Shackleton's Heroes (4 page)

• Victor (‘Vic') Hayward was born at Harlesden, London in 1887 into a very large family, having five brothers and eight sisters.
  36
  There are few records to be found of his early schooling or his childhood. Like Spencer-Smith, Hayward's desire to visit the polar regions may also have been with him since he was a boy. At Christ Church Sunday School in Willesden, London, when he was ten years old, he chose as a prize Ballantyne's book
  The World of Ice
  .
  37
  It is easy to imagine a young boy being entranced by Ballantyne's tale of men in the Arctic, such as when he describes two teams of men, with their dogs and sledges, setting out – with the romance of the ‘sharp, dry, crunching sound' of the men as they walked along in the snow.
  38
   
  
• Hayward was educated at St Mark's College, Chelsea, before gaining employment with a large firm of stockbrokers in the City of London.
  39
  He was attracted to a life with some adventure, however, because at the age of twenty he left London to experience life in colder climates – working in the northern regions of Canada. He was employed on a ranch, gaining experience working with dogs and there he learnt to be a good dog driver before returning to England in November of 1907.
  40
  His parents only married in 1908, after the birth of the last of their thirteen children, and by 1914 his father had retired. At that time Victor was living at home and employed as a produce clerk in London.
  41
   
  
• A Londoner in his mid-twenties, Victor Hayward was the ‘romantic' man of the Mount Hope Party. In August of 1914 he had become engaged to a Miss Ethel Bridson, whose family also lived in the inner north-west suburbs of London. Apart from Mackintosh, who made occasional diary references to his wife, Hayward is the only other member of the Mount Hope team who mentions a lady friend in his diary. The two navy men, Joyce and Wild, are twelve and eight years older than Hayward, but they make no reference to a sweetheart or loved one in any of their diary notes.
   
  
• Hayward's diary is fascinating because he writes most of the time for his fiancée. He pens over 24,000 words in a day-by-day record of his stay in Antarctica, in exquisite detail at times, and in a style that is quite unique. Where the other five men of the Mount Hope Party appear to be recording their diaries for anyone to read, Hayward's diary is very personal. Not only does his love for his fiancée come through, but he exposes his innermost thoughts, especially in the early stages of his time in Antarctica. He tells her of what happens almost every day, on the march, in the tent and in the hut, so we have a wonderful picture from his diary of what he and the others experienced. His diary pages are also brightened by occasional sketches. Some are of his fiancée, and others of the scenery, the
  Aurora
  and penguins. There are even images unrelated to Antarctica: horses, a Canadian Mountie on horseback, a man with a monocle in his left eye, looking resplendent in a top hat and formal attire, and other
  men with different hats. His education and upbringing shows through in some of the phrases and words he uses. He describes his life at times as a ‘ducky life', calls a short sleep ‘forty winks', uses the term ‘by jingo' to express his surprise at something, calls an argument a ‘roar' and often describes something as ‘jolly nice'. He uses the phrase ‘the bally thing didn't budge' when trying to move a sledge, whereas Wild would write ‘d___d hard work' and Joyce in his untutored grammar would make a note: ‘We struggled on + on'. Hayward's diary even contains a
  thirty-line
  poem that he and his tent-mates made up. He includes quotes from the book
  Lorna Doone
  and a full menu of two ‘champagne suppers' he plans to have with his fiancée when he returns. However, as Hayward weakens with scurvy, his 400 and 500-word daily diary entries in his first sledging season dry up. In 1916, as he struggles back to Hut Point, his diary note each day is often nothing more than a few numbers; of the distance covered in the day, and the number of miles remaining to reach Hut Point.
   
  
• He was 5 ft 8 or 9 in. in height, a heavy, solid man.
  

• The only Australian in the Mount Hope Party, Dick Richards, was interviewed on more than one occasion on his memories of Antarctica. From these interviews we glean some details of his early life, his education and his work prior to joining Shackleton's 1914 expedition.
   
  
• Richards was born in 1893 at Long Gully, a small country town near Bendigo in Victoria, Australia. He had two brothers and two sisters. His friends and family called him ‘Wally' but to the men of the Mount Hope Party he was ‘Dick' or ‘Richy'.
  42
  Richards makes the point in one of his interviews that as a youth he walked to school every day, about
  3 miles, and he was glad he did as he felt it stood him in good stead for his time in Antarctica. He said that his knees and legs were the strongest part of his body, and believed this helped delay the onset of scurvy when returning from Mount Hope.
  43
  At the age of sixteen he went to Melbourne University, where he completed work in natural philosophy (physics and mathematics). He then spent a number of years teaching in rural Victoria.
   
  
• Richards was in Antarctica from January 1915 until January 1917 but he made a diary entry on only forty days. Most of these entries were made in the early months of 1916 when he and the others were held up by a blizzard for days and it looked like they might not even survive. Like Joyce, Richards wrote a book (
  The Ross Sea Shore Party
  ), but he was different to all the other men of the Mount Hope Party in that he was interviewed a number of times in later years. At these interviews he was able to elaborate on events even further. He also responded to any letters with detailed and blunt replies. These letters were written and these interviews conducted fifty and sixty years after, but Richards's memory seems crystal clear. His thoughts and words do not vary from one interview to another, or in his letters and, together with his diary, give us a deep insight into what happened to the Mount Hope Party – and why.
   
  
• He was the youngest man in the Mount Hope Party, being twenty-two years old when he left Australia. His portrait, from a photograph taken soon after he was picked up from Cape Evans at the end of his time in Antarctica, shows a handsome, rugged young man. He was 5 ft 9 in. tall and weighed almost 12 stone.
  44
  He looks older than a man in his early twenties, and we will see as the Mount Hope story unfolds that Richards acts far beyond his age.
  45
  

S
HACKLETON STARTED PREPARATIONS
for his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in the middle of 1913, but no public announcement was made until January 1914. For the last six months of 1913 he was engaged in the necessary preliminaries; ‘solid mule work' were his words. It was an extensive expedition that had to have his ship, the
Endurance
, on one side of the Antarctic continent and the support ship, the
Aurora
, on the other, with a land journey of 1,800 miles to be made. In January 1914 he received nearly 5,000 applications to join his expedition, from what he described as all classes of the community.
1

His first appointment for his support party was Mackintosh, as its leader. At the time, Mackintosh was working for the Imperial Merchant Service Guild in Liverpool and he had written to a colleague from his
Nimrod
days that he was dissatisfied with safe, routine work. His
Nimrod
Expedition had left him unfulfilled. He told his colleague he was ‘only existing at this job, stuck in a dirty office. I always feel I never completed my first initiation – so would like to have one final wallow, for good or bad!'
2

Shackleton knew Mackintosh from their time together on the
Nimrod
Expedition, so he clearly had some understanding of Mackintosh's abilities and leadership skills. Mackintosh had gained sledging experience as a member of a party that laid support depots for Shackleton on that expedition. Shackleton placed Mackintosh in command of his support party despite knowing that Mackintosh had been involved in two ill-planned and risky actions in 1909. On one of these Mackintosh made a decision to camp on sea-ice, and he and a colleague almost lost their lives. The other involved Mackintosh and the colleague becoming lost and it was the latter, a non-commissioned sailor, who took over the leadership role.
3
Shackleton may have appointed him to lead because of Mackintosh's eye loss on the
Nimrod
Expedition. Richards believed this to be the case, writing later that Shackleton promised Mackintosh that if he could ever do anything for him he would, and Mackintosh held him to his promise in 1914.
4

Shackleton issued written instructions to Mackintosh. He was to use his own discretion as to who went on the Mount Hope depot-laying party and if he went himself he must have full reliance on his Chief Officer.
5
Joseph Stenhouse was later appointed Chief Officer. He would be captain of the ship when Mackintosh was on shore.

In early 1914 Ernest Joyce was working for the Sydney Harbour Trust in Australia and Shackleton sent him a cablegram confirming his appointment. Joyce tells us in his book
The South Polar Trail
that Shackleton placed him in charge of the dogs, stores and sledging equipment and that Mackintosh would be in command of the ship.
6
However, Joyce's actual invitation of appointment from Shackleton stated that an officer would be in command of the shore party, not Joyce.
7
Why Joyce misrepresented the facts when he wrote his book, over ten years after the events, is unclear. Joyce may have wanted to give the impression to his readers that he was leading the shore party, a supposition that is supported by the fact that
there is no reference in his book to Mackintosh being in charge. However, through the diaries of Richards, Spencer-Smith and Hayward it is very clear that Mackintosh was the leader of the shore party, until he fell ill with scurvy in 1916.
8
9
10

Joyce's invitation from Shackleton was written up in the Australian newspapers and the article also stated that Joyce ‘knows perhaps more of the transport and stores side of a polar expedition than anybody else', which we could assume are Joyce's words to the journalist writing the article. The article gave some additional information on the dogs to be used:

Three other men of the Mount Hope Party were also recruited by Shackleton in England: A. P. Spencer-Smith, Ernest Wild and Victor Hayward.

Spencer-Smith submitted a successful application to join as the chaplain and photographer. At the time he was teaching at Merchiston Castle in Edinburgh. A reference from the headmaster described him as a ‘man of culture, of good practical sense and of pleasing personality'.
12
There is no record of why he was accepted but he was a photographer and Shackleton knew the value in visual images for later publicity and promotional purposes – he had the Australian photographer Frank Hurley in his own party travelling to the Weddell Sea. Unfortunately, very few quality outdoor photographs by Spencer-Smith have survived.

Wild was thirty-five years old and serving on the
Pembroke
in 1914 when the Navy approved for him to be lent for service with the Imperial
Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
13
His brother Frank had served with Shackleton in two expeditions to Antarctica and he may have influenced him to apply. Being Frank's brother would have almost certainly placed him at the top of the list of suitable applicants in Shackleton's eyes.

Hayward was working as a clerk in London when he applied and he received a letter of confirmation from Shackleton dated 28 August 1914.
14
Hayward's experience with dogs and sledge work in Canada would have been a significant contributing factor in him being accepted. His appointment was even reported in his local newspaper, the
Willesden Chronicle
, with the note: ‘We feel sure that Mr. Hayward's many local friends will wish him good luck and a safe return.'
15

In September 1914 Hayward and his parents met Shackleton before departing and Shackleton remarked to Mrs Hayward: ‘I'm not going to give your son much hard work to do.' To which Hayward replied: ‘But surely, Sir Ernest, this isn't going to fizzle out into a picnic – I could get that at home.'
16

Others taken on in England who would be involved with the men of the Mount Hope Party were: Joseph Stenhouse, the Chief Officer of the
Aurora
; Alexander Stevens, a geologist and the chief scientist; John Cope, a biologist, who was also the party's medical officer; and Aubrey Ninnis, a motor engineer responsible for a motor tractor taken.

In spite of thousands of applicants, not all positions were filled from England. It appears that Shackleton did not have the time, leaving it to Mackintosh to recruit additional men in Australia. Shackleton admitted he was ‘rather tired', having managed in only eight months to get his expedition ready, but he felt he had the ‘complement of the
Aurora
practically complete' and he was sure it would eventually be right.
17

The men recruited in England arrived in Sydney in November 1914 after Wild, Ninnis and the dogs had been dropped off in Hobart, for the dogs to be quarantined.
18
Mackintosh had not travelled to Australia with the other men. He went to Hobart earlier to arrange for the
Aurora
to be taken to Sydney, the ship having been idle since Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911–14.

The
Aurora
had been built in Dundee in 1876 and designed for navigation in northern seas. The hulls were wood, for greater elasticity when pressed by ice, with hardwood sheathing to minimise abrasion when in contact with jagged ice floes.
19
The ship had been bought from Mawson by Shackleton for £3,200 and was similar in all respects to the
Terra Nova
, of Scott's last expedition. She was registered with the Royal Yacht Squadron, which meant she could evade all loading restrictions when she left port – essential for the
Aurora
given her decks were covered with cargo when she left Australia.
20

The Australian newspapers proudly reported the arrival of the
Aurora
in Sydney, adding that Mackintosh hoped to take several young Australian scientists as well. He had room for a physicist and a surgeon, and one or two others.
21
Hayward had an interview with Mackintosh and he was appointed as the secretary to the expedition, on account of his office experience.
22

The
Aurora
underwent an overhaul at Cockatoo Dock in Sydney and Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith, Joyce, Hayward and others stayed at the Australia Hotel there. Hayward sent a card to his family and Spencer-Smith sent letters to his parents and a menu card from the hotel, signed by Mackintosh, and others.
23
24
In one letter Spencer-Smith tells his parents: ‘In the hut I shall probably sleep in my dark room, like Ponting did.'
†
He also makes reference to a visit from Irvine Gaze, his cousin: ‘Googs has turned up from Melbourne looking very handsome and fit. He will possibly come with us.'

Mackintosh and Spencer-Smith appear to have developed a close and friendly relationship from the outset, with Spencer-Smith including in the letter to his parents:

In Sydney, Mackintosh asked the padre to say grace at meals, much to Spencer-Smith's delight.
25
This bond of respect and friendship between these two men continued throughout their time in the Antarctic.

In late 1914 Richards saw an advertisement in the Australian papers for a physicist who was wanted for an Antarctic expedition. Why he applied he was not sure, although he saw himself as a ‘sort of restless chap' and he was ‘pretty fed up' with teaching at that time.
26

He wrote to Mackintosh saying that he had completed two years' work in natural philosophy, pure mathematics and applied mathematics at Melbourne University. He gave his age as twenty-two, told him he was engaged as a teacher at the Junior Technical School in Ballarat and that he was ‘anxious not to lose chance' to be on the expedition.
27
28
29

In his book Richards tells how he went to Sydney, where he met Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Stevens. He must have impressed the three men because at the end of the interview he was told to get his gear together and rejoin the ship in Hobart. Richards could not remember any salary being offered, and he did not expect any.
30
He tells us they simply said: ‘Alright we will take you, meet us in Hobart; make your own way there.'
31

At that time Richards signed the standard agreement, which all members of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition were required to do. The agreement was between Shackleton and Richards and it stated a salary, £52 per annum, and included normal conditions for such an enterprise, particularly that he must obey all commands and not publish anything without consent.
32
(When Richards was in Antarctica, Mackintosh made him sign another agreement, with very similar content.)

In Sydney Mackintosh recruited three other Australians who were to be involved with the Mount Hope Party. They were Irvine Gaze (Spencer-Smith's cousin), who was listed as a Commissariat Officer (general assistant), scientist Keith Jack, and Lionel Hooke as the wireless operator.

The
Aurora
left Sydney on 14 December 1914 with Hobart her first port
of call, and Richards joined the expedition there. In his book he tells us that the ship was overladen, with a heavy deck cargo of coal and cases of petrol stacked on the top of the cook's galley and on deck.
33

The Hobart newspaper
The Mercury
reported that the Ross Sea members of Shackleton's expedition made their departure from Hobart in ‘the auxiliary barquentine
Aurora
' at 6.30 a.m. on Thursday 24 December 1914. Spencer-Smith sent home a brief cablegram: ‘Blessed Xmas. Strictly Private.'
34
The ship took on Ernest Wild (and Ninnis) and eighteen dogs at the Quarantine Station. Then, after clearing land, Spencer-Smith held a Christmas service and that night they celebrated the start of their voyage south, obviously with a number of drinks as Richards thought they ‘dined perhaps less wisely than well'.
35

The six men who would form the Mount Hope Party were now on board, and together for the first time: the ship's captain and expedition leader, 36-year-old Lieutenant Mackintosh; forty-year-old Antarctic veteran Ernest Joyce; fellow Petty Officer Ernest Wild, who was the same age as Mackintosh; thirty-year-old Reverend A. P. Spencer-Smith; Vic Hayward at twenty-eight years of age; and Dick Richards, the Australian and youngest member, at only twenty-two years old. The
Aurora
would take more than two weeks to reach Antarctica, a voyage of 2,500 miles, from Hobart at latitude of 42° 88´S to McMurdo Sound in the Ross Sea at latitude of 77° 84´S.