With Scott in the Antarctic

by Isobel E Williams

  This expedition as a whole was a failure, but the groups’ experiences resulted in modifications being made to the equipment and their provisions. Royds reported that the soups took too long to dissolve, wasting fuel, and that butter (unsurprisingly) travelled badly. There were problems with whistles, knives, the top of the tent and the string on the food bags. He said that daily food bags were a good development.51 These problems could be addressed, but nothing could be done about the extra weight caused by frozen perspiration. This was a problem throughout the expeditions and in this instance a three-man sleeping bag weighing 45 lbs at the start, weighed 76 lbs at the finish.

  On 21 March they celebrated the anniversary of Discovery’s launch at Dundee, appreciating Wilson’s father’s cherry brandy and cigarettes at dinner. This was followed by a discussion on the title for the winter magazine they were planning. They chose The South Polar Times. Wilson continued busily looking after his patients, drawing, reading and starting preparations for his last outing before the winter: an expedition to leave food depots for the following year’s sledging expeditions. This was an expedition that was planned to last for three weeks; in the event, and in spite of warmer sleeping bags, snow shoes and each man being put charge of his own equipment, the outing was not a success. The dogs refused to pull, some even refused to stand, and had to be dragged. Excessive mirages made distances impossible to judge. On their first day out, 31 March, they only managed five miles in five hours. When they camped the temperature was so low that any piece of metal they touched, the cooker or even a spoon, stung the skin like a hot iron.52 Wilson wrote:

  In the morning you put on frozen socks, frozen mitts and frozen boots stuffed with frozen damp grass and rime and you suffer a good deal from painfully cold feet until everything is strapped on the sledges and you are off to warm up to the work of a beast of burden. There’s a fascination about it but it can’t be considered comfort.53

  After four days they decided that it was too cold for sledging and turned back, depositing a provision cache on the ice. Once they were heading homeward the dogs pulled as fast as they could. They kept their sledge flags flying. Wilson thought that the flags would show the ship that they had not turned back because anything was wrong.

  Soon Discovery was frozen in. The forty-seven men were to winter further south than any other human beings. They could not know what precisely to expect, but Scott emphasised the potential dangers. He reminded the men that blizzards could develop so rapidly and with such force that anyone could become completely disorientated and lost a short distance from boat or hut, as was to happen. Being caught in an Antarctic blizzard is like trying to see through the inside of a table-tennis ball; there is virtually no vision. Koettlitz lectured the men on the dangers of frostbite but he lectured monotonously and failed to capture their interest. General duties and mess companionship continued. In April, Wilson followed the tracks of emperor penguins going north. Although he was interested in all Antarctic wildlife, these were the birds – their broad yellow head patches merging with a golden wash on their upper breasts – on which he would become a particular authority. They caused great interest because so little was known about them. It was not even known where they spent the winter, though it was thought unlikely that they would have evolved specifically to breed on the polar ice. Skelton suggested that the birds spent the summer on water in the south, before migrating north. It is now known that against enormous odds, emperor penguins battle over a nine-month period to produce a single chick in the depths of the Antarctic winter.

  On 23 April the sun disappeared, leaving the men to the polar winter and almost complete darkness for almost four months. Throughout the winter the doctors’ duties were to keep the officers and sailors healthy in the long, dark, freezing days. Scurvy, the dread of all long expeditions, was their biggest fear and was in fact to erupt, though when he lectured on the Discovery expedition later, Wilson was sure that every possible precaution had been attended to.54 The actual cause of the disorder was not known and ascorbic acid’s effectiveness was not unequivocally shown until the 1930s, but Scott, Koettlitz and Wilson would have known that James Lind, an eighteenth-century naval surgeon, had conducted the first ever controlled trial on the problem using citrus fruits amongst a variety of other treatments. He achieved a complete cure in two sufferers with two lemons and an orange each day for a fortnight. Others with the illness, given different treatments, did badly.55 Scott and his doctors would have been well versed in the fact that when James Cook took citrus juices on his long sea voyages, not a single man died from scurvy and that the Royal Navy had adopted this cure with initial success. But they would also know that by 1900 the lemon juice preventative treatment had lost support. They could not be expected to understand the subtleties of this ‘sea change’, or why lemon juice had apparently become ineffective. In fact, the juice’s apparent inefficiency was an unlooked-for result of a series of political and economical decisions. During the European wars of the 1800s, Britain had started to buy limes from the West Indies instead of European lemons. Limes are less effective than lemons against scurvy.56 To make matters worse, the juice was bottled under conditions which damaged the heat-sensitive vitamin, so it is hardly surprising that the citrus fruit given out in the later part of the 1800s was not effective.57 Fresh meat was thought to give protection, but even if this had been so, the Navy issued much tinned meat. These decisions inadvertently set the scene for the return of scurvy. In 1900 the prevalent opinion and the advice accepted by Wilson and his superiors was that scurvy was due to micro-organisms in tinned food, the so-called ‘taint’, though a serious effort was always made to provide fresh meat. Killing parties were out whenever the weather permitted. Although the Discovery expedition had its fair share of scurvy, the accepted medical advice was followed.

  In addition to scurvy there were other medical worries. ‘Polar Anaemia’ had been reported on previous expeditions and Wilson took specimens of blood throughout the expedition to check for anaemia. This problem was thought to be due to lack of light and to cause depression, aggression and sometimes psychoses. To get light into the ship, Scott provisioned 1,500 gallons of kerosene for lanterns, candles and a windmill generator for an electric circuit. The generator was a constant source of irritation to Skelton because it kept breaking down in the high winds and it was eventually demolished,58 but the reason for the attempt was absolutely sound.

  Men living closely together in a dark, monotonous environment with little outside activity, posed a potentially explosive situation, but throughout the long Antarctic winter there was no hint of mutiny, no serious violence and no communication breakdown, although there were obviously irritations and quarrels. The ship was run through a three-way hierarchy: officers, non-commissioned officers and ratings. Benacchi, who had been on the non-naval Southern Cross expedition, wrote later that the formalities at dinner helped to preserve an atmosphere of civilised tolerance such as had seldom been found in polar expeditions, and that the naval tradition was of infinite benefit.59 Wilson had no criticism of the discipline. He probably thought that it was the natural way to run an expedition. He continued to admire Scott and appreciated the fact that he took on the role of scientific leader; Scott was endlessly planning new theories and new methods of observation and Wilson thought that he did it well. Wilson himself took part in the overnight rota for meteorological observations and had by now become so friendly with Shackleton that the two took daily walks to nearby Crater Hill to make the recordings from a spirit minimum thermometer and an aneroid barometer. He never tired of Antarctica’s beauty but he despaired of recording its true colours: Mount Erebus with its roll of smoke, lit up by beautiful pink and lilac opal tints against a sky of pale yellow. The stars were brilliant and the sky a deep ultramarine blue.60

  The ‘activities’ programme included moonlight football, amateur theatricals and animated weekly debates. The first edition of The South Polar Times was presented to the Captain after dinner on the first day of
the winter. It was edited by Shackleton the first winter and Barnacchi on the second, and produced every month. The format was: an editorial, a summary of the events and meteorological conditions of the month, scientific articles, caricatures, acrostics61 and puzzles. Everyone could contribute. Articles, poems, drawings, cartoons and quizzes (hotly contested) were submitted and editorship required tact, but Shackleton was successful and the magazine flourished. Wilson and Shackleton arranged an ‘Editor’s Office’ in one of the holds, furnished with packing cases and lit by candles. Shackleton fixed a rope to the door to allow him control of who came in. Wilson was an important contributor. He made sketches, drawings and silhouettes and wrote articles. He wrote ‘Notes on Penguins’62 and drew no less than three penguins on the title page of the first issue. He thought that the first edition was ‘thoroughly appreciated’, even by those who had been caricatured.63 It was hoped that publishing a volume of copies of The South Polar Times after Discovery’s return to England would help the expedition coffers. Eventually 1,000 copies were produced, costing seven guineas each initially,64 later ten guineas. Smith Elder Limited produced these copies and reproductions now change hands for hundreds of pounds. The originals of Discovery’s Polar Record Journals are in the Royal Geographical Society in London. Terra Nova’s journals are in the British Library.

  Scott wrote that although it was difficult to say who was the most diligent, he thought that it was Wilson who was always at work. He wrote that Wilson was always performing a hundred and one kindly duties for all on board.65 Wilson certainly continued his demanding regimen. His day started with the milk and tinned food check. At 7.30a.m. Ford, the chief steward, woke him with, ‘Dr Wilson sir, milk inspection sir’. Often he found that the condensed milk had gone off and he wrote of the joys of tasting mouthful after mouthful of sour milk as soon as he had got up. He also had to sniff the tins: meat, sardines, fish and soup.66 Then he checked the ventilation in the living room, a task he did with such thoroughness that occasionally people appeared for breakfast in fur mitts as protest (Koettlitz preferred a cigar-laden fug and eventually Scott had to give orders about when the skylight should be opened). The next task was the 8a.m. meteorological observation, afterwards, supervision of bird skinning and working up sketches, preparing drawings for The South Polar Times and making zoological notes. He did a second meteorological observation with Shackleton, climbing to 950 feet, up Crater Hill. During these months he converted his rough sketches of the coastline of Victoria Land into an enlarged and detailed record. Although he worried that so much close work under acetylene gaslight would damage his eyesight, he does not seem to have had particular problems.67 He wrote to Oriana:

  this work of Antarctic exploration is very different from the work I had planned for myself some years ago. And yet I do honestly believe that God’s will is being worked out for us in what we are doing and though it may seem to some more ‘worldly’ and ‘scientific’ than ‘spiritual’ yet there is a spiritual work to be done here. And as for its main object, the acquisition of knowledge pure and simple, surely God means us to find out all we can of His works, and to work out our own salvation, realising that all things that have to do with our spiritual development ‘are understood and clearly seen in things created’ and if it is right to search out his works in one corner of his Creation, it is right for some of us to go to the ends of the earth to search out others.68

  The winter routine started with breakfast from 9 to 10a.m., consisting of porridge, bread and jam, supplemented on two days a week with seal-liver. Afterwards the deck was cleared and daily prayers observed. The morning’s work was followed by tea at 2p.m., an informal meal, perhaps the most enjoyable meal of the day; nearly everyone had toast smothered in butter. Dinner was a formal affair of soup, meat (tinned or fresh) and dessert. The weekly president enforced rules of etiquette: no betting, no contradicting the president and no consulting reference books. He often had to impose the fine of a round of wine and after the meal there was often a stampede to the library to check a fact or two, despite Discovery having sailed without an Encyclopaedia Britannica. Dinner began and ended with grace and after the meal there was a toast to the King’s health. To while away the evening the officers played bridge, whist or chess; read or listened to the gramophone. Nearly all the wardroom smoked, though Wilson mostly did not, and by the end of the evening the mess was a fug, much to the annoyance of non-smokers. Mess bills were one of Wilson’s duties; he did this duty carefully, but disliked doing it because he thought it a complete waste of his time.

  The two hourly meteorological observations included night duties which all the officers did in turn, some more willingly than others. Armitage and Koettlitz eventually had little choice but to volunteer at the Captain’s suggestion. Wilson and the other officers sometimes had to crawl to the observation hut in blizzard conditions. They clung onto a guide rope (often buried in snow) and got some flitting vision by carrying hurricane lamps. Wilson wrote that ten yards from the ship ‘you could be as completely lost as ten miles’.69 Thirteen different observations had to be made including cloud cover, temperature and weather conditions. It was the most exhaustive and detailed record and in bad conditions the whole procedure could take a long time. The officers took turns at the night readings, staying up all night to make the two-hourly recordings.

  Throughout the winter from Monday to Friday routine duties took place. On Saturday there was a general clean up for the Sunday inspection when the men had to line up on deck in two rows in the freezing conditions. Following inspection there was the church service and then the much-anticipated mutton for dinner. Baths were organised once a week; Wilson, like other officers, had his in his cabin. The debates, scientific and non-scientific, showed the men’s range of interests. Topics included: favourite poets, Tennyson or Robert Browning (on a vote Tennyson won); the nature of the Great Ice Barrier (‘in which everyone had to speak for twelve minutes’)70; women’s rights (‘we all have to speak, or rather we all do speak at these entertainments and those who don’t feel equal to talking sense, talk nonsense’)71; and conscription. Wilson’s biggest contribution was to the debates on seals and penguins; ‘seals’ lasted for over four hours.72 ‘Penguins’ was a lively little debate and he thought he had picked up some new ideas from other people. Throughout the winter the scientists and officers lectured, to the mess deck in ‘Professor Gregory’s’ villa, on sledging, geology, wireless technology and other subjects of interest. Royds entertained them by playing the piano, sometimes for hours at a time. He also organised a slide show.73

  Wilson often thought of home. He wrote to Oriana when it was Easter time in England that he thought of the freshness and green and colour of home. He thought of the feathery willows of Crippett Wood and the squirrels and the wood anemones. He wrote that there was no sadness in his thoughts but only a longing and hope and belief that he would enjoy them again with her.74 He knew that joining the expedition had been the right decision. He only wished that he could show her the beautiful Antarctic mountains, the ice and the sky.

  All holidays were celebrated to relieve the monotony. The 15 May was Lady Markham’s birthday. Victoria Day was celebrated on the Queen’s birthday, the 24 May, and Skelton’s birthday, Scott’s birthday and the anniversary of Discovery’s arrival in London, were all reasons for a refill of the wine glasses. The biggest celebration was reserved for Midwinter Day on 23 June when the mess deck was gorgeously decorated with wreaths and garlands of coloured paper. This was an old naval custom. The men put out their pet photographs on the mess deck tables and the stoker’s table produced a magnificent ice statue of a frost king with a crown.75 The tables were decorated with artificial holly and lots of little union jacks. There were menus (one now in the British Library). Each man received a card from Oriana and a gift from Royd’s mother.76 Skelton took photos, which came out well. Christmas lunch was turtle soup, a ‘generous helping’ of mutton, mince pies and jellies, washed down with an ‘excellent dry champagne’.77 T
hey sang solos, duets, part-songs and they finished off the evening with excellent port and Auld Lang Syne; a riotous success. Later in the week a play, starring Frank Wilde (who had been on the expedition to Cape Crozier, in which Vince had died) in ‘Ticket of Leave’, was another success. Gilbert Scott, who looked extremely pretty as a female,78 and another seaman, supported Wilde as his ladies. Two of Wilson’s anniversaries were celebrated in the winter – his wedding on 16 July and his birthday on 23 July; he was thirty and wrote in his diary that he was as childish as ever.79

  For the first time, as the long monotonous Antarctic winter drew on, irritation and moodiness creeps into even Wilson’s diary. Like others reliving their feelings in their diaries, he wrote that he had never realised, to such an extent, the truth that ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ and he wrote that

  it is just about as much as I can stand at times and there is absolutely no escape. I have never had my temper tried as it is every day now but I don’t intend to give way. It’s a hard school down here but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.80

  What caused this is not known but the long weeks of darkness with no exercise would take their toll on any vigorous man. But the return of the sun on 22 August was an occasion for happiness. Wilson and Shackleton climbed Arrival Hill to see ‘the sun, the whole sun and nothing but the sun’ and pronounced the event a great joy.81 Wilson described the faint red glow over the hills and said there was enough diffused daylight to read the observations out of doors without a lamp. The South Polar Times came out on 26 August. The crew’s winter confinement was finally over.

  Preparations for sledging were started. Modifications were made to the sledging equipment. Dog harnesses were designed and produced. Tents were altered. Roomier three-man sleeping bags were made. The sledge runners were sheathed with nickel-plated steel. Food supplies were weighed and divided into weekly or daily rations and put into little linen sacks ready for the expeditions.