THE _NIMROD_ LEAVES US
As the swell continued during the following day, I signalled England to
go to Glacier Tongue and land a depot there. Glacier Tongue lies about
eight miles north of Hut Point and about thirteen to the southward
of Cape Royds, and by landing a quantity of sledging stores there we
should be saved several miles of haulage.
Although we were busy in building the hut, and in one way and another
had plenty of employment, I was disappointed at not being able to
continue landing the stores until the 16th. And here I should like
to mention the cheerful assistance which we always received from the
officers and crew of the _Nimrod_. They had nothing but hard work
and discomfort from the beginning of the voyage, and yet they worked
splendidly and were invariably in good spirits.
Naturally Captain England was anxious to get the ship away, and also
much concerned about the shrinkage of the coal-supply, but it was
impossible to let her leave until the wintering party had received
their coal from her. The weather was quite fine, and if it had not been
for the swell we could have got through a great deal of work.
[Illustration: The Ponies transporting Coal on Sledges at Back Door
Bay.
(See page 50)]
According to our experiences on the last expedition, the latest date to
which it would be safe to keep the Nimrod would be the end of February,
for the young ice forming about that time on the sound would seriously
hamper her from getting clear of the Ross Sea.
On the 17th and 18th we contrived to land a considerable quantity
of coal, equipment and stores, but soon after five o'clock on the
afternoon of the 18th a furious blizzard was blowing, and the _Nimrod_
stood off from the shore but could make little headway against the
terrific wind and short-rising sea.
I was aboard the vessel at the time, and the speed of the gusts must
have approached a force of a hundred miles an hour. The tops of the
seas were cut off by the wind, and flung over the decks, mast, and
rigging of the ship, congealing at once into hard ice, and the sides of
the vessel were thick with the frozen sea water.
"The masts were grey with the frozen spray,
And the bows were a coat of mail."
Very soon the cases and sledges lying on deck were hard and fast in
a sheet of solid ice, and Harbord, who was the officer on watch, on
whistling to call the crew aft, found that the metal whistle stuck to
his lips, a painful proof of the low temperature.
The gale raged on for days and nights, and about midnight on the 21st
the _Nimrod_ shipped a heavy sea, and all the release-water ports and
scupper holes being blocked with ice, the water had no means of exit,
and began to freeze on deck, where, already, there was a layer of ice
over a foot in thickness. Any more weight like this would have made the
ship unmanageable.
As the ropes, already covered with ice, would have frozen into a solid
mass, we were forced to take the drastic step of breaking holes in
the bulwarks to allow the water to escape; and only by dint of great
exertions did Davis and Harbord perform this feat.
It was a sight to see Harbord, held by his legs, hanging over the
starboard side of the _Nimrod_, and wielding a heavy axe; while Davis,
whose length of limb enabled him to lean over without being held, did
the same on the other. The temperature at the time was several degrees
below zero, and the wind was as strong as that which we had experienced
in the gales after we had left New Zealand; though the waves were not
so huge as those which had the whole run of the Southern Ocean in which
to gather strength to buffet us.
At 2 A.M. the weather suddenly cleared, and we were able to discover
that in spite of our efforts to keep our position, the wind and current
had driven us over thirty miles to the north. As, however, the sea was
rapidly decreasing we were at last able to steam straight for Cape
Royds.
Arriving ashore early in the morning I rejoiced to see that the hut was
still intact, but the report I received as regards the warmth of it was
not reassuring, because, in spite of the stove being alight the whole
time, no heat was given off. This eccentric conduct of the stove was a
grave matter, for on its efficiency depended not only our comfort but
our very existence. The shore-party had experienced a terrific gale,
and the hut had trembled and shaken so much and so constantly that I
doubt if with a less admirable situation we should have had a hut at
all after the gale.
On going down to our main landing-place the full effect of the blizzard
was apparent, for hardly a sign of the greater part of our stores was
to be seen. Such had been the force of the wind blowing straight on
to the shore that spray had been flung in sheets over everything, and
had been carried by the wind for nearly a quarter of a mile inland.
Consequently, in places, our precious stores lay buried to a depth of
five or six feet in a mass of frozen sea water.
We feared that it would take weeks of work to get the stores clear of
the ice, and also that the salt-water would have damaged the fodder.
However there was no time then to do anything to release the stores
from the ice, for the most important thing was to get the remainder of
coal ashore and send the ship north.
Before 10 P.M. on February 22 the final boatload of coal arrived, and
as we had in all only about eighteen tons, the strictest economy would
be needed to make this amount spin out until the sledging parties began
in the following spring.
We gave our final letters and messages to the crew of the last boat,
and said good-bye. And at 10 P.M. the Nimrod's bows were pointed to the
north, and she was moving rapidly away from the winter quarters with a
fair wind.
We were all devoutly thankful that the landing of the stores had at
length been finished and that the state of the sea would no longer be a
factor in our work, but it was with something of a pang that we severed
our connection with the world of men. We could hope for no word of news
from civilisation until the _Nimrod_ came south again in the following
summer, and before that we had a good deal of difficult work to do and
some risks to face.
[Illustration: Digging out Stores after the Cases had been buried
in Ice during a Blizzard. (_See page 58_)]
There was, however, scant time for reflection, even if we had been
moved that way, and after a good night's rest we started digging the
stores out of the ice, and transporting everything to the vicinity of
the hut.
As soon as the stores were in position we hoped to make a start with
the scientific observations that were to be an important part of the
work of the expedition.