From Ice Floes to Battlefields

by Anne Strathie

  Pennell, meanwhile, was considering the allocation of duties amongst his Terra Nova ‘afterguard’.20 Williams and Cheetham would now be short of several hands each, so Rennick would take every third watch in addition to carrying out his regular soundings. Expedition secretary Francis Drake would deal with his customary paperwork, serve as meteorologist, keep ice logs, tally provisions, act as postmaster and take photographs as and when required. On the scientific front, Lillie would take and analyse specimen dredgings, keep a tally of whale species and ‘lend a hand’ as required. Bruce would, in addition to sailing duties, maintain the overall zoological log and keep the fair copy of the survey book. Pennell knew from his experience of working on the zoological log with Wilson on the southern voyage, that this record was somewhat a collegiate effort, with final entries only agreed following heated debates as to whether, for example, ‘a whale was Sibbaldii or Australis, etc., when one & all have learned the little knowledge they possess from Lillie’.

  Campbell returned from Cape Evans, where he had left his note about Amundsen to be given to their leader when he returned from the ice shelf. Campbell and his party would now sail north with Pennell until a suitable location for investigation and over-wintering could be identified.

  On 9 February 1911 the Terra Nova headed out of McMurdo Sound in thick snow. Gale-force winds and newly formed ice floes hampered their progress but eventually they made it through to Cape Adare, which Campbell regarded as a possible suitable site. Priestley and others were aware that Mawson had already declared his intention of exploring the area but, with coal stocks shrinking and the sea showing signs of freezing over, Campbell knew that, if he did not land immediately, he and his party might have to return to New Zealand with the ship.

  As Campbell and his men prepared to land, Pennell caught up with his journal.21 He had found it hard to say farewell to Atkinson and others who had become friends on the voyage south. Pennell had, he felt, taken longer than he should have to realise that Levick’s somewhat slow demeanour concealed an excellent mind. Pennell’s main concern regarding the Cape Evans’ party was that Teddy Evans was still getting ‘ruffled at small things’ with Scott, which suggested that tensions might arise during long sledge journeys ‘when everyone’s temper gets up a bit!’ Pennell was aware that Scott had never really forgiven Shackleton after a quarrel during the Discovery expedition’s southern journey but that Wilson usually managed to keep the peace and Atkinson and others would try to keep out of any rows.

  As to who would reach the South Pole first, Pennell considered Scott to be ‘a certainty’. Amundsen he thought was a ‘likely runner’ who, if his skiers and dogs did not let him down, could reach the Pole a few weeks ahead of Scott. But Pennell felt that, even if Scott was second to the Pole, his expedition would still have considerably greater overall value, particularly given Amundsen’s behaviour, which Pennell felt had not been ‘entirely straightforward’.

  On 20 February 1911, with Campbell and his party safely ashore, Pennell gave orders to set sail. He agreed with Campbell that he would, ice permitting, return in January 1912 and move what was now the Northern Party to another location which they could explore before returning to Cape Evans. Should Pennell return and find Cape Adare cut off by ice, Campbell and his party would make their way back to Cape Evans overland.

  During the first day of Pennell’s first command the Terra Nova almost ran into an iceberg in thick fog, but swift thinking and hard work by Cheetham and his men brought the ship round in the nick of time.22 The following day, as they headed west, Bruce called out from the bridge that he could see uncharted land. By nightfall ‘Oates Land’, ‘Mount Bruce’, ‘Bowers Mountains’, and glaciers named for Rennick, Lillie and Dennistoun had been marked on the ship’s charts. As the ship entered ‘the home or mortuary of icebergs’, even Pennell’s sharp eyes were fooled into believing that a collection of weathered icebergs was ‘an archipelago of snow covered islands’.23

  Whenever it appeared that the Terra Nova might become frozen in, Bruce would muster all spare hands on deck to ‘rock ship’, a process which involved men dashing in unison across the deck until the ship’s hull swung like a pendulum. As longer nights and daytime blizzards limited their sailing hours, Lillie would pass the time by helping with coal trimming.24 Pennell, who suspected that the sea might freeze over completely sooner rather than later, tried to ride a northerly swell out of the pack. His manoeuvre failed but he enjoyed watching whales at close quarters:25

  rorquals close alongside the ship … have to thrust their noses up vertically & blow in a sort of standing-on-their-tails position. All day we have been watching them, photos taken & the men have amused themselves at times by pelting them with coal ashes or other little missiles. Several times one rested its head on a floe … The grooves on their throats were plainly seen, & one sometimes even saw their ‘moustaches’ … we have passed an exceptional number of seals … it appears to be their courting season, for they go through the most extraordinary movements without any apparent reason except … showing off.

  On 9 March, over seven weeks after leaving Cape Evans, the Terra Nova finally emerged from the pack. Pennell hoped for fair winds to New Zealand but found himself faced with a combination of inky-dark nights, ferocious gales, scattered icebergs and high seas. As the ship bobbed like a cork and water leaked in, everyone’s skills and nerves were tested, but by 21 March the storm had abated and they had not seen an iceberg for a week.

  Suddenly and unexpectedly, after the barometer had plummeted ‘into its boots’, they found themselves in a Force 9 squall. As massive waves pounded the ship and swamped the decks, the ageing pumps once again clogged up with a mixture of salt water and coal-dust:26

  Mr Williams … had to lie flat on the boiler room plates & when the ship rolled to Starboard, stretch right down, with his head below the plates & clear as much coal away from the suction as possible; this often meant that the water surged back before he could get his head out, and there can be few nastier liquids to be ducked in than that very dirty bilge water.

  On 28 March 1911, almost five weeks after leaving Campbell’s party, the Terra Nova arrived at Stewart Island, 20 miles off the southern tip of New Zealand. Pennell and Drake went ashore and sent cables to Joseph Kinsey in Christchurch and to Central News Agency in London (who had purchased exclusive rights to Scott’s expedition reports). When they returned Pennell and Drake reminded everyone aboard not to speak to anyone (particularly newspaper reporters) until reports on the expedition based on the cable to Central News Agency had appeared in New Zealand newspapers.

  Pennell could now take time to consider his first voyage as captain and how his crew had performed:

  our N.Z. men have proved themselves real seamen … The E.R. [Engine Room] department are not one jot behind the U.D. [Upper Deck] party. The afterguard have turned up on every occasion to lend a hand … Lillie has taken his [turn] on the pumps & on deck. Drake ha[s] taken over all the writing and meteorological observations … Bruce & Rennick have been perfect treasures … Mr Cheetham makes an ideal watchkeeper always alert & on the lookout & absolutely reliable & what is more loves the ship for her fine qualities & watches over her as boatswain with the greatest care … We all say that [steward] Archer ought to take on the motto … ‘while she swims I’ll cook’ … he has never been defeated …27

  By the time the Terra Nova docked at Lyttelton the Christchurch Press and other newspapers were running reports on the expedition based on Central News Agency’s cables from London. Although the main focus of interest was on the progress of Scott and the landing party, Pennell’s account of the return voyage and encounter with Amundsen’s party also appeared to be newsworthy.

  There was also news of other Antarctic expeditions.28 Mawson, who was in London fundraising for his expedition, was reported to be unhappy that Campbell would be exploring Cape Adare before he could do so. Shirase had passed through Wellington in early February and was on his way to the Ross Sea. Filchner,
who could only claim the Pole for Germany if both Scott and Amundsen failed this season, would be working around the Weddell Sea until he knew the position regarding the Pole. Kinsey and Pennell, when asked by reporters what effect Amundsen’s presence would have on Scott’s plans, responded that everything would proceed as previously announced.29

  Pennell arranged for the Terra Nova to go into dry dock for repairs, gave everyone a period of shore leave and began finalising arrangements for the surveying and sounding work which Scott hoped might be commissioned by New Zealand’s maritime authorities.30 Pennell gratefully accepted the hospitality of the Kinseys (in Christchurch) and of the Dennistouns, friends of Kinsey, who invited him to spend weekends at their farm station at Peel Forest, near Timaru, south of Christchurch. He was pleased to be invited back since, on an earlier visit, his borrowed horse had kicked out and broken the leg of George Dennistoun, his hosts’ elder son. Dr Hugh Acland, whom Pennell had recently met in Christchurch, also invited him to spend a weekend at his family’s estate at Mount Peel, which was close (in farm station terms) to Peel Forest.31

  By 9 July, after Pennell had agreed everything with the maritime authorities, a spick and span Terra Nova set sail for Three Kings Islands, off the tip of North Island.32 The islands, a recognised shipping hazard which lacked a lighthouse or fog warning system, had never been fully surveyed and mariners claimed that (as confirmed by a recent preliminary survey) official charts were inaccurate.

  Rennick knew Three Kings Islands well. Ten years previously, when serving on HMS Penguin, he had been near them and spotted a life-raft with eight thirsty, starving, sun-burned people aboard. Once rescued, they explained that they were survivors from the SS Elingamite. Their ship had run into fog-shrouded cliffs at Three Kings Islands several days previously and sunk with the loss, they believed, of almost fifty crew and passengers.33 At the subsequent enquiry Ernest Attwood, the Elingamite’s English-born captain, had been found guilty of ‘reckless navigation’ and stripped of his master’s certificate, despite his protestations regarding the accuracy (or lack thereof) of the charts with which he had been issued.

  For ten weeks Rennick, working with helpers, took hundreds of measurements on, around and between the Three Kings Islands. When the Terra Nova returned to Lyttelton he plotted his soundings and distances on a fresh chart showing the dimensions of the islands and their positions in relation to each other and the coast. After he had submitted his chart to the British and New Zealand maritime authorities it was used at a new hearing on the wrecking of the Elingamite. Ten years after his ship had gone down Captain Attwood’s name was cleared and his captain’s certificate was reissued to him.

  As he prepared to leave Lyttelton, Pennell bought newspapers so that Scott and the others could read about the outside world and other expeditions. The Fram had already left her winter quarters in Buenos Aires, bound for the Ross Sea, from where, according to the newspapers, she would bring Amundsen back to either Stewart Island or Lyttelton. Filchner was in the Weddell Sea, carrying out scientific work. Shirase had left Sydney on 19 November, heading for King Edward VII Land; before leaving he had presented a samurai sword to Professor Edgeworth David (under whom Taylor, Debenham and Mawson had studied) as a sign of gratitude for his support for their endeavours. On 2 December Mawson left Hobart in the Aurora; he was now planning to chart and explore the coast between Kaiser Wilhelm II Land and Cape Adare.34

  On 15 December 1911 Harry Pennell gave orders for the Terra Nova to cast off from Lyttelton harbour. All being well, and ice permitting, he and his shipmates would soon have news of their own expedition’s progress.

  Notes

  Information on Pennell’s early naval career is from sources including David Pennell (Pennell’s great-nephew), Pennell’s journals, ‘Harry Pennell: Scott’s Navigator’ and ‘From the South Pole to Jutland’ (articles by Chris Bingham).

  1. MS433, 2 August 1909.

  2. MS433, 3 and 23 June 1910.

  3. Wright, 1993, p. 27.

  4. MS433, 23 June 1910 (a long entry written during a stop in Madeira).

  5. MS433, 2 October 1910.

  6. MS433, 29 November 1910.

  7. MS433, 2 October 1910.

  8. MS433, 26 October 1910.

  9. MS433, 27 December 1910 and 14 April 1911.

  10. The incident relating to Rennick was mentioned by Frank Debenham in The Times, 26 November 1960.

  11. In the Southern Ocean, the ‘Roaring Forties’ are followed (when sailing south) by the ‘Furious Fifties’, ‘Screaming (or Shrieking) Sixties’ and ‘Silent Seventies’.

  12. MS433, 26 October 1910.

  13. MS433, 6 July 1910.

  14. Bruce, 1932, p. 6.

  15. MS433, 2 October 1910; Strathie, p. 82.

  16. There are references to Rennick and the pianola in Scott, Journals, entry of 20 January 1911, p. 99, Ponting, The Great White South, pp. 23, 129–30, Evans, South with Scott, pp. 77–8, and Taylor, pp. 233ff., and on www.pianola.org.

  17. MS107, 30 January 1911.

  18. The Bay of Whales was discovered and named by Shackleton during the Nimrod expedition.

  19. MS107, 3–4 February 1911.

  20. MS107, 8 February 1911.

  21. MS433, 13 February 1911.

  22. MS107 (21–22 February 1911); ‘The Voyages of the Terra Nova’ report (22 February 1911) in Scott, Scott’s Last Expedition, Vol. II, p. 361; Bruce, Reminiscences of the Terra Nova in the Antarctic.

  23. MS107, 25–26 February 1911.

  24. MS107, 28 February–1 March 1911. Coal trimming involves moving the coal around so it does not cause the ship to list but is ready for use in the engine rooms.

  25. MS107, 3 March 1911.

  26. MS107, 28 March 1911, Pennell’s final journal entry covering that voyage.

  27. ‘While she swims I’ll cook’ refers to an expression used by Podmore, the cook on Joseph Conrad’s fictional ship Narcissus.

  28. This and subsequent information on the expeditions of Filchner and Mawson are from Turney, 1912: The Year the World Discovered Antarctica and contemporary newspaper reports.

  29. Evening Post (Christchurch), 29 March 1911 and other newspapers.

  30. MS107, 9 July to 10 October 1911 covers this period.

  31. MS433, 11 July 1911.

  32. The islands were discovered and named in January 1643 by Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, 3 weeks after he became the first known European to see New Zealand.

  33. The wreck of the Elingamite and its aftermath were extensively reported in New Zealand newspapers.

  34. The Aurora, like the Discovery and Terra Nova, was built in Dundee.

  2

  Battling Through the Pack

  As Harry Pennell embarked on his second voyage as captain of the Terra Nova he restarted his ‘official’ captain’s journal.1 George Wyatt, the expedition’s London agent, had performed ‘wonders’ and, despite strikes in Britain and Australia, everything had arrived in Lyttelton in time. There had been several changes of local crew, something Pennell had expected to have to deal with; he had also managed to dissuade John Mather, a promising young RNVR seaman, from leaving to join Mawson’s expedition.

  There would also be a new addition to Pennell’s afterguard. Jim Dennistoun, the younger son of Pennell’s Peel Forest hosts, would act as ‘general caretaker of the animals’, looking after mules (to replace deceased ponies) and sledge-dogs, which Scott had requisitioned for the coming season’s work.2 Pennell had written to Dennistoun explaining that there would be no remuneration and that, although food, ski-boots and mittens would be provided, Jim would need to bring with him certain items of clothing:

  plenty of head gear … merino drawers and flannel vests … sweaters, etc., and a good supply of socks … gumboots, oilskin and sou’wester … boots and slippers, or whatever foot-gear you fancy … a good supply of neckerchiefs … [or] strips of flannel stuff … a greatcoat of any age and shabbiness …

  Scott had given Pennell his orders f
or this voyage almost a year ago:3

  1. Pick up Campbell and party about January 1 [1912] at Cape Adare.

  2. Re-land them in the vicinity of Woods Bay.

  3. Relieve the geological party [led by Taylor] at about 15 January at Granite Harbour.

  4. Land mules, dogs, stores, &c., at Cape Evans.4

  5. Lay out various depôts according to the orders to be received at the Hut, in readiness for the next season’s work.

  6. Consistently with carrying out the above, make biological collections, sound, and carry out other scientific work to as large an extent as possible.

  During the first leg of the voyage the weather was fine and calm, which allowed Dennistoun and Lillie to exercise the animals and Rennick to rescue the ship’s cat, after it had jumped overboard during an altercation with a sledge-dog.5 The animal had been sodden and shivering when brought back on board but a stiff dose of brandy and snooze in the warm engine room worked wonders.

  On Christmas Day 1911, the first iceberg of the voyage drifted past the Terra Nova. Two days later, Pennell and his companions were just north of the Antarctic Circle and in the pack ice, but by New Year’s Day 1912 they were back in clear water.6 They encountered more ice floes on the approach to Cape Adare but Campbell, Priestley, Levick, Abbott, Browning and Dickason were soon aboard, ‘safe & sound, all in perfect health & spirits’. Campbell and Pennell agreed that Evans Cove (named by Shackleton for his Nimrod captain) in Terra Nova Bay would be a good base for the Northern Party’s second, shorter geological campaign.

  On 8 January 1912, after landing Campbell, Priestley, Levick, Abbott, Browning and Dickason with their equipment and over a month’s provisions, Pennell agreed that he would (ice permitting) return and take them back to Cape Evans before he set sail for New Zealand.7