Joyce:
I do not suppose that any party of men have ever left to go on a sledging journey, under such circumstances.
The first part of the programme is to sledge the great bulk of the stores, about 4,000 lbs, to Safety Camp on the Barrier, about 23 miles, starting 1 September.
The second part of the programme is to trek all stores to the Bluff Depot about 100 miles south, after which parties will be arranged.
From the Bluff Depot stores will be laid at every degree to Mt. Hope, at 80°, 81°, 82°, 83°, 83° 40´.28
Spencer-Smith had every confidence in Mackintosh:
Spent most of the morning discussing the sledging problem … and it’s a pretty big problem too, tho’ I think the O.M. has a good solution already worked out … if his weights are correct, the job will D.V.* be done, tho’ there’ll be 10 very much played out men at the end of it. It’s all in the game…
We shall have a very rough time for five months, especially at the beginning and at the end but D.V. shall get through all right.29
They had some sledging equipment that they had used in February and March of 1915 and this was supplemented by equipment that had been left behind by Scott’s 1910–13 Terra Nova Expedition. They had one new tent from the Aurora but they would need to use at least two old ones that had been left at the Cape Evans hut. They were also forced to use two old primus stoves. They only had their original issue of clothing but they did find a certain amount of old underclothing in the hut. Footgear and windproof clothing were a problem, particularly fur boots. It was arranged that an old tent be cut up and made into windproof canvas shirts and trousers. The deficiency in footgear was met by making canvas boots and cutting up old sleeping bags and a horse rug for fur boots. They had adequate sledging food, left from Scott’s previous expedition.
Over the winter months of June to August the ten men worked on various activities to enable them to be ready to depart south in September. Joyce and Wild made the lion’s share of the canvas trousers and blouses. They also made about 500 calico bags, with strings attached around the mouth, which were used to hold sledging rations.
The sledging food allowed for per day, per man was:
Pemmican 8 oz.
Oatmeal 1¾ oz.
Sugar 5⅓ oz.
Glaxo ⅔ oz.
Chocolate 1¼ oz.
Tea ¼ oz.
Biscuit 1 lb.30
The two navy men, Wild and Joyce, worked as a team.
Wild: ‘Joyce & I were very busy making clothes, etc. First of all we cut up a canvas tent and made a pair of trousers for everybody. Then we started making things for sledging such as boots, etc instead of finneskoe. It kept us busy all the winter.’31
Tongue in cheek Joyce claimed the trouser cut was ‘similar to that of Oxford bags’.32
Mackintosh:
All is working smoothly here, and everyone is taking the situation very philosophically.
Joyce is in charge of the equipment and has undertaken to improvise clothes out of what canvas can be found here.
Wild is working with Joyce. He is a cheerful, willing soul. Nothing ever worries or upsets him, and he is ever singing or making some joke or performing some amusing prank.
Richards has taken over the keeping of the meteorological log. He is a young Australian, a hard, conscientious worker, and I look forward to good results from his endeavours. Jack, another young Australian, is his assistant.
Hayward is the handy man, being responsible for the supply of blubber. Gaze, another Australian, is working in conjunction with Hayward.
Spencer-Smith, the padre, is in charge of photography, and, of course, assists in the general routine work. Cope is the medical officer.33
July 1915
The men appeared to work well together. Richards could not remember any animosities among the ten men, saying they got on exceptionally well, so far as he could judge. He remembers the occasional flare up but nothing serious; arguments were usually over trivial things. He related in one of his interviews that they had ‘fierce arguments about everything under the sun’ and they would refer to a copy of the Encyclopaedia Britannica at the hut. Stupid arguments, said Richards, like the number of miles around the Australian coastline for example, and the arguments would ‘get quite heated’, but he stressed that relationships were astonishingly good.34
Life, even in mid-winter, was pleasant and an undated Spencer-Smith diary entry gives us an idea of their daily activities. By late July they could see some light in the sky and Mackintosh writes of the beauty of Antarctica but he also notes how swiftly the weather could change – a feature of Antarctic weather which Mackintosh was acutely aware of at this time, but chose to ignore twelve months later.
Mackintosh:
1 Jul: My birthday. This evening we had our usual game of bridge, with a prize an ounce of tobacco. Joyce who at present is my partner and as myself had been constantly losing – I did not anticipate much hopes but as it turned out I was pleasantly surprised when we won the rubber – so I now have an ounce of tobacco.35
16 Jul: Richards is an excellent fellow, working hard & doing twice as much as ordinary people.36
30 Jul: Beautiful tints of purple over high cirrus clouds gave a grand tinge of colour to the surroundings. A day like this one can scarcely realise that this is not some earthly paradise of beauty.
All this was in the forenoon – in the afternoon a veil of clouds slowly swept over, partially obscuring everything & by 8pm the wind was blowing at 50mph, the drift obliterating everything – from Paradise to Hades in a few hours.
The dirt on us is remarkable – how we keep healthy is marvellous – although I don’t expect we are dirtier than the Eskimos.37
Hayward:
6 Jul: Went out ski-ing with Gaze very enjoyable had some fine tobogganing afterwards. Weather glorious.
11 Jul: Went out with Gaze Ski-ing afterwards tobogganing, on the 3rd run hit a big rock going all out, stove in bows of sledge Gaze ricked his ankle & took off a piece of his nose on my back, I sprained my wrist, so we decided to pack up.38
Spencer-Smith:
Jul: Rather an idle day, finishing two packs of cards, after I’ve been out for a short exercise on ski with Stevens. The band of daylight to the NW seems extending. The dogs gather even for the shortest walk and are friendly, usually to one another, as well as to us. A little tea-party in my darkroom & plans for home! Richards & Jack are busy on stores weighing, Joyce & Wild on clothes: all in argument.39
August 1915
22 August was a welcome date, for on that day the sun reappeared and they were buoyed by its return.
Mackintosh:
26 Aug: We had hoped to get out and see the sun rise but the sky was too overcast so we shall not have that pleasure. Anyway it is good to feel the sun is about us now. I trust before he dips again for this long spell without him, that we have experienced, we shall be in the dear Homeland.40
Over Erebus the sun’s rays peeped through … and where the rays broke through gave us a most joyous scene of cloud effect. The light made us all blink, as well as to feel excitement of spirit.
Personally I felt like as if I had been released from being a prisoner – or imagined what one would feel like, who had been one. I stood outside & looked at the lovely wonderful scenery all around.41
Before starting sledging again they made an attempt at cleaning. Their Jaeger clothing and Burberrys were run through with petrol, a task they found to be very cold and painful. They also endeavoured to sponge themselves down as best they could. Owing to the shortage of soap it was the first wash for eight months for Mackintosh, Joyce, Hayward and Wild, and five months for Richards and Spencer-Smith.42
Mackintosh asked Cope, as the medical officer, to examine all the men and he reported that Mackintosh was perfectly fit, Hayward and Wild quite sound but Spencer-Smith, although perfectly sound in body and limb, was found to have ‘an intermittent heart’. Cope told Spencer-Smith he was able to go sledging but if h
e felt any effects of his heart he was to turn back at the earliest possible moment. Joyce and Richards did not want an examination.43
At the end of August they were ready to start the sledging of stores from Cape Evans, first to Hut Point, then on to the Barrier.
Notes
1. Hayward diary, May 1915
2. Joyce field diary, 9 May 1915
3. Hayward diary, May 1915
4. Joyce field diary, May 1915
5. Wild diary, 24 May 1915
6. Ibid.
7. Hayward diary, 1 June 1915
8. Joyce field diary, June 1915
9. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
10. Hayward diary, 1 June 1915
11. Wild diary, 2 June 1915
12. Joyce field diary, June 1915
13. Joyce letter to James Paton, a member of Aurora’s crew, 22 October 1915
14. Joyce field diary, June 1915
15. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
16. Stevens, report of the 1914–17 expedition
17. Mackintosh diary, 5 June 1915
18. Ibid., 13 June 1915
19. Ibid., 8 June 1915
20. Hayward diary, 2 June 1915
21. Ibid., 5 June 1915
22. Ibid., 21 June 1915
23. Ibid., 22 June 1915
24. Spencer-Smith diary, 22 June 1915
25. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
26. Mackintosh diary, 26 June 1915
27. Hayward diary, 26 June 1915
28. Joyce diary transcripts, July 1915
29. Spencer-Smith diary, July 1915
30. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
31. Wild diary, 28 December 1915
32. Joyce diary transcripts, 1915
33. Mackintosh diary, 5 June 1915
34. Richards, interview ABC radio, Verbatim programme
35. Mackintosh diary, 1 July 1915
36. Ibid., 16 July 1915
37. Ibid., 30 July 1915
38. Hayward diary, July 1915
39. Spencer Smith diary, July 1915
40. Mackintosh diary, 23 August 1915
41. Ibid., 26 August 1915
42. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
43. Cope Medical Report of the Ross Sea Base ITAE, January 1917
* D.V. – Deo volente: God willing.
Chapter 8
‘CAPTAIN ABOUT 1½ MILES AHEAD’
September 1915
TO STOCK DEPOTS out to Mount Hope required a huge volume and weight of stores, far more than the men could haul in one load, so a number of intermediary trips were planned, with three three-man teams taking out a portion of stores and then returning to base to take out more.
Mackintosh planned for the depots to be placed at each line of latitude, about 70 miles apart. The stores that would be left at each depot on the outward journey had to be sufficient for the returning men to reach their next depot. This was usually one week’s worth of provisions, to cover the 70 miles. If men were delayed for any reason on their homeward journey, such as losing days because of a blizzard – and it took longer than a week to cover the distance between depots – they would be forced to go on reduced rations to make the food and fuel last until they made the next depot.
Mackintosh had worked out the total volume of stores needed, and it was a complex calculation. In the first season of sledging they had placed some stores at 80°S, at 79°S at Minna Bluff, at the three Cope depots, and at Safety Camp.
In the second season, stores had to be left at Mount Hope for Shackleton’s anticipated team of six men; then stores all the way back to Hut Point for his use – at 83°S, 82°S, 81°S, 80°S, the Bluff depot at 79°S and at the Safety Camp depot on the edge of the Barrier. They were just the stores that Shackleton would need. In addition, stores had to be carried for their own use – in travelling out to Mount Hope and back. To move from one depot point to the next on their return journey they would pick up stores that had been deposited on the outward journey.
The first stage for the ten men at Cape Evans would be to take all stores from there to Hut Point. This was planned to be carried out in September, involving a multitude of trips between the huts.
The second stage, in October, November and December, would involve five trips taking stores from Hut Point to the Minna Bluff depot, a journey of approximately 70 miles each way, plus a trip to add stores to the 80°S depot, 140 miles from Hut Point. Their plan was to have the Bluff depot well stocked because it would be a base from which stores would be taken further out on the Barrier.
Once this work was completed, the third and final stage would begin. It was then planned for nine men to be at or near the Minna Bluff depot towards the end of December, and push on south from there. They would take from the Bluff depot all the stores they would need to lay the depots out to Mount Hope.
September and early October
The taking of all the required stores to Hut Point commenced on 1 September. The leading sledge party left Cape Evans with 600 lb of stores and it was quite an occasion. Richards wrote in his book that the others gave the leading team an enthusiastic send off as they set out tugging their load over the sea-ice. They pitched a tent halfway across to Hut Point and left this ‘halfway house’ for the use of subsequent parties on journeys between the huts.1 The five dogs were used.
At this time, the dogs hauled sledges between the huts. The sea-ice surface would have been hard and smooth and on that surface the men would have skied, which meant they could have worked in harmony with the dogs. Skiing speed was similar to the dog’s normal rate of hauling; faster than a man’s normal walking pace.
The Joyce diary entry from 1 October below describes the usual routine as stores were taken across the sea-ice to Hut Point. Mackintosh wrote only a few notes in September, one on the cold affecting his right eye (his glass eye), and his enjoyment in meeting inquisitive penguins.
By early October all the stores and equipment needed for the sledging program were at Hut Point and the dogs were taken back to Cape Evans, as the men planned to now haul the sledges themselves.
Mackintosh’s diary entry, before leaving Cape Evans for the last time, includes a list of the men in the sledging teams. He also mentions ‘another book’ in which he would continue his diary notes but that ‘book’ has never been found. There are no more diary entries from Mackintosh after 30 September. All that has survived from that date onwards are a number of letters he left at various depots, which were usually instructions for Joyce, and two long letters he wrote on 28 February 1916.
On 30 September Spencer-Smith wrote a poignant letter to his parents, mentioning they had had some ‘misfortunes’, presumably meaning the loss of the Aurora and the death of most of the dogs. He appeared to have doubts he would survive.
Hayward: ‘Saturday 18 Sept 15 to Friday 8 Oct: During this time have made trips between Cape Evans & Hut Point sledging stores I got very useful work out of my dogs Con, Gunboat,* Towser, Oscar & a little bitch Nell, they were good up to 600lb.’2
A typical Joyce daily entry:
1 Oct: Temp -7.
Weather very heavy clouds to N. Turned out 7 o’clock ‘breakfast’, got under way 10.30.
3 sledges, load about 1700 lbs, surface very fair, doing about 1 mile p. hour, arrived at half way camp about 3.30. Left there one sledge we were pulling, about 300 lbs, as we found the load rather too much for us.
Proceeded to Cape Hut Pt. About 7 o’clock came on to drift + blow very hard from the SE decided to abandon sledge as we were still 3 miles from our destination, and to make things worse we had not eaten since breakfast, and most of us were getting rather bad frost bites through not having any food. Found it very hard to steer all land being obscured.
Eventually arrived at Hut about 10 o’clock. Soon had a fire going with plenty of Hoosh + forgot the tough journey. Fingers badly frostbitten. Turned in midnight.
13-240.†3
Mackintosh:
8 Sep: Temp -11 min t
o -15.5 max, my right eye and cheek are completely swollen up, my left cheek is a blister.4
21 Sep: Saw a large band of emperors (31) away west, hurrying up to inspect me – first in mass, then in line ahead, then in colonies of ½ companies, with a Captain and two Lieutenants ahead. One of the latter saluted me first and got pecked by the Captain for his pains.5
30 Sep: Everybody is up to his eyes in work. All gear is being overhauled, and personal clothing is having the last stitches. We have been improvising shoes to replace the finneskoe, of which we are badly short. Wild has made an excellent shoe out of an old horse-rug he found here, and this is being copied by other men. I have made myself a pair of mitts out of an old sleeping-bag.
Last night I had a bath, the second since being here. I have gradually been able to discard clothes, to wash them, so now I have a clean lot to start sledging. This too and having a bath.
I close this journal to-day (30 September) and am packing it with my papers here. To-morrow we start for Hut Point.
Nine of us are going on the sledge party for laying depots — namely, Stevens,‡ Spencer-Smith, Joyce, Wild, Cope, Hayward, Jack, Richards, and myself.
Gaze, who is still suffering from bad feet, is remaining behind and will probably be relieved by Stevens after our first trip. With us we take three months’ provisions to leave at Hut Point. I continue this journal in another book, which I keep with me.6
Spencer-Smith letter of 30 September 1915:
My dear Father & Mother,
Owing to various misfortunes of which you will hear in due course – for which no one is blameworthy, we are setting out for the season’s sledging under rather precarious conditions; equipment poor, time of year too early load heavy, etc. So there seems to be an unusual element of risk, wherefore a short note to say ‘au revoir’ in case I should not come back.
Shackleton's Heroes Page 16
