I am on the rear sledge now – a skittish little thing. Bad gripes. 1 gr. opium afternoon and evening.41
6 March 1916
On 6 March the six men were less than 40 miles from Hut Point. In the morning they picked up supplies from Cope’s No. 3 depot. It had taken them two hours to reach there, only a mile and a half from where they set off in the morning. Their progress after lunch was even worse. They had lunched at 12.30 and were under way at two o’clock but there was less of a wind, making it difficult for Joyce, Richards and Wild and their four dogs to haul three sick men on the sledges. Even with assistance from a gentle wind for part of the day they had managed only 8 miles, putting them around 30 miles from Hut Point by evening.
Joyce: ‘Going with a fair wind in the forenoon which eased somewhat after lunch which caused very heavy work in pulling. It seems to me I shall have to Depot someone if the wind eases at all.’42
7 March 1916
7 March was a difficult day, made up of a number of stages: from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. – four hours packing up camp; from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. – they travelled only one and a half miles; from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. – they camped for lunch where they then decided to dump one of the sledges and any unnecessary gear; from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. – over these six hours they only managed only another one and a half miles. At 8 p.m. they camped, having travelled approximately 3 miles for the entire day.
Joyce:
Although we turn out at 5 it seems a long time to get under way. There is double as much work to do now with our invalids.
This is the calmest day we have had for weeks. The sun is shining + all land in sight. It is very hard going. Had a little breeze about 11 o’clock, set sail, but work still very, very heavy.
Hayward and Skipper going on ahead with sticks, very slow pace, but it will buck them up and do them good. If one could only get some fresh food! 43
Hayward at lunch: ‘Anyhow we were forced to camp, having only trundled about 1½ M. At this camp we depoted everything possible including personal gear – 1 sledge, decreasing the load by perhaps 200 lb.’44
Then Hayward on their afternoon:
We were again under way by 1.30, the Skipper having gone on ahead. This new arrangement was not the success expected & going still very difficult, being … 2 men & dogs, on overtaking the Skipper he was whacked & was put on the sledge, this added weight proved too much.
It was plainly sure that unless our speed can be improved the result will be disastrous & the six of us will never get in.45
Joyce: ‘Distance about three and a half miles.’46
The evening of 7 March 1916
That evening they made the decision to leave Mackintosh. After their meal Joyce and Richards called Wild to their tent to discuss the situation. They knew they could not keep going and after talking it over Richards tells us he said: ‘Well, there’s only one thing to do, Smith’s almost at his last gasp, we’ve got to get in with him, we can’t get in as it is, we may not get in at all.’47 Spencer-Smith was weakening rapidly and Mackintosh was unable to walk, being on the sledge all the time, and Hayward most of the time. They had reached the stage where progress had become almost impossible if there was no following wind. If they did not quickly make Hut Point, Richards thought it ‘might be fatal’.48 They guessed that fate would now play its part.
Richards thought later, when speaking about this stage of their journey, that Mackintosh may have lost his capacity for clear thought at this time and was prepared to leave decisions to others. When Richards, Joyce and Wild decided that the correct thing to do was to leave him in the tent Mackintosh acquiesced without any complaining or comment at all. Richards was sure that he could see that if they did not do something they might all perish, even though they were close to Hut Point. The three fitter men thought that, at the time and in their judgement, the right thing to do was to try to get Spencer-Smith (and Hayward) to Hut Point as they felt that Spencer-Smith was near death. If they could get him to Hut Point they would save his life, because they believed that seal meat would quickly cure his scurvy.49
Hayward was now badly off his food and was eating only a little of his pemmican. His lips were discoloured and he was almost incapable of moving his legs.50 In his diary note that day he admitted that he was now of no value to the others – and he expressed his concern – what would his fiancée think of him?
Joyce:
After a consultation decided to Depot the Skipper + proceed in with Smith + Hayward + leave him with 3 weeks provisions + I told him when we camped what we proposed to do + I could not see any other way out it he said:
‘do anything you like with me Joyce’.
It may be blowing hard tomorrow as we can take him on further it seems hard only about 30 miles away + yet cannot get any assistance. Our gear is absolutely rotten, no sleep last night shivering all night in wet bags. I wonder what will be the outcome of it all after our struggle ‘Trust in Prove’.51
Hayward:
We camped & things were talked over & everybody naturally being anxious of finishing on what would best help matters to a safe conclusion.
It was decided that the Skipper remain here in camp & the rest of us push on with full speed as we are all more or less unwell at any time & further men needing Back up. In any case it is absolutely necessary that we get fresh food quickly & of course we hope that we may obtain assistance at Hut Pt.
Anyhow it’s a cinch that drastic measures are required for such a drastic position & this seems the best thing to be done.
Am now out of the team, my legs having become so swollen, stiff & painful as to make my pulling any weight in the trace impossible, in fact it is as much as I can do to keep up even with this slow pace.
I do not know what you will think of me, & I will not try to describe my feelings.52
Richards: ‘We are all rapidly going down with scurvy. Hayward particularly bad. Decided to depot Skipper here and march onto Hut Point and out again as soon as possible.’53
Wild: ‘We have decided to leave the Skipper here & struggle onto Hut Point with the other two & then come back for the Skipper. I think that’s the only way we can possibly do it.’54
Spencer-Smith’s diary – 7 March 1916
He started with a Many Happy Returns of the Day to ‘F’ – his sister Fredrica Ethel, who was born this day in 1875.55
He goes on to explain that the O.M. (Mackintosh) would be left here. H. (Hayward) and he would remain at H.P. (Hut Point) and the others would come back with seal-meat, and with C. (Cope) their doctor, who Spencer-Smith expected to be at Hut Point.
To F. M. H. R. O. T. D.
A bitterly cold night: bag frozen stiff in a bad position. Glorious weather but only for about 3 miles, as the wind dropped.
Decided to depot O.M. tomorrow and push on to H.P. with the invalids – Hayward’s legs are very bad now and even Wild has a touch in the teeth.
H. and I will be left at H.P. and the others will come back at top speed with seal-meat and C. and fetch the O.M. with whom we leave 3 weeks’ food.56
The six men were just 30 miles from Hut Point.
Notes
1. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
5. Hayward diary, 1 March 1916
6. Joyce field diary, 1 March 1916
7. Spencer-Smith diary, 1 March 1916
8. Hayward diary, 1 March 1916
9. Joyce field diary, 1 March 1916
10. Richards diary, 1 March 1916
11. Hayward diary, 1 March 1916
12. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
13. Richards letter to A. J. T. Fraser, 9 July 1961
14. Joyce field diary, 2 March 1916
15. Hayward diary, 2 March 1916
16. Richards diary, 2 March 1916
17. Joyce field diary, 2 March 1916
18. Spencer-Smith diary, 2 March 1916
19. Joyce
field diary, 2 March 1916
20. Wild diary, 3 March 1916
21. Richards diary, 3 March 1916
22. Spencer-Smith diary, 3 March 1916
23. Hayward diary, 3 March 1916
24. Joyce field diary, 3 March 1916
25. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
26. Richards, interview with P. Lathlean, 1976
27. Richards diary, 4 March 1916
28. Joyce field diary, 4 March 1916
29. Wild diary, 4 March 1916
30. Hayward diary, 4 March 1916
31. Spencer-Smith diary, 4 March 1916
32. Joyce field diary, 4 March 1916
33. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
34. Mackintosh diary, 2 March 1915
35. Ibid., 20 March 1915
36. Hayward diary, 8 March 1915
37. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
38. Hayward diary, 5 March 1916
39. Wild diary, 5 March 1916
40. Joyce field diary, 5 March 1916
41. Spencer-Smith diary, 5 March 1916
42. Joyce field diary, 6 March 1916
43. Ibid., 7 March 1916
44. Hayward diary, 7 March 1916
45. Ibid.
46. Joyce field diary, 7 March 1916
47. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
48. Richards, The Ross Sea Shore Party
49. Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
50. Cope Medical Report of the Ross Sea Base ITAE. January 1917
51. Joyce field diary, 7 March 1916
52. Hayward diary, 7 March 1916
53. Richards diary, 7 March 1916
54. Wild diary, 7 March 1916
55. Debby Horsman, great-niece of A. P. Spencer-Smith. Private papers
56. Spencer-Smith diary, 7 March 1916
* ‘Another depot’ was the Cope Number 3 depot. It was about 30 miles away, not 50.
Chapter 16
‘WEARY, WORN, AND SAD’
8 March 1916
IN THE MORNING of 8 March Mackintosh was left behind, 30 miles from Hut Point. Joyce, Richards and Wild, and the four dogs were then to haul the sledge with both Spencer-Smith and Hayward on board, although Hayward was hobbling along at times.
They pitched the conical tent over Mackintosh and set him up with provisions. In Richards’s memory he was comfortable there, quite willing to comply with the others and made no complaint or any comment. He thought Mackintosh seemed ‘a bit dull’, as though he didn’t seem to know what was happening.1
Spencer-Smith made no diary entry.
Richards clearly remembered the night of 8 March. They turned in at about 10.30 p.m., very cramped for space as there were five in a three-man tent. It was a terrible night; pitch dark and so cold that they all shivered violently the whole night through. Their sleeping bags were threadbare and filled with ice condensed in the fur.2 Mackintosh had written previously about the cold nights of March, how he ‘shivered most of the night’ and the ‘lower temperature caused the bags which were moist to freeze hard’. None of the men slept and spent the night ‘twisting and turning’. To Mackintosh: ‘sleep in these conditions is impossible’.3
Spencer-Smith said he had stomach pains, and he was bleeding from the bowels. They could see the blood seeping through his sleeping bag.4
Joyce: ‘Wished the Skipper goodbye. Took Smith + Hayward on. Had a fair wind, going pretty good. Hope to arrive in Hut Pt in 4 days. Lunched at Copes No. 2 depot. Did about 4½ miles.’5
Hayward:
5.30 pm. Blowing hard with drift. Fixed up Skipper in camp & got under way 10 o/c going difficult.
I manage to get along somehow but the pain in my legs is excruciating. We made No 2 depot at lunch & camped. After lunch going improved & we camped having travelled 9 M for day.6
Richards: ‘Marched approximately 8 miles. Haywood just staggering.’7
Wild wrote: ‘Very cold.’8
They camped 20 miles from Hut Point.
9 March 1916
Spencer-Smith died in the early morning. Even though he had taken some opium, Richards believed this was to relieve his stomach pains, not to take his own life. Richards remembered taking a vial of opium tablets out of Spencer-Smith’s vest pocket and saw that it was full except for four. Richards was sure he had not poisoned himself. He did not believe Spencer-Smith took enough tablets – four would not have hurt him even if he had taken them all that night.9
Richards wrote more on Spencer-Smith in his book The Ross Sea Shore Party. He tells us that from 29 January, until 8 March when he died, Spencer-Smith was on the sledge. They tried to do what they could to make life more comfortable for him and they were upset that they had not done more. Richards felt that the jolting of the sledge must have been almost unbearable at times. Now, within two days’ march of comparative safety, his loss seemed so tragic after what he had been through.10
Richards believed that Spencer-Smith had a high sense of duty and this led to him losing his life. He no doubt felt that the final depot just had to be made for Shackleton and he pushed himself to the limit to carry this out. Richards felt that a man with a lesser sense of obligation would have turned back earlier.11
They dug a grave and buried him. They had to roll his body (in his sleeping bag) to the grave dug in the snow as they were too weak to lift it. Hayward sat against the sledge with his back towards the operations refusing to look.12
Wild: ‘Woke up this morning and found poor Smith dead at 6am.’13
Joyce:
Had a very bad night, cold intense. Temperature down to -29 all night.
Smith was groaning + singing out practically the whole time as he was in pain with gripes for which he was taking opium. 4 o’clock AM he asked Wild the time + started laughing at him + asked him if he lost his bearings.14
Richards remembered that Spencer-Smith spoke to Wild in a jocular manner, as Wild got up from his sleeping bag to relieve himself, saying: ‘Have you lost your bearings Tubby?’15
Wild: ‘He asked me the time at 4 o’clock and spoke to Richards afterwards. It was very cold last night, that and all the hardships he has gone through did it.’16
Richards:
Smith died at about 5am. At about 4am he asked Wild the time (we were all unable to sleep owing to the extreme cold and iced conditions of the bags) and somewhere about 4.15 – 30 as I was up on my bag he said:
‘If your heart’s [behaving] funny what is the best thing to do, sit up or lie down?’
I said that I did not know but thought it best to lie still…17
Sometime later Richards looked across at Spencer-Smith. Joyce said Richards called out: ‘I think he has gone.’18
They thought he had been dead for some little time as ice had formed on his eyelashes and beard.19 Here’s Hayward: ‘On getting up we found that Smith had died during the night & we’re able to fix the time from various incidents at about 5 o/c AM.’20
Joyce:
Poor chap after being ill for 57 days. We left him at 83° for a week + carried him on the sledge for 40 days. He had a strenuous time in his wet bag + the jolting of the sledge on a very weak heart was not too good for him. Sometimes when we lifted him on the sledge he would nearly faint, but during the whole time he never complained.
Wild looked after him from the start.21
Wild:
We had carried him for 40 days & he was laid up for a week before that, so he was very weak & his bag was wet through (as was all of ours) & that made him colder. He was complaining about the cold during the night but we couldn’t do anything.22
Richards:
… All night he had been restless but he expressly told us not to take notice of him the night previously. He had been suffering from pains in the stomach for some days and he took say 10 tablets of opium all told … The night before he died he had a severe attack and took 4 tablets.
We have pulled him helpless for 40 days over a distance of 300 miles. He has
been laid up for 47 days and complained some 10 days previously. He should never have been allowed to go beyond 81S.23
Joyce: ‘We buried him in his bag at 9 o’clock at the following position: Ereb. 184 – Obs. Hill 149 Dis 93. We made a cross of bamboos + built a mound + cairn, with particulars.’24
Richards: ‘Bearings Erebus 184°, Observation Hill 149°, Mt Discovery 93°.’25
Hayward: ‘We buried him at 9 o/c erecting a cairn & cross. It was bitterly cold in the night, & this combined with his weak condition was no doubt the cause of death.’26
And Wild, a day later, wrote: ‘We buried Smithy as reverently as possible at 9am, yesterday. We built a cairn over him, & put a rough cross made of two bamboos. It’s a great pity, him dying within 20 miles of Hut Point.’27
(A January 1917 medical report by Cope stated: ‘Spencer-Smith’s death. Although he was in such good spirits and so near safety, his death was due to the effects of scurvy reaching his heart, an almost invariable effect in prolonged cases. But it is also possible that his previous heart trouble may have made this organ liable to an early attack. Another factor which aggravated his case was that he took opium to send him to sleep.’28)
A sad party heads for Hut Point, only 20 miles away
Their mood of the four men was understandably sombre as they set off for Hut Point without Spencer-Smith, and with Mackintosh out on the Barrier on his own. If the dogs were in good spirits there would have been a joyous clamour of welcome as the men arose for the day but they too were tired. On the march the men saw the lack of effort from the dogs by their low-carried heads and trailing tails, showing an utter weariness of life.
Typically Joyce was out in front for the day’s march, with the harness slung over his shoulder, bent forward with the whole weight of the trace. Now and again he would raise and half turn his head to cheer on the others. That night there was little joy in their diaries.
Shackleton's Heroes Page 31
