From Ice Floes to Battlefields

by Anne Strathie

  Campbell’s party expected the ship till the beginning of March last year & then on her non-arrival set to prepare for the winter. The sea did not freeze over and sledging south was impossible, so they dug out an igloo and started to kill seal and penguins … Browning was the only one who became really ill … at one time it seemed as if he must die. The party kept very cheerful and nothing in this expedition is finer than their story. Every Sunday they sang hymns … and on birthdays etc. made much of a dozen raisins each. Scott’s original description of Campbell as ‘a refined & cultivated gentleman’ has been borne out to the full under the greatest stress – when the man appears naked & unashamed in his real character.

  Atkinson had told Pennell that, from what he had seen at One Ton Depot and read in Scott’s journal, the evaporation of fuel (vital for melting snow and ice into water) and the early onset of winter had been the main contributory factors to the deaths of Scott, Wilson and Bowers.

  By now, Atkinson and the other scientists, knowing how much store Scott and Wilson had set by their huge programme of scientific work, had resolved that the Terra Nova expedition should not be seen as a failure:

  if (as everyone is determined it shall be) it is properly cleaned up it will be a very great success in every way. The Southern party brought all records & their geological specimens with them, & so though the cost has been great – far greater than the most pessimistic has feared – yet the success is complete. The principal [scientific] work was done during the first season on the whole, this splendid achievement during the second.

  The Terra Nova made a final stop at Evans Cove. Campbell picked up specimens and equipment and showed ‘visitors’ round the ‘igloo’ which the Northern Party had carved out of the ice as a shelter from the worst of the winter weather. Pennell was amazed and full of admiration:

  No written description can conjure up what the 5 minutes inspection fixed on one’s mind. Size 9’ x 13’ & everything done that ingenuity with no material could devise, but in spite of their thought and care it was almost a shock to see this little dugout in the snow and realise that 6 men had lived there from March 1st to mid-September with a depot of 1 months sledging rations …

  The whole thing is splendid – their resourcefulness, unselfishness, humour & quiet heroism. Campbell has indeed proved himself in as dire straits as man could ever be in & win through, but every one of the party has come out with credit.

  When he arrived at Cape Evans Pennell had immediately noticed that the past year’s events had taken a physical as well as a mental toll on both Campbell and Atkinson. But, as the ship sailed north, Pennell noticed something strange happening:

  Campbell’s wrinkles are coming out of his face fast and now he looks younger than when he first joined the ship in London. Jane is much more marked – lines all over his face, which now, in repose, has a thoughtful almost sad look. The expedition will I think affect him more (personally) than any other member.

  Teddy Evans had by now set up an ad hoc committee which consisted of himself (as chair), Pennell, Campbell, Bruce, Atkinson and Drake. Their most immediate task was to pull together a dispatch to transmit to Central News Agency from New Zealand covering the period from 4 January 1912, when Teddy Evans had brought back Scott’s journals covering the first part of the journey to the South Pole. Since then, Scott had been sledging or trapped in blizzards and his journals had become increasingly difficult to read. He had also expended much of his energy in the days before he died writing personal letters to members of his family, to his companions’ relatives and to close friends and former colleagues, including Kinsey, J.M. Barrie and Sir Edgar Speyer.

  Scott had, however, written a ‘Message to Public’ which was clearly intended for publication. In this he suggested that his death and those of his companions had been the result of a combination of factors including the loss of several ponies during the depot journey, unexpectedly poor and cold weather conditions, and delays on the way to and from the South Pole.

  Atkinson and those who had seen the leaking fuel containers at One Ton Depot felt that Scott had not perhaps taken everything into account. But Teddy Evans argued that Scott’s message should be published as written. As chair of the committee, he had the casting vote, should one be required.

  As they sailed north, the pack was less dense than on previous northbound voyages, but some large icebergs gave them some heart-stopping moments. On one occasion, as they tried to skirt an iceberg, they sailed for 21 miles alongside a 200ft high wall of ice before they reached the end of it; on another, they were forced into a narrow gap between two icebergs without having any idea whether they were entering an open-ended channel or a cul-de-sac.19 But, all in all, everyone seemed in good heart and members of the landing party enjoyed watching the flocks of Southern Ocean birds which they had not seen for over two years. Pennell, who had helped Wilson keep the log of birds on the first southern voyage, was also pleased to have seen so many different species.

  By early February 1913 the Terra Nova was clear of the pack and heading for Oamaru, a port 150 miles south of Christchurch, where Pennell and Atkinson would land with the news of Scott’s South Pole party.

  Notes

  Pennell’s journal MS107 concludes with his entry of 1 November 1912. Events in the following chapters are described in his journal MS433 (from the entry of 26 October 1912 onwards) and in memoirs and biographies including those by Cherry-Garrard, Bruce and Evans (South with Scott).

  1. MS433, 26 October 1912.

  2. MS433, 21 November 1912.

  3. Teddy and Hilda Evans had been visiting friend and expedition supporter Daniel Radcliffe, a leading member of Cardiff’s civic and business community. The king, visiting on the Royal Yacht, had invited Evans aboard to give him a first-hand account of the expedition’s progress, following which he promoted Evans to Commander (Johnson, ‘Scott of the Antarctic and Cardiff’).

  4. MS107, 1 November 1912.

  5. Elizabeth Acland was born in June 1913; she was brought up in New Zealand, then moved to England, where she married an Englishman, John Pavey; she later returned to live in New Zealand, where she died in Timaru in the mid-1970s.

  6. The Times, 14, 16 and 22 November 1912; Cheltenham local newspapers.

  7. MS433, 15 December 1912. It is not clear whether it struck Pennell or others that this was the anniversary of Amundsen reaching the South Pole.

  8. MS433, 23 December 1912.

  9. Pennell’s mother was a widow, his father having died in September 1907.

  10. MS433, 28 December 1912.

  11. MS433, 2 January 1913.

  12. MS433, 3 January 1913.

  13. MS433, 5 February 1913.

  14. The words were suggested by Cherry-Garrard, who lent Wilson his copy of Tennyson’s In Memoriam to take on the South Pole journey (Seaver, Edward Wilson of the Antarctic, p. 272, and elsewhere); Tennyson wrote part of In Memoriam in Wilson’s home town of Cheltenham.

  15. MS433, 23 January 1913.

  16. Pennell originally wrote ‘any effect’ but changed it to ‘this effect’.

  17. By the time the blizzard set in Scott had been unable to walk due to a badly frostbitten foot, but he had continued to write his journal almost to the end (likely to have been the last days of March 1912). The three men died from lack of food and fuel (needed to melt snow and ice into water) and the cold.

  18. Cherry-Garrard, Gran, Nelson, Lashly, Crean, Hooper, Williamson, Keohane and Demitri Gerof were all in the search party.

  19. Debenham, In the Antarctic, chapter entitled ‘Icebergs’.

  5

  From Oamaru to Awliscombe

  In the early hours of 10 February 1913 Tom Crean rowed Harry Pennell and Edward Atkinson from the Terra Nova into Oamaru harbour.1 When Crean had returned, the Terra Nova weighed anchor and sailed north. She would dock in Lyttelton only after Evans was sure that the news carried by Pennell and Atkinson had been published in New Zealand newspapers. But the arrival of two strangers in Oama
ru under cover of darkness did not escape attention:

  The night watchman … telephoned to Captain Ramsay the Harbour Master who … took us up to his house for the remainder of the night, where we had blankets & sofas in the dining room. The first express did not pass through till about 11.0 and so Jane [Atkinson] & I after sending a wire to Kinsey went & sat in a field. In the train going up we met Mr Dennistoun … quite half a dozen reporters were onboard but after asking us for information and being refused they left us alone.

  In Christchurch, Pennell and Atkinson headed for Kinsey’s office, from where they sent several more cables.2 They tried to contact Oriana Wilson, who was staying with friends in Dunedin, but she had already left for Christchurch and would not arrive for some time. Pennell and Atkinson went to Kinsey’s Christchurch home; after an early night and a good night’s sleep they returned to Kinsey’s office.

  It fell to Atkinson, as leader of the search party which had discovered Scott’s tent and the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers, to explain to Oriana Wilson what had happened. Pennell could see how difficult this was for Atkinson but felt that Wilson’s widow ‘behaved splendidly throughout, proving herself a fit wife for Bill’.

  That night Pennell and Atkinson went to Sumner and stayed at the Marine Hotel, the scene of happy evenings with Bowers, Oates and Wyatt and where Bowers and others had left surplus personal effects. The next morning, 12 February, they walked over the hills to Lyttelton wharf, from where a tug took them out to the Terra Nova. By now news of the expedition was in all the newspapers and it seemed that everyone wanted to meet, interview or photograph Scott’s men. The atmosphere in Kinsey’s office was initially rather chilly as Kinsey seemed to have taken against Evans and vice versa. There was also the issue of potential overlaps of duties and responsibilities (including between Kinsey and Drake), but gradually everyone settled down.3 Pennell felt that ‘no man or lady could have behaved better than Mr & Mrs Kinsey with Mrs Wilson’, particularly as they had been ‘very much upset’ themselves. It was not easy for anyone, particularly during a memorial service at Christchurch cathedral – the sight of flags flying at half-mast was also a constant reminder of what had happened.

  Pennell and his companions were now public figures, so it was a relief to get away at weekends. Pennell, Atkinson and Campbell spent their first weekend at Kinsey’s house in Sumner and Pennell, Atkinson and Bruce spent the second at Peel Forrest. Pennell was busy during the week as he, rather than Teddy Evans, would be sailing the Terra Nova back to Britain. Rennick went to see his fiancée in Dunedin, but would return in time to make final preparations for the voyage.

  Campbell, the scientists and Gran all decided to travel back to Britain by steamer rather than with the slower Terra Nova; before leaving Gran climbed Mount Cook in a record time of fourteen-and-a-half hours.4 Atkinson travelled to Wellington with Wilfred Bruce, Teddy and Hilda Evans and Oriana Wilson to meet Kathleen Scott off her ship from San Francisco. She had learned of Scott’s death whilst at sea and was, according to Atkinson, ‘wonderful’ about what had happened; she decided, however, not to go to Christchurch but to sail straight back from Wellington to Britain.

  Teddy and Hilda Evans also left direct from Wellington, but Oriana Wilson and Atkinson returned to Christchurch. After a farewell weekend with the Kinseys, Pennell accompanied Atkinson and Oriana Wilson and her sister to Wellington, from where Atkinson was going to escort the two ladies on their voyage back to Britain.

  Pennell returned to Christchurch to make final preparations for the long homeward voyage. After writing a number of letters of thanks, including one to the prime minister of New Zealand, he reflected that, ‘In some ways this has been a very happy month: no one could have imagined how nice everyone could be until this sort of thing occurred, the thoughtfulness, the sympathy of all our neighbours, the press & the public has been wonderful.’

  On 13 March the Terra Nova set sail from Lyttelton, heading east to join the old ‘Great Circle’ clipper route to Britain, by way of the Pacific Ocean, Cape Horn, South America and the Atlantic. Of Pennell’s original afterguard, only Rennick, Cheetham, Williams and Lillie remained, so Pennell was glad that Edward Nelson had offered to serve as Second Mate and that stalwarts like Levick, Lashly, Crean and Keohane were back on board.5 Levick, as well as acting as ship’s doctor, was in charge of the meteorological log, while Nelson would write up the ‘fair copy’ ship’s log. Pennell had put himself in charge of the zoological log and would, as he had done when previously in command, be taking Sunday morning services.

  On Monday, 17 March, St Patrick’s Day, Pennell gave the order to ‘splice the main brace’ so that Irishmen Crean and Keohane and others could enjoy an additional tot of rum.6 As they were now exactly twelve hours behind Greenwich Mean Time the following day was also Monday, 17 March, but there was no second extra rum ration. Pennell was pleased to see a song thrush alighting on the ship. He added it to his sightings of wanderers, grey shearwaters and black-bellied petrels in the zoological log and, as the sun went down, remembered his Southern Ocean bird-watching partner, Edward Wilson: ‘The sunset tonight was very beautiful … it was one of the subdued nights that he appreciated so much.’

  By 19 March, 1,000 miles out from Lyttelton, they were ahead of schedule. But a few days later Pennell became aware of a problem on board:7

  Four days ago Abbott became obsessed with the delusions that the hands were talking about him; apparently he has been ‘anxious’ for over 3 weeks but the hands thought he would get alright and said nothing. He now varies from about normal with a slight unknown grievance in his mind … Tonight for the first time he is inclined to be violent.

  Sometimes Abbott had to be pinned down or confined to the wardroom. At night (when he was at his most violent) Levick would sit by him; others took turns at sitting by him by day. Pennell could see that Abbott was passing through stages, including ‘grievance, religious mania, imagining himself God’, but by the beginning of April the patient was sleeping a lot and eating well.8 Pennell noted that the seamen looking after their shipmate in pairs, were ‘extraordinarily good … gentle and firm’.

  Edward Nelson meanwhile had taken to his new post ‘like a duck to water’ and seemed ‘keen as mustard’; he was, as far as Pennell was concerned, ‘far and away the most brainy person on the ship’.9 As for the original afterguard, Rennick seemed to be missing his fiancée, but boatswain Cheetham (who had acquired a pet canary in New Zealand) and engineer Williams were ‘as happy as sand boys’; Lillie was also enjoying trawling new waters. Tom Crean was, as Pennell had expected, ‘absolutely splendid’.

  By mid-April they were round the Horn and on course for Rio de Janeiro, where they would make a coaling stop.10 Pennell had recently spied some flying fish, but was disappointed in his tally of seabirds, because he had seen no mollymawks or ‘sooties’.

  In Rio, somewhat to Pennell’s surprise, the Terra Nova was not quarantined.11 He and Levick immediately went to the British Consulate to ask for help in booking a passage home for Abbott. The Consul General, Sir Roger Casement, was away investigating ‘rubber atrocities’ in Peru, but his deputy, Ernest Hamblock, was ‘simply splendid and of enormous assistance’.12 Pennell (who had not been to Rio before) was impressed by the fine harbour with its rugged surrounding hills and the city’s wide ‘show street’. Just as they were in the midst of loading coal, Britain’s Minister to Brazil, Sir William Haggard, arrived on a surprise visit.13 Pennell thought he seemed genuinely interested in the expedition and not to have minded scrambling over coaling barges to reach the ship.

  As they sailed out of Rio in beautiful sunshine, Pennell pondered the paucity of birdlife compared with the Southern Ocean. This thought in turn reminded him of Edward Wilson and a poem he had written – which Pennell now copied into his journal:14

  The silence was deep with a breath like sleep

  As our sledge runners slid on the snow,

  And the fate-full fall of our fur-clad feet

 
Struck mute like a silent blow,

  On a questioning ‘hush’, as the settling crust

  Shrank shivering over the floe;

  And the sledge in its track sent a whisper back

  Which was lost in a white fog-bow.

  And this was the thought that the Silence wrought

  As it scorched and froze us through,

  Though secrets hidden are all forbidden

  Till God means man to know,

  We might be the men God meant should know

  The heart of the Barrier snow,

  In the heat of the sun and the glow

  And the glare from the glistening floe

  As it scorched and froze us through & through

  With the bite of the drifting snow.

  As the Terra Nova entered equatorial waters Pennell and the afterguard took watches in the engine room to allow stokers and firemen time away from the searing heat.15 Pennell hoped that as temperatures dropped and days lengthened he would have more entries for his zoological log, but there was ‘not a bird or a dolphin seen’ until a little wheatear alighted on the ship.

  Fayal, in the Azores, was their final stop before re-entering British waters. This time the Terra Nova did not escape being quarantined, but the doctor allowed Pennell, Levick and Archer ashore to send cables and purchase provisions.16 Pennell thought the town seemed ‘really quaint’; he was intrigued by the hooded outfits worn by local women and enjoyed a drive into the countryside to see the volcanic crater. Other aspects of the countryside seemed more familiar and the sight of stone boundary walls and the sound of robins and blackbirds singing in the bushes made him think of his home in Devon.