Shackleton's Heroes (11 page)
Read Shackleton's Heroes Online
Authors: Wilson McOrist
Mackintosh:
10 Mar: Just prior to starting Joyce had a look thro glasses and was fortunate in spotting the flag he laid on the outward journey when the stores had been depoted. We are now going to fetch in this load taking a light sledge. After a hard 4 hours pull over a rough surface we got to the depot flag and found it and the cairn intact.
We loaded the sledge with the stores and proceeded back to our tent which by now was of course out of sight â indeed it was not wise to come out as we have without tent or bag but we have taken that chance and the weather promised fine, yet that is no criterion in these parts.
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(The last paragraph by Mackintosh is significant. It shows that he knew about the fickle weather, how it could change quickly, and how foolish it would be to go out at any stage without a tent and sleeping bag. Twelve months later, Mackintosh (with Hayward) would attempt to trek from Hut Point to Cape Evans, without a tent or sleeping bags.)
12 Mar: We use our bodies for drying socks and such-like clothing, which we place inside our jerseys and produce when required. Wild carries a regular wardrobe in this position, and it is amusing to see him searching round the back of his clothes for a pair of socks.
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13 Mar: Wild slept like a top; he is a remarkable little fellow, always merry & bright; as soon as he lays down he starts snoring, he has been reading a book in which there has been 3 murders and he expects several more.
Have just dreamt I was strolling about outside when a paperboy came rushing to tell me to say Erebus was in eruption 1,000 lives lost. Smoke was coming out of Castle Rock! I woke to find myself in this wet clothing and dampness all round.
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14 Mar: All our clothes have a dampness about them which as we get out in the air freeze hard. I won't be sorry when this trip is over. Turned out of the bag while having our hoosh we found on our return a stiff hard board. In it we had to get however, the hard lid was placed over our head, on top of which we wear our caps, at first nothing occurs., in a little time lumps of ice fall on you as the breath may thaw some off, this you place at one side or perhaps let it thaw into water and so absorb into one's clothes.
In this state we lie twisting and turning, during the morning as the temperature gets lower we find the whole bag frozen again. Then you find one or other of us groaning and cussing trying to bring back a frozen toe or rub some part of the body that has been cooled.
After a long while in bags and missing a meal makes a tremendous difference to the attack of the cold. I have always noticed that after I have been in the bag for 8 hours; first my feet show signs of cold and gradually work upward so for me after 8 hours (in a sleeping bag) food is required.
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Joyce:
12 Mar: Mack never ought to have left the ship, his eye is very painful. Blizzarding. Wild's feet in bad condition. One big blister + badly frostbitten brought them around with my warm hands. Later I suffered with the same complaint. Our circulation must be at a very low ebb for frost bites to occur in our sleeping bags.
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14 Mar: Wild in agony with frostbites, difficulty treking on hard ice with raw feet.
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15 Mar: Another heartbreaking night. The temp down below 50°-. Heard Mack groaning during the night. I emerged from my sleeping bag to find him in agony with toothache. In the medical case there was naught to ease him.
My thoughts could only think of methylated spirits a bottle of which we kept for starting the Primmus. This I passed to him together with cotton wool. During the evolution
â
of putting the spirit on the cotton wool his fingers went.
He placed the cotton wool on the tooth, a second elapsed + then a yell. The sound of which must have penetrated to Cape Evans. The toothache was cured, the inside of the mouth raw. The temp of the spirit was the same temperature as the air 82 deg of frost
â¡
it had the same effect as boiling liquid.
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Mackintosh:
15 Mar: Last night was one of the worst I have ever experienced. To cap everything, I developed toothache, presumably as a result of frost-bitten cheek. I was in positive agony. I groaned and moaned, got the medicine-chest, but could find nothing there to stop the pain.
Joyce, who had wakened up, suggested methylated spirit, so I damped some cotton-wool, then placed it in the tooth, with the result that I burnt the inside of my mouth. All this time my fingers, being exposed (it must have been at least 50 deg. below zero), were continually having to be brought back.
After putting on the methylated spirit I went back to the bag, which, of course, was frozen stiff. I wriggled and moaned till morning brought relief by enabling me to turn out.
I swear this place, once I return home, will never see me again! The skin has peeled off the inside of my mouth, exposing a raw sore, as the result of the methylated spirit. My tooth is better though.
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On 15 March they reached the Minna Bluff depot, about 70 miles from Hut Point. To Joyce the trek from 80°S to the Bluff depot had been an âabominable long struggle'.
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Mackintosh often recorded details of the temperature, wind and other readings and his notes for 15 March are shown below.
Their next target would be the Safety Camp depot, near the edge of the Barrier, approximately 50 miles to the north of the Minna Bluff depot, and
only 20 miles from Hut Point. The three men left the Minna Bluff depot on 16 March and slowly edged their way north.
Joyce:
Our progress ominously slow. For Wild each step a ball of fire.
Our food bag dangerously light. We are on half rations. No sleep + we are on the verge of extreme exhaustion. After a day's hard march our dinner consisted of half a cup of pemmican + a biscuit. Our human machine is truly wonderful in supporting us in our task.
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Mackintosh:
After lunch we travelled well, but the distance for the day was only 7 miles 400 yds. We are blaming our sledge-meter for the slow rate of progress. It is extraordinary that on the days when we consider we are making good speed we do no more than on days when we have a tussle.
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8pm: Readings. Ane 29.62.
§
Ther (sling) +2.
¶
Wind nil. Wisps of whaleback clouds over Castle Rock.
||
Cum banked to North about Cape Crozier,
**
light strands of cir s to south.
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Mackintosh:
All of us bear marks of our tramp. Wild takes first place. His nose is a picture for Punch to be jealous of; his ears, too, are sore, and one big toe is a black sore. Joyce has a good nose and many minor sores. My jaw is swollen from the frost-bite I got on the cheek, and I also have a bit of noseâ¦
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(Wild's frostbitten big toe had to be amputated a month later.)
Very snappy breeze in face during march. Our beards and moustaches are a mass of ice. I will take care I am clean-shaven next time I come out. The frozen moustache makes the lobes of the nose freeze more easily than they would if there was no ice alongside them.
What on earth one comes to these parts of the earth? I ask myself â is it worth the candle?
â¡â¡
Here we are frostbitten in the day, frozen at nights, no sleep, what a life!
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Mackintosh: âThis morning's hoosh (or what was supposed to be) we demurely asked if it was tea? It certainly was no thicker.'
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(One of the worst calamities for one of the men was when they dropped their hoosh, which occasionally happened when it was being served out from the cooker pot. To the man whose meal was spilt it was a catastrophe, that would, in their words, rank with âthe fall of the British Empire'. When it happened everything was scraped up off the floor cloth; a mix of pemmican, crumbs and finneskoe reindeer hairs. The heat of the meal was immediately lost and the flavour never improved.
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)
On 23 March a blizzard again stopped their slow progress north.
Mackintosh:
No sooner had we camped last night than a blizzard with drift came on and has continued ever since. This morning finds us prisoners. The drift is lashing into the sides of the tent and everything outside is obscured. This weather is rather alarming, for if it continues we are in a bad way.
We have just had a meal, cocoa mixed with biscuit crumbs; this has warmed us a little, but the cold on empty stomachs is penetrating.
All kinds of gloomy thoughts come to one lying in bag. How one longs to be out of this infernal region â the dear ones at home what are they doing? After this meal we have a sing-song which has cheered us up. But food is our one thought, what will we eat when we get back? Even dog biscuits now would be a luxury.
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Joyce: âOur food biscuit crumbs + cocoa. The temp well below 50.'
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However, the next day, 24 March, the blizzard stopped and they managed to reach the Safety Camp depot where Wild ran into more problems.
After leaving the depot they went onto the edge of the Great Ice Barrier but the final step, from the edge of the Barrier to Hut Point, was not straightforward. The direct route was across sea-ice but if the ice was not strong they would have to take a longer and more circuitous route around the edge of the Barrier. This would involve climbing up pressure ridges and ice cliffs and camping for one or two nights. Unfortunately they could not take the direct route.
Mackintosh:
We have some biscuit-crumbs in the bag and that is all. Our start was made under most bitter circumstances, all of us being attacked by frost-bites. It was an effort to bare hands for an instant. After much rubbing and âbringing back' of extremities we started. Wild is a mass of bites, and we are all in a bad way.
We plugged on, but warmth would not come into our bodies. We had been pulling about two hours when Joyce's smart eyes picked up a flag. We shoved on for all
we were worth, and as we got closer, sure enough, the cases of provisions loomed up. Then what feeds we promised to give ourselves.
While Wild was getting the Primus lighted he called out to us that he believed his ear had gone. This was the last piece of his face left whole â nose, cheeks, and neck all having bites. I went into the tent and had a look. The ear was a pale green. I quickly put the palm of my hand to it and brought it round.
Then his fingers went, and to stop this and bring back the circulation he put them over the lighted Primus, a terrible thing to do. As a result he was in agony.
It was not long before we were putting our gastronomic capabilities to the test. Pemmican was brought down from the depot, with oatmeal to thicken it, as well as sugar. We felt like new beings. We simply ate till we were full, mug after mug.
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Joyce:
At the physiological moment Provi.
§§
gave us a chance.
The 1st mug of pemmican had the machine pumping the blood through our veins the 2nd we began to feel the thrill of warmth. It was essential to be cautious in regard to the amount of food we consumed after starvation diet. Still a starving man has little conscience when the cross roads meet.
After our meal, a banquet to us, we got under weigh with the sufficiencies of the glories of the Great Ice Barrier for a time.
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Mackintosh:
When we got to the Barrier-edge we found the ice-cliff on to the newly formed seaice not safe enough to bear us, so we had to make a detour along the Barrier-edge and, if the sea-ice was not negotiable, find a way up by Castle Rock.
At 7 p.m., not having found any suitable place to descend to the sea-ice we camped. To-night we have the Primus going and warming our frozen selves. I hope to make Hut Point to-morrow.
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A day out from the hut, Joyce jotted down a Browning poem, âBy the Fire-Side':
The little more + how much it is
The little less + how far away â Br.
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Meanwhile, while Mackintosh, Joyce and Wild were out on the Barrier, Richards and Hayward, with Cope, Ninnis, Jack and Hooke, had been laying depots closer to Hut Point. (Stevens had returned to Hut Point with Spencer-Smith and Jack had taken his place.)
Richards wrote in later years that the loads were far too heavy and in his opinion Cope was the last man in the world to be in charge. He tells us that he regarded this particular part of his experience in Antarctica as a good comic opera, but he does admit that they learnt a good deal from it.
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Hayward, Richards and Ninnis were critical and mocking of the other three-man team â of Cope, Jack and Hooke. They even wrote their own âpoem' at one stage, when complaining about the speed and efforts of the others. Hayward called it a âlittle ditty' entitled âWhat the Hell' and the first few lines are shown below.
Hayward:
Myself supported by Richards, Ninnis, raised a protest on the slow progress we are making, due to the way the other three potter about, having spells for breathers & ânibbles'. Last night for instance we spent an hour & a half over the midday meal & consequently had to march well over routine.
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Hayward: âEventually the 2nd sledge was hauled up to the first & by this time 2 of the other party nicknamed Tanglefoot owing to his acrobatic feats to retain his equilibrium for Skis & Sparrow Knees owing to the decided affection his knees show for one another, were walloped.'
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