he had reached the Pole. Hodson told them that the Fram had arrived in Hobart on 7 March with Amundsen aboard. Amundsen and his team of skiers and dog-sledges had, it seemed, reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911.

  By the time Pennell and Drake had finished discussing matters with Hodson the harbour foreshore was swarming with residents, some armed with cameras or binoculars. As only Pennell, Drake, Hodson and those on the Terra Nova knew whether or not Scott was aboard, Pennell agreed to remove the ship from prying eyes until Central News Agency’s exclusivity period had passed.

  Pennell and Drake returned to the Terra Nova, ready to break the news to their shipmates and show them the newspaper reports about Amundsen’s triumph. But some locals had already rowed out to the ship and shouted, by way of greeting, ‘Why didn’t you get back sooner? Amundsen got to the Pole in a sardine tin on 14th December!’9

  After Pennell dropped anchor outside the harbour, Teddy Evans emerged from his cabin for the first time. As he sat in a deck chair in the sunshine, Jim Dennistoun took some final photographs, Rennick gave Lillie a haircut and others discussed Amundsen’s achievement or began sprucing up themselves and the ship, ready for their arrival in Lyttelton.

  Ponting decided to take some final group photographs of the afterguard and crew. The afterguard squinted in the sunshine: Dennistoun (holding his own camera), Cheetham, Rennick, Drake, Williams (in his woollen hat), Pennell (in his favourite carpet slippers), Bruce and Lillie. After the shutter clicked, Ponting dismissed the afterguard and began corralling the seamen for their photograph.

  On 3 April 1912 the Terra Nova steamed into Lyttelton harbour, where a tug, with Hilda Evans and Oriana Wilson on board, came out to meet them. Pennell transferred to the tug so he could explain the position regarding their husbands. After the Terra Nova came alongside the wharf, Teddy Evans was helped down to where Joseph Kinsey was waiting with his list of names and rail passes for those travelling to Christchurch.10

  Pennell, his afterguard and Kinsey spent much of the following days responding to the demands of the press and photographers. Pennell freely acknowledged that Amundsen had achieved ‘priority’ at the Pole, but maintained that Scott’s scientific programme would be of lasting value. There had been suggestions, largely in British newspapers, that Amundsen had unfairly encroached on Scott’s ‘sphere of influence’. Fridtjof Nansen had defended his fellow-countryman; Sir Clements Markham had denied the existence of a ‘race’ but suggested that Scott’s scientific endeavours outweighed Amundsen’s ‘dash’ to the Pole.11 To try to put an end to all talk of a ‘race to the Pole’, Kinsey released a copy of Scott’s letter of 28 October 1911 to the newspapers:12

  We shall leave with high hopes of accomplishing our object, despite the reverses of last season, but as there is a chance that we may not catch the ship, I have decided to arrange for her to return in 1913. I am fully alive to the complication of the situation by the presence of Captain Amundsen, but as an attempt at a race might be fatal to our chance of getting to the Pole at all, I decided, long ago, to do exactly what I should have been done had Amundsen not been here. If he gets to the Pole he is bound to do it rapidly with dogs, and one foresees that his success will justify him. Anyway he is taking a big risk and deserves his luck if he gets there.

  Alongside the letter, The Press reported from Sydney that Edgeworth David, whilst presiding at a lecture by Amundsen, had stated that Amundsen’s behaviour had been ‘fair and square’ and that he was sure Scott would, on his return, ‘send hearty congratulations to the champion who had beaten him’. David also noted that Scott and Shackleton had both found coal traces, which suggested that Antarctica contained the largest unworked coal field in the world.

  Pennell caught up on news of other expeditions. Mawson had arrived in Hobart on the Aurora on 12 March to find the Fram in harbour and everyone talking of Amundsen’s triumph. Shirase had returned to Wellington on 23 March, happy to have explored King Edward VII Land and seen the Fram and met some of Amundsen’s men in the Bay of Whales. There was no news of Filchner.

  The Fram was now on her way to Buenos Aires, leaving Amundsen to meet the Australian prime minister and continue his series of illustrated lectures. Amundsen had originally stated that he would not give lectures in New Zealand (which he described as ‘Captain Scott’s ground’), but shortly after it became known that Scott was not on the Terra Nova a cable arrived from Australia confirming that Amundsen would give some talks in New Zealand before rejoining the Fram.

  Most of Scott’s men would have left New Zealand before Amundsen arrived. Griff Taylor was heading for Australia to join the Bureau of Meteorology; Simpson was going to visit Australia on his way back to India.13 Ponting was returning to London and, as arranged with Scott, would publicise the expedition through his photographs and films. Teddy Evans, after further recuperation at his wife’s family home, was going to sail back with her and Francis Drake; the two men would then carry out some expedition work at the Victoria Street offices. Meares had accepted an invitation from Dennistoun to visit Peel Forest for some mountain climbing, following which he was going to sail back to Britain with Bernard Day.14 Clissold would help tidy the ship then travel back to England with Cheetham who, with Pennell’s permission, was making a short visit to his family following the death of Frederick, his tenth child, who had been born six months after Cheetham left on the Terra Nova. Anton the groom, who disliked long dark Antarctic and Russian winters, had decided to try to find work in New Zealand rather than return to Russia.15 As others made their plans, Pennell discussed arrangements with the New Zealand marine authorities for the coming winter’s surveying work, which would start in June near Marlborough Sound.

  As soon as Amundsen arrived in Auckland he was asked for his views on the recent sinking of the luxury liner Titanic following a collision with an iceberg during her maiden voyage.16 Since the accident, in which over 1,000 crew and passengers had died (about half of those aboard), enquiries had been convened and memorial services held in Britain, the United States and other countries; London’s Lord Mayor had established a Mansion House Relief Fund to provide for needy dependents of crew and others who had died.

  When Amundsen arrived in Christchurch on 26 April, Kinsey met him at the station. During the day Amundsen visited Kinsey’s office (where he met Teddy Evans), the Terra Nova (where he was introduced to the crew) and Kinsey’s house in Sumner (where he met Pennell and members of the afterguard
).17 Pennell found Amundsen to be ‘a quiet, unassuming man’. Although he still felt the Norwegian’s lack of openness regarding his plans had undermined Scott’s expedition, he decided there was ‘no use in belabouring the point’.18 Following his short lecture tour, Amundsen returned to Auckland to join the Remuera, on which Cheetham and Clissold had also booked their passages.

  As his duties in Lyttelton became less onerous, Pennell paid more attention to what was happening in Britain:

  The great coal strike with its attendant miseries was over at home and the political world is in a ferment over Home Rule, Disestablishment, Insurance Bills, etc. There can be no question that Home Rule must come to the kingdoms of the United Kingdom to relieve the awful congestion of the Imperial Parliament; all I ask is that the schemes should be well thought out & not schemes to buy support.

  Pennell awarded himself two weeks’ leave with the Dennistouns at Peel Forest, where he played tennis, rode, climbed mountains with Jim and his sister and generally enjoyed ‘a quiet life’.19 In Christchurch he met up regularly with Hugh Acland of Mount Peel and expanded his knowledge of medical matters by joining Acland at a lecture on sleeping sickness.

  Towards the end of May, Pennell reconvened his depleted afterguard. Drake and Cheetham were still in England, Dennistoun was back working at Peel Forest and Lillie was due to leave for five months’ whaling on a Norwegian ship. But William Williams was ready for duty and Rennick was back from Dunedin, where he had visited Isobel Paterson, the young lady from the Port Chalmers tug. Over the past few weeks Bruce had stayed in Christchurch as several thespians he knew were taking part in a visiting production of The Whip. Bruce went to see the ‘spectacular’ (which featured live horses) several times and showed his friends round the Terra Nova.20