Shackleton's Heroes
Page 28
13. Joyce diary transcripts, 24 February 1916
14. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
15. Joyce field diary, 24 February 1916
16. Richards diary, 24 February 1916
17. Hayward diary, 24 February 1916
18. Joyce field diary, 24 February 1916
19. Richards diary, 24 February 1916
20. Joyce field diary, 24 February 1916
21. Richards diary, 24 February 1916
22. Hayward diary, 24 February 1916
23. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
24. Richards diary, 24 February 1916
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Spencer-Smith diary, 24 February 1916
29. Wild diary, 24 February 1916
30. Richards, ‘Four Dogs’, unpublished document
31. Hayward diary, 25 February 1916
32. Joyce field diary, 25 February 1916
33. Hayward diary, 25 February 1916
34. Richards diary, 25 February 1916
35. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
36. Ibid.
37. Hayward diary, 25 February 1916
38. Richards diary, 25 February 1916
39. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
40. Joyce field diary, 25 February 1916
41. Spencer-Smith diary, 25 February 1916
42. Wild diary, 25 February 1916
43. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
44. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid.
47. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
48. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
49. Joyce field diary, 26 February 1916
50. Hayward diary, 26 February 1916
51. Richards diary, 26 February 1916
52. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
53. Joyce field diary, 26 February 1916
54. Richards diary, 26 February 1916
55. Joyce field diary, 26 February 1916
56. Hayward diary, 26 February 1916
57. Joyce field diary, 26 February 1916
58. Richards diary, 26 February 1916
59. Ibid.
60. Hayward diary, 26 February 1916
61. Richards diary, 26 February 1916
62. Joyce diary transcripts for February 1916
63. Hayward diary, 26 February 1916
64. Richards diary, 26 February 1916.
65. Joyce field diary, 26 February 1916
66. Wild diary, 26 February 1916
67. Spencer-Smith diary, 26 February 1916
* ‘Julian’ – Julienne is the correct spelling – thinly sliced dried vegetables they carried.
† There was no other reference to the ‘college song’. It may have been The Melbourne Teachers College song at Melbourne University, where Richards studied.
‡ ‘Oatena’ is rolled oats.
Chapter 14
‘WE HAVE HAD THE CLOSEST OF CLOSE CALLS’
27 February 1916
IT WAS STILL a blizzard on the morning of 27 February and Joyce, Richards and Hayward were unable to get away from the Bluff depot. They could nothing but lie in their sleeping bags and wait. Hayward wrote diary notes but there was no reference to his fiancée.
Richards:
Wind hurricane force and heavy drift. Impossible to see anything. We are now all sitting on our bags waiting. Dogs and men could not face this even if a course could be steered. This is awful – held up here knowing that the three men are starving and worse deathly cold 10 or 12 miles back. This is the 10th day of the blizzard.
Our gums are swollen this morning, especially Haywood’s.* His knee he says is a bit better but he can hardly walk …1
Hayward:
After a short lift in the weather which occurred about 6 o/c pm yesterday eve – giving us cause to hope that we could carry out our intention of moving this morning as planned, – the wind again came very strong from the S.W. with drift starting approx at 10.30 pm.
We are very much disturbed to find that so far (10 o/c AM) it is a matter of physical impossibility to attempt to get under way the wind having abated nothing, if only we had to travel N we would have a cut at it but our return course would take us right into the teeth of it, & one can imagine what it would mean to travel into a cold wind of terrific force, with drift so thick as to prevent one seeing anything outside a radius of a few yds, even the dogs could not face it.
At the same time it is very distressing to have to remain here inactive realizing the serious condition of the party awaiting our return.2
Joyce:
Weather continued with fury the whole night, expecting every minute to have the tent blown off us. Up 5 o’clock found it so thick one could not get out of the tent.
We are still very weak but think we can do the 12 miles to our comrades in one long march. If only it would clear up for just one day we would not mind.
This is the longest blizzard I have ever been in that is to continue. We have not had a travelling day for 11 days + the amount of snow that has fallen is astonishing.3
Found the door of the tent blocked with snow. Had a hard job to get out. Could not see the dogs or sledges as they were completely buried under. Could only tell where the dogs lay by the round holes where they were breathing. After digging them out, made breakfast.
We are eating much better & one can feel themselves getting stronger. Turned in our bags again which is the only comfort we have, and they are wet through.4
27 February 1916
The dogs were crucial to their efforts to return and save the three other men, but they did not want to go back south. Richards thought that the dogs seemed to know instinctively they were going the wrong way and so they had to drive them north and slowly work them around to the south.5 They worked until late that night, then believing they were over halfway to the others.
Joyce:
Later had a meal 10-30 decided to get under way in spite of the wind + snow.
Under way 12 o’clock. We have three weeks’ food on sledge, about 160 lb., and one week’s dog-food, 50 lb. The whole weight, all told, about 600 lb., and also taking an extra sledge to bring back Mac.
To our surprise we could not shift the sledges. After half an hour we got about ten yards. We turned the sledge up and scraped runners; it went a little better after. I am afraid our weakness is much more than we think.
The dogs have lost all heart in pulling; they seem to think that going south again is no good to them; they seem to just jog along, and one cannot do more.6
Richards:
After heavy snow and wind this morning signs of a break appeared at 10am. Had a meal and commenced to get underway at noon or thereabout. Took a good deal of time in starting sledge. Heavy wind blowing and drift. Dogs have no heart. Sledge took half an hour to start, though very light. Cleaned runners and made it a bit easier. Dogs unsettled and two fights occurred before starting. We got them apart in time…7
Hayward:
To add to our troubles the dogs seem to have lost heart in their work and all the whipping possible making no impression on them. They do not like the idea of turning again when they imagined they were on the trail for home & food. For some reason or other they engaged in a pitched battle shortly after starting & we all three were absolutely exhausted when at last we were able to part them.
About 9 o/c pm clouds at Zenith rolled away, & moon showed itself & we were expecting weather to clear permanently but within a very short period it shut down again & commenced snowing terribly.
We were very pleased to be able to seize an opportunity of getting under way presented by weather lifting slightly at noon, the wind was still strong & colder.
We were badly disappointed to find that altho we had a light load comparatively it was as much as we could do to shift it & our progress was irritatingly slow; there is no disguising the fact that we are st
ill very weak.8
Joyce: ‘I don’t suppose our pace is more than ½ or ¾ of a mile per hour. The surface is rotten, snow up to one’s knees + what with wind and drift a very bad outlook. Lunched about 4.30.’9
At the day’s end Hayward was at the end of his tether:
We continued till 11 pm when it was quite impossible to steer through it & we were forced to camp & for my part I felt I could not have gone much further a feeling shared by my tent mates.
During the time we were travelling I should say we covered about 5½ miles.
Midnight. Wind has dropped & we intend to resume at 6 o/c AM.10
Richards:
The weather was again too thick to enable us to pick up our cairns and we had to steer in the same hit or miss fashion as on the trip to the depot.11
Worked until 11pm. One of the hardest days I have put in. Dogs have no heart for South journey now. When we camped too dark to steer. Weather dull but wind dropped.12
Joyce:
Hayward is in rather a bad way about his knees, which are giving him trouble and are very painful; we will give him a good massage when we camp. It was very dark making our dinner, but soon got through the process.
Then Richards spent an hour or so in rubbing Hayward with methylated spirits, which did him a world of good. If he were to break up now I should not know what to do. Turned in about 1.30. It is now calm, but overcast with light falling snow.13
Day Five for Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild
Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild now had very little food left and had nothing to write about as they lay in damp and sticky clothes inside their wet sleeping bags. Their sleeping bags froze if they were not lying inside them. During the day they spent most of their time toggled up inside their bags, with half-frozen fingers, listening to the ice crackling. Then drops of thawing ice would fall on their faces. At night it was dark and cold in the tent and as the night wore on the temperature would drop and they would start to shiver. A puddle of water would form underneath their body and it would be ice cold on top. They dozed off now and again but only for an hour or two at a time.14
Wild kept his sense of humour: ‘Little difference, it clears up a bit now & then.
We have just got a dishy feed left for tomorrow & then we shall have to take after that Yankee fasting man if the others don’t appear. My belly is singing “Rule Britannia” now.’15
Spencer-Smith:
Very fierce blizzard during night – eased a great deal during the day. Wild burrowed out thro’ great mass of drift at door.
Sexagesima. D.V. the others will be back some time tomorrow, as we are on our last bijou rations or thereabouts. Very cold and wet and weak but not dead yet by any means, thank God.16
28 February 1916
Joyce’s footwear was causing problems and Richards noticed that he now had symptoms of scurvy, but they travelled for three hours in the morning before the blizzard came on again. Richards then reckoned, by the number of hours they had marched, that they would be somewhere in the vicinity of the other camp, and that it would have been folly to proceed further. He remembered that they even shouted ‘in the remote hope that they could be nearby’. They stayed in their tent and looked out at intervals to see if anything could be seen.17 They knew the others must be nearby, but they could not see far.
Richards:
Under way at 9am. Rose at 6am. Three hours taken to get under way because of bad gear. I suspect we were pretty slow too, owing to our condition.
Joyce has finnesco with more hole than boot and yesterday suffered with snow filling up the finnesco. It was impossible to mend last night on account of lack of light.
I spent ¼ hour this morning and ½ hour last night rubbing Haywood down with meth. spirits. He says, and it seems too by his walking, that the rubbing did him a lot of good.
I am sorry to find that I have the dreaded black appearance on the back of my leg although up to the present it has given little trouble. I don’t know whether it’s scurvy or not but remembering that Smith, Skipper and Haywood each was affected there first it makes for unrest.18
Hayward adds: ‘Start unavoidably delayed by necessity of repairing our gear which is in a terrible condition. Joyce suffering a frost bitten foot yesterday on account of his finneskoe being full of holes.’19
And Joyce: ‘The reason of delay – had to mend finneskoe, which are in a very dilapidated condition. I got my feet badly frost-bitten yesterday.’20
Richards: ‘We worked from 9 until a little after noon. For a start it was dull but clear on horizon. At about 10.30am the outlook was thick everywhere and steering became difficult. We camped at about noon in midst of heavy snowstorm and moderate wind.’21
Hayward:
Worked three hours which should put us in the vicinity of Skippers tent.
It has been blowing hard & snowing heavily all the morning & camped in weather so thick as to preclude all idea of picking up any object further than a few yards away, we are therefore obliged to wait, keeping a look out for a break which might allow us to locate the party, who must be within a mile of us.22
Joyce: ‘I think the party must be within a very short distance, but we cannot go on as we might pass them, and as we have not got any position to go on except compass. Later: Kept on blizzarding all afternoon and night.’23
Richards was now apprehensive: ‘It is distressing to arrive here within reach and be prevented rendering aid on account of the thick weather. We can only sit still looking out at intervals of 10 minutes or so.
‘I fear what we may find on arriving.’24
As was Hayward:
It is impossible to describe ones feelings in this matter, here we are waiting to help these men & unable to do so, as the result of our good fortune of making the Bluff Depot, although under distressing conditions & yet unable to say in which direction they are camped from us even if the weather permitted us to travel, yet we are sure that it would take us no more than an hour or so to relieve them under conditions the slightest bit favourable.25
Richards:
7pm. Afternoon passed with no break in weather. Heavy snow and moderate wind. Can see nothing. Have shouted but no response.
We are standing by ready to start on the instant. I am watching the weather while Joyce and Hayward are trying to get a little sleep but with not much success.
I know I cannot sleep with the thought of these men starving and cold within perhaps a very short distance of help.
One keeps wondering how it will all end.26
The evening of 28 February 1916
In a long diary entry Richards recounted what had happened over the past few weeks. He was particularly struck by the break-down of Mackintosh but he lays the blame for their troubles with his Skipper.
Richards:
The pity of it is that Mackintosh did not realise the folly in passing 81S with Smith. I can see the two of them in my mind’s eye neither able to pull much and both walking as I have seen Hayward and as I fear I will be shortly do myself…
… Then the long march back towing Smith on the sledge. The obvious agony of the skipper during some of the long marches, the slackening of pace before 80. The hard gruelling from 80 onwards reducing us to 7 miles a day, and then the great blizzard. Until then I believe most of our party were unaware of the full extent to which our heavy season had affected us. But that lay up searched out our weaknesses – shortened wind – knocked Hayward and broke the Skipper up completely.
I have never been so profoundly impressed with a change in a man’s condition as that of the skipper after we struck camp on 23 Feb. His face was changed and he could scarcely walk and in a broken voice he said he would have to tie on to the sledge behind instead of pulling in the trace. We all had a struggle that afternoon – blinding drift and deep soft snow and we were weaker than ever. Then the Skipper’s collapse … He kept saying ‘Oh my hands are gone’ and then ‘I’m done’ ‘I’m done’ over and over again and ‘I don’t care what happens�
��. I tried to comfort him a little. Poor Wild I was sorry for. I don’t think he wanted to stay, but it was necessary to have one whole man to look after the two sick men. And so he stayed. And then our nightmare in making the depot – starved and through it all the blizzard never or practically never easing. And now we are here waiting for this nightmare to cease.
And this stems from the end of Mackintosh’s folly in going South when done himself and in the company of other done men.27
Richards concludes with an explanation as to why he made the notes: ‘I have written this down more to keep my mind occupied than anything else, putting on paper the thoughts passing through my mind. And now it’s too cold on the fingers so I’ll stop.’28
Mackintosh writes a ‘Farewell Letter’
28 February was the sixth day of waiting for Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild. They had little food left.
Spencer-Smith:
At the most two very scratch meals to come.
A flat calm at 8 p.m. last night continued until about midday today and then to our great disappointment everything became obscured and so no help arrived. But the Bar. is rising and we are not downhearted yet. God’s in His Heaven!’29
Wild: ‘Another day gone & also all the scraps. The weather was clear this morning but blizzarding again a bit now and beaten Scott’s record.† We have had an eleven day blizzard and are only nine miles from depot.’30
We have some insight to Mackintosh’s thoughts at this time. On this day, 28 February 1916, he wrote a long note, possibly fearing that he might soon die. He explained their plight, and that he was not 100 per cent confident that help would come. He attempts to exonerate himself from any blame, writing in positive terms on their efforts and in particular Wild’s behaviour. He acknowledges that he and Spencer-Smith succumbed to scurvy before the others, because of a lack of fresh food.