7 January 1916
As they went south, they laid cairns, to help guide them on their return journey. Every quarter or half an hour they would stop and erect a cairn of snow about 4 or 5 feet high. They would back-steer using a cairn behind them if the visibility was poor, but primarily the cairns were set up as a guide for their way back – they would simply travel from one cairn to the other. At this time Richards started taking a bearing of the cairn that was behind using a prismatic compass and record this bearing in a note book. He did not really know why he started doing this; he recalled years later that he seemed to have an idea in his mind that it ‘might become useful’.19 As it turned out these bearings were crucial to their survival.
On 7 January, Mackintosh’s party were some miles behind but they then made Herculean efforts to catch up – travelling over eleven hours to do so. It is not clear from any diaries why they wanted to travel with Joyce. Mackintosh may have seen his party falling too far behind. Joyce’s team with the dogs may have looked to be travelling with less effort. He may have noticed Spencer-Smith weakening or he may have been concerned with his own physical state. But it seems more likely that Gaze’s comment to Spencer-Smith, that Joyce was out to reach Mount Hope first, may have spurred Mackintosh on to catch up with Joyce.
That night Spencer-Smith made a long note in Latin, running the words all together in his diary and these words in Latin were Spencer-Smith’s only mention of his discussions with his cousin Irvine Gaze. It appears that Spencer-Smith now believed that Joyce was out to win the ‘prize’ – that being to reach Mount Hope before Mackintosh. It seems likely that he would have discussed this with Mackintosh, resulting in them making every effort to catch up with Joyce, which they did, just before midnight.
Joyce:
Under way as usual. Weather very foggy snow crystals falling heavily. Stopping every ¼ of an hour building cairns so there can be no mistake in following course + picking up our Depots. Fair wind + sail set surface very fair. Distance in the afternoon 4-1400.
Under way as usual after lunch with fair wind, about 3 o’clock came onto very heavy surface sometimes taking 5 or 10 minutes in hauling out sledge – building cairns take up a fair amount of time but with all that etc we did 5-200 yds, making 9 miles 1600 for the day. A splendid performance.
Dogs in splendid form we gave them a Hot Hoosh tonight. I will give them this twice a week. It is worth it + after all it is wonderful the amount of work they are doing. If we can keep them to 82° I can honestly say it is through their work we have got through.20
Hayward:
After lunch about 4 o/c Richards picked up a party overhauling us.
Camped as usual then & turned in, this party made our camp at 11 o/c pm this night & proved to be, Skipper Smith & Wild who had been working all hours to overtake us. Skipper said we would carry on in morning without alteration, we continuing to lay the course.21
Joyce:
Last night about 11 o’clock dogs started barking. Turned out to see what was doing found to a surprise Skipper + party camping outside they had been travelling since 9 o’clock to pick us up + to carry on with us.22
Wild: ‘Did 15½ miles & caught the others up. We had 2 lunches though & marched 11 hours. The first 10 miles were alright, fair wind & good surface, but after that the wind dropped & surface got very bumpy. Still we caught them.’23
Spencer-Smith: ‘Quibusautemcognitis, ne fraudesummemlaudem aliiacciperent (!) noslongoitinereadeorumcastraprogressisumus Ad mediamnoctemdefessicastraposuimus post 11½ horas in via.’24
(The quote translates to: Learning of this, however, to prevent others winning the first prize by trickery (!) we advanced by a long way towards their camp, to the middle of the night, worn out with the camp we have put after 11½ hours.)
8 January 1916
At the start of 8 January the six men were just over 200 miles from Mount Hope. In the morning Mackintosh talked with Joyce and it appears that Mackintosh did not want Joyce’s team to go on to Mount Hope.
Joyce: ‘Skipper had me in his tent + told me fresh plans. I think I shall have to disobey him again as I am sure if we are left to go as we are going we can easily lay this Depot. If it is not laid it will be to his bungling.’25
Hayward:
In the morning (8 Jan) a suggestion was made by Skippers party to tack on with us. We thought this arrangement would not be satisfactory & suggested carrying on for a bit & seeing how things panned out.
At lunch camp we compromised by relieving them of a tin of biscuits 50 lb & again got under way. Unfortunately this added weight (we having already 1200 lb up) made all the difference & pulled our pace down considerably & did not appear to help the others appreciably. Moreover the heavier load caused our sledge runners to break icily through frequent soft patches & made a satisfactory progress impossible.26
Joyce:
Anyhow I took 50 lbs. Sledges getting stuck in soft snow on account of heavy load off his sledge to ease their load which is 5 weeks about 570 lbs to make them come along faster.
We are now pulling something like 1350 lbs. Found he was still lingering. So stopped + asked him to join up with us, which he did without breaking up my routine.27
Mackintosh’s team and Joyce’s team are united
So they hooked the sledges together and pulled as one team of six men and four dogs. Richards tells us in his book that Joyce was in the lead at the end of a long rope. Behind him were Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild attached to this rope by harness, and then behind them were the four dogs, whose harness was also tied to the central rope. Behind the dogs he was tied to one side of the sledge with an 8-foot rope, and Hayward similarly tied to the other side. Richards says that ‘tied’ was hardly the correct word, as knots could not be loosened with the fingers in the cold conditions so all fastenings were made in such a way that they could be released by their hands encased in their fingerless mittens.28
They began to make excellent progress southward and Richards in The Ross Sea Shore Party tells us that the men now started to realise that the dogs would be an important factor in their attempt to lay the depot at Mount Hope and return. They were perhaps subconsciously aware that their own fate was linked to the dogs’ well-being. From then on they began to take more and more care of them and whenever possible Richards tells us he heated up a hot ‘hoosh’ for them every night: dog pemmican and dog biscuits.29
Spencer-Smith often recorded the temperature, and those for that day, 8 January, were typical for January. The morning temperature was 9°F, that is twenty-three degrees below freezing, and the evening temperature was 18°F, fourteen below.
Hayward:
Thinking that a trial of the arrangement suggested by Skippers party to tack on further might be tried, we did this – Skipper & Smith were obviously crooked & were not pulling an ounce.
We of course had the benefit of an extra heave on the occasions when the sledges bogged & of course by so doing were not delayed so frequently as we had been previously.30
Wild: ‘We went by ourselves this morning. In the afternoon we shackled the two sledges and pulled together. A much better day. We packed up early so as to have a good night’s rest.’31
Spencer-Smith was also happy:
We travelled behind the other party this morning and found the going very heavy, with too much pie-crust about. After lunch we transferred one case of biscuits to Joyce’s sledge. They stuck twice and then we hooked the two sledges together and all found the world more pleasant after. Only about 7 hours work and the trek is 9m. 1050 yds. – and this after yesterday.
So things looking rosy: the dogs pull well. Con has a touch of sun blindness – at the halts likes to have his head heaped over with powered snow: he lies still with head extended until the re-start.
Morn 9. Evg 18.32
9 January 1916
On the morning of Sunday 9 January the six men were approximately 180 miles from Mount Hope. Richards remembered that Sundays were treated like any other
day, even for Spencer-Smith. There were no prayers. Richards thought that even though Spencer-Smith was a clergyman he may have been a little hesitant asking people if they would like a religious service. It just didn’t seem to occur to the men that a day was a Sunday.33
They mention ‘pie-crust’, which was a particular surface which would just take their weight for a second and then drop them down an inch or two. Richards remembered they found it a very tiring surface to march on.34 Mackintosh described it as ‘snow that gave in with every step taken on it’,35 and to Joyce it was the most difficult surface to travel over, ‘you sink in to the ankles … so makes ones feet very sore indeed’.36
Spencer-Smith: ‘Beautiful, though hot day, working rather longer hours we have done 10 m. 700 yds. Heavy going with a lot of pie-crust.
‘Heb. 7.25. “To the uttermost”.’37
Joyce:
Skipper has had a sprained knee it is painful to watch go along. I don’t think this surface will improve it much. Parties working harmonious together. It is a pity though they did not let us carry on as we were going.
I am suffering very badly with snow-blindness hence this scribble. I have now been steering since Oct + I have not hardly been free since Nov.
I have found a good easer + rub snow on them.38
He then added a note: ‘Skipper asked me to take over the parties which I will do until the depots are laid.’39
(None of the others mention this claim by Joyce, to support it, or to discredit it, but there was no apparent reason why Joyce would write this note, if it were not true. In his field diary he simply recorded facts and events as they happened, or soon after and without any apparent embellishment. However, there were no comments by any of the other men that indicate Mackintosh had relinquished command to Joyce at this time. It is only when Mackintosh collapsed six weeks later that Joyce (with Richards) took over leading the party.)
10 January 1916
The previous evening it was clear and they could see Mount Markham, a 14,272-foot-high peak in the Trans-Antarctic Mountains, the mountains that stretch from the Ross Sea across the continent. But on the morning of the 10th they were forced to steer using the ‘black cairn method’. A piece of black cloth was placed on a cairn before they left it and this back cairn could then be seen more easily – they would steer away from it, rather than steer towards a feature in the distance. They used the method in times of poor visibility. Richards recalled that the black cloth came from an old pair of his canvas trousers, ones that were covered with black blubber and soot. They cut them into squares of about 6 inches and placed that on the cairn they were leaving.
To steer when visibility was so poor they could not even see the cairn behind they used Joyce, who was in the lead, at the end of a 20–30-foot-long rope. Richards was tied on to the bows of the sledge and he would take a bearing with the prismatic compass on the correct route and put Joyce on that route. After a short while they would stop, Richards would take another bearing and readjust Joyce’s line if he had wandered. If there was no blizzard it was easy enough to steer on a cloud or some feature in the distance, or back-steer from their own cairns.40
That day they trekked almost 10 miles but Spencer-Smith was now limping. Joyce inserted a callous note in his diary.
Spencer-Smith:
Last night we had a glimpse of Mt. Markham, 13.5 miles away. This morning we could scarcely see 100 yds, but by the black cairn method we carried on. The sun came out at 10 and kept with us till between 3 and 4: and the days’ hard pull shows 9 m. 1650 yds.41
Joyce:
Snowing hard, I suppose the Skipper is wondering how we are going to steer.
We are putting up cairns every 10 min with a little Black Bunting on, although we are halting so many times we are going along at a good pace doing 4 miles 1200 yds in the forenoon + 5 300 in the afternoon.
To mark these cairns we have cut up a Richards pair of our trousers about a foot square to place on the sides so as to mark it more prominent.42
Snowing all day, sometimes going in up to the knee which makes it rather hard for the dogs. They are doing excellent. We should not be able to get along without them.
S + S† still not pulling.43
11 January 1916
The men were shocked at their appearance.
Wild:
I borrowed a mirror from the others. I have just seen my face for the first time in four months. I fairly frightened me. I’ve had a trim up & wiped as much black off as possible, & now it will have to do till we get back.44
Spencer-Smith: ‘A gruelling day – rather overcast. We borrowed Hayward’s glass in evening & trimmed beards &c. We were all horrified at our faces. Lip very sore and looks nasty. Trek 10 m. 150 yds.’45
Joyce:
Under way as usual, in very thick weather, going about same as yesterday.
Skipper just jogging along. S still painful to watch.
After lunch we came into a rotten surface sometimes sinking in up to the waist. Our little dog team is doing well. Gave dogs a hot meal of biscuits + pemmican + as much as they could eat. There is no mistake, they are a splendid team.46
12 January 1916
On 12 January the six men reached 81°S (150 miles from Mount Hope) and left provisions for their return journey, and for Shackleton. Joyce was unable to steer because of snow blindness so Mackintosh took over. Their next depot was to be at 82°S, 70 miles to the south, and from there it would only be another 80 miles to Mount Hope.
Wild: ‘Depot here 3 weeks provisions, 3 tins oil, & extra biscuits for dogs, nearly 200 lbs with the Skipper’s boots.’47
Joyce:
Under way as usual in a snowstorm. About 10 o’clock my eyes got so bad I had to ask the Skipper to steer, he made rather a decent job of it – better than I expected – he said one day was plenty enough for any man. It carried on thick all the day.
I had several bad falls owing to the blindness. It seemed like a holiday pulling behind the Padre nothing to worry one, except pull & keep your feet.48
13 January 1916
On the first day out from the 81°S depot the weather was poor but they decided to march.
Joyce:
Skipper asked me to look at weather as he did not think it fit to march, but as I am steering & Richards on the bearings on the cairns, after a little consultation with Richy, decided to get under way.
Although it is thick + snowing a little patience with the cairns + direction, even if one has to put them up at 200 yds apart it knocks one forward. It seems that this weather will never break.
The dogs doing splendid. I don’t really know what we would do if it wasn’t for them. Boys behind told me the Skipper had hardly been pulling the whole afternoon + he looked quite done up.49
14–17 January 1916
Over the next four days the six men edged their way towards the 82°S depot point, covering a similar mileage (around 10 miles) each day. Richards recalled in later years that that trudging along hour after hour, day after day, with a canvas harness over his shoulders and around his waist was a rather fantastic experience.50 A northerly wind helped them at times where they could set a sail on the sledges and on these days, such as on 14 January, Joyce recorded that they ‘went along at a good pace’.51
When the weather cleared they could see more of the Trans-Antarctic Mountains, including Mount Longstaff, a series of peaks 13,000 feet high which are to the east of Mount Markham. For Joyce, the mountains gave him direction to Mount Hope.
None of the men were recording lengthy diary entries, but it was particularly noticeable with Hayward, who had been such a prolific diary writer in 1915. Wild’s diary over this period contained entries on basic necessities. At this stage of the journey one of the primus cookers had developed a fault – presumably it was an old primus that had been left at Cape Evans by Scott’s earlier expeditions. The primus was absolutely crucial to their survival.
Hayward: ‘13 Jan 15 to 18 Jan 15. Pulled out from 81°S & made depot @
82°S (3 weeks) on above dates respectively. Skipper & Smith very crocked.’52
Joyce:
14 Jan: In the afternoon land opened up ahead we think it is the Mt Longstaff place we are steering for at the base will be Mt Hope.53
15 Jan: Under way as usual. Strong SE wind. but clear surface improved though a cold snap in the night temp went down to zero.‡ The first zero temp since November it has been very cold all the forenoon. Distance in spite of wind which is right in our faces 5–1700.
After lunch wind freshened + sky became overcast I could just see the land to steer by going pretty good. Skipper not going very strong. Distance in the afternoon 5–1400. Making Dist for day – 11 – 1072. Splendid going. My snow blindness is improving greatly.54
Spencer-Smith:
14 Jan: The land is very distant away to the west; great high mountains in a vast semicircle to the eastern horn of which we are approaching. Their names are still uncertain – the highest we can see is probably Mt Longstaff.55
15 Jan: Clear until late afternoon but cold headwind all day. Within Burberry helmet dreamt through the longest afternoon of the trip. Sermon – They shall mount up with wings, &c. (Last verse of II Isaiah, + poem ‘Life and Death’ cut out from ‘The Lone Hand’.) Our first zero last night.56
18 Jan: Very stiff in the legs (back & calf) still.57
Wild:
15 Jan: The temp went down to zero last night so we shall soon have some cold weather.58
Shackleton's Heroes Page 20
