Shackleton's Heroes (20 page)
Read Shackleton's Heroes Online
Authors: Wilson McOrist
The final phase then began for Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild â they left the Bluff depot heading for Mount Hope. That day an unusual event occurred.
Spencer-Smith: âThe Christmas Holidays are over and we are on the road again â Southward Ho! A heavy load â an indifferent surface â a cross wind â 6¾ hours work, distance 4 miles 1828 yards only â graft.'
74
Wild:
A wonderful thing happened this morning. A skua gull
¶¶¶
came flying over us and settled in the snow. The Skipper and I got a large bamboo pole each and went for it and most wonderful of all I caught it with a clout when it flew over my head. I fell over myself and knocked the gull over too.
We have plucked, trussed and washed it and going to try it for dinner tomorrow.
75
Spencer-Smith gave a fuller description:
At about 11am the O.M suddenly shouted. We looked up and saw a skua gull close by us, about 7 feet in the air. It had probably dropped from the blue on seeing us black specks below and hoping for the best.
The Skipper outflanked him in the east armed with a flagpole: Wild in the west, with another bamboo. The bird rose. W struck; fell over but stunned the poor bird.
Soon dispatched, plucked and drawn by the O.M. It is now hanging (in bits in a bag) high up on the long bamboo. We hope to eat this tomorrow: anti-scorbs.
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76
Wild:
As we couldn't travel we cooked our Xmas Turkey, ie: skua gull and it was A1. I boiled it for 3 hours and then fried it in pemmican fat and it was as tender as a chicken. We had a little dried onions with it, & six raison each for dessert.
77
Spencer-Smith was not as complimentary:
At 2.30 pm Wild started to cook the skua. It was stewed for 3 hours with a little pemmican (old) and onions and then fried in pemmican fat and served with thin hoosh. Very fat and bilious but none the less nice. Topped off with rich cocoa and a few raisons.
78
Wild:
Last night we heard a row outside & on looking out we saw a skua walking about. The Skipper & I immediately gave chase, with a boot & flagpole each. However it was too artful & wouldn't let us get near enough to bang it & at last it flew away to the Bluff.
79
Spencer-Smith: âAnother skua came pecking around the tent after we had turned in: it tried to carry off one of the Skipper's sandals. The other two sallied out to slay, but failed.
âThe other party is in sight.'
80
On their Christmas Day, Joyce, Hayward, Richards, Cope, Gaze and Jack were camped only a few miles short, that is, to the north, of Minna Bluff. In contrast to Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild's Christmas Day of
cigars, a sing-along, and a âglut' of food, Joyce's diary entry for Christmas Day mentioned no such luxuries, only the basic facts of a day's hard hauling.
Joyce:
Glorious Xmas. Under way 7.45. SW wind + drift very heavy going sometimes sinking up to your knees. Wondering how are all friends. Very sorry cannot drink to their health.
Would give anything for a smoke â when one is on the march no one speaking then you think of these things. Camped as usual.
Dist 8¾ miles. About 5 miles off Depot.
81
On 29 December Joyce's party could see a myriad of black objects spread over the white snow and they had no idea what they were, until they came up to them and found the area littered with feathers. They guessed that Mackintosh's party had killed a skua.
82
Joyce: âDec 29: Captain about 1½ miles ahead.'
83
Meeting the others gave Joyce an opportunity to have a smoke (using tea leaves as tobacco) with âErn' (Ernest Wild) and to also come to an agreement with Mackintosh as to who should push on to Mount Hope. It is not clear from Joyce's diary but presumably the two men agreed at this time that some of Joyce's party would continue on to Mount Hope.
In his last diary entry of the year, Joyce atypically included a number of personal comments.
Wild: âThe others caught us up when we stopped about 10 o'clock. They have given us some more books, seal meat, butter and tinned paste so we will have a good New Years dinner tomorrow.'
84
Spencer-Smith:
The others came up when we stopped in the morning and friendly calls all round were the order of the day. Irvine and Jack brought us a splendid present of seal-meat,
potted meat butter and a parcel of books. We were able to give them a few books in return, including Browning's plays for Irvine. They are pulling a great load.
I had a long talk with Irvine and Jack in their tent in ârebus divinus inter alia'.
****
They are camped some way to the left. Temp 20, Evg 23.
Finished âDrama in Sunshine' during supper (of seal-meat) this evening and am now to begin âThe Old Dominion' and âEvolution' (H. Univ. Lib.) now. This is the last entry for 1915.
85
Joyce:
Had a pipe of tea with Ern + a long talk with the Boss. Made all arrangements for the final spurt which after a talk came to a mutual understanding (at last). It must I think it is clearly time he woke up.
We had a nice cup of tea together to drink the peace tomorrow being New Years Day. I thought it would be a fair thing to be at peace with all the world.
I wonder how many of the old pals are quaffing a merry cup + making all kinds of Good Resolve for the coming Year.
I often think of the brother, his wife + nephew + wondering how the world is treating them.
I suppose I am now starting on the biggest job of my life that is to get to this 83° S + if poss to relieve S. We are now 90 days out from C. Evans & all feel fit let us hope that Providence will look on us + give us fine weather.
Goodbye Old Year. Good Luck to the New. âKiaOra'.
â â â â
86
The nine men now had their sledges fully laden. They were south of the Minna Bluff depot and heading for Mount Hope. On the way they would stock new depots at each degree of latitude, which were about 70 miles apart, with enough provisions for Shackleton, and for their own return.
1.
Richards,
The Ross Sea Shore Party
2.
Hayward diary, 1 October 1915
3.
Joyce field diary, 1 October 1915
4.
Mackintosh diary, 8 September 1915
5.
Ibid., 21 September 1915
6.
Ibid., 30 September 1915
7.
Spencer-Smith letter to his parents, 30 September 1915
8.
Richards,
The Ross Sea Shore Party
9.
Joyce field diary, 10 October 1915
10.
Ibid., 11 October 1915
11.
Hayward diary, 11 October 1915
12.
Wild diary, 11 October 1915
13.
Richards letter to A. J. T. Fraser, 9 July 1961
14.
Joyce field diary, 12 October 1915
15.
Wild diary, 11 October 1915
16.
Debenham,
In the Antarctic
17.
Joyce field diary, 12 October 1915
18.
Ibid., 15â18 October 1915
19.
Spencer-Smith diary, 17 October 1915
20.
Wild diary, 20 October 1915
21.
Joyce field diary, 23 October 1915
22.
Spencer-Smith diary, 23 October, 1915
23.
Joyce field diary, 26 October 1915
24.
Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
25.
Richards, unpublished document, âFour Dogs'
26.
Scottish Geographical Magazine
, Vol. 30, No. 2, 1914
27.
Richards, unpublished document, âFour Dogs'
28.
Richards, interview with L. Bickel, 1976
29.
Joyce field diary, 28 October 1915
30.
Hayward diary, October 1915
31.
Mackintosh letter to Joyce, 28 October 1915
32.
Joyce field diary, 5 November 1915
33.
Ibid., 6 November 1915
34.
Wild diary, 16 October 1915
35.
Ibid., 21 October 1915
36.
Ibid., 1 November 1915
37.
Ibid., 2 November 1915
38.
Ibid., 9 November 1915
39.
Ibid., 17 November 1915
40.
Ibid., 19 November 1915
41.
Ibid., 9 December 1915
42.
Spencer-Smith diary, 5 November 1915
43.
Ibid., 7 November 1915
44.
Hayward diary, 15 November 1915
45.
Spencer-Smith diary, 9 November 1915
46.
Ibid., 17 December 1915
47.
Ibid., 2 January 1916
48.
The Eagle
, Bedfordshire Modern School magazine, March 1917
49.
Naval Service Record of Harry Ernest Wild
50.
P&O Officers Register
51.
Mackintosh diary, 2 February 1915
52.
Spencer-Smith diary, 12 November 1915
53.
Wild diary, 12 November 1915
54.
Ibid., 14 November 1915
55.
Joyce field diary, 17 November 1915
56.
Joyce letter to Mackintosh, 15 November 1915
57.
Mackintosh letter to Joyce, 25 November 1915
58.
Joyce field diary, 25 November 1915
59.
Richards letter to L. B. Quartermain, 19 November 1963
60.
Joyce field diary, 28 November 1915
61.
Mackintosh letter to Joyce, 4 December 1915
62.
Spencer-Smith diary, November and December, 1915
63.
Richards,
The Ross Sea Shore Party
64.
Joyce field diary, 13 December 1915
65.
Hayward diary, 13 December 1915
66.
Joyce field diary, 14 December 1915
67.
Spencer-Smith diary, 15 December 1915
68.
Wild diary, 15 December 1915
69.
D. Mawson,
Antarctic Diaries
(London: Unwin Hyman, 1988)
70.
Spencer-Smith diary, 22 December 1915
71.
Wild diary, 24 December 1915
72.
Spencer-Smith diary, 25 December 1915
73.
Wild diary, 25 December 1915
74.
Spencer-Smith diary, 27 December 1915
75.
Wild diary, 27 December 1915
76.
Spencer-Smith diary, 27 December 1915
77.
Wild diary, 29 December 1915
78.
Spencer-Smith diary, 29 December 1915
79.
Wild diary, 30 December 1915
80.
Spencer-Smith diary, 29 December 1915
81.
Joyce field diary, 25 December 1915
82.
Gaze field diary, 29 December 1915
83.
Joyce field diary, 29 December 1915
84.
Wild diary, 31 December 1915
85.
Spencer-Smith diary, 31 December 1915
86.
Joyce field diary, 31 December 1915
*
Hayward, like Spencer-Smith, used Gunboat as the dog's name, not Gunner.
â
Joyce often wrote the distance travelled in the day, in this case 13 miles and 240 yards.
â¡
Gaze, not Stevens, ended up being a member of the sledging teams.
§
Per day.
¶
Cam would be Cambridge.
||
âJoan' â we do not know who Spencer-Smith is referring to, possibly a female acquaintance at a church in England.
**
A1 â meaning excellent.
â â
âLaus Deo' â Praise to God.
â¡â¡
âBergschmund': the correct spelling is
bergschrund
. It is a German word for a crevasse that was formed when the ice of a moving glacier separated from stagnant ice.
§§
âneb' â his nose.
¶¶
âinteresting condition' â Nell, the bitch, was pregnant.
||||
The meaning of his reference to âB Esmond' may relate to Beatrix Esmond in the 1852 Thackeray novel
The History of Henry Esmond
.
***
Streimer was a polar nut food made by a company called Streimer.
â â â
His French quote means: âWe are indebted to the Father Almighty who has heard my prayer and has protected us during these days of anxiety.'
â¡â¡â¡
âHeimweh' â a longing to be home.
§§§
âW.P.' â âwith pleasure'
¶¶¶
The men call the bird a âskua gull'. The correct description is simply âskua'; a family of birds related to gulls.
||||||
âanti-scorbs' â the men knew that scurvy was caused by a shortage of ascorbic acid (which we know now as Vitamin C).
****
rebus divinus inter alia â âamong other things of God'.
â â â â
âKia Ora' is a Mãori language greeting, meaning âbe well/healthy'. Joyce, like most British Antarctic explorers of his time, had fond memories of New Zealand. He had spent three weeks there in 1901 when the
Discovery
was being prepared for her departure to Antarctica, and the men returned to England via New Zealand in 1904. New Zealand was also the place of departure and return for Joyce on the
Nimrod
in Shackleton's 1907â09 expedition. After 1917 Joyce lived in New Zealand and married a Christchurch lady, Ms Beatrice Curtlett.