WINTER
Come what may
Time and the hour runs through the darkest day.
SHAKESPEARE.
During the latter part of June the Cape Crozier Party were busy
in making preparations for their departure. The object of their
journey to the Emperor penguin rookery in the cold and darkness of an
Antarctic winter was to secure eggs at such a stage as could furnish
a series of early embryos, by means of which alone the particular
points of interest in the development of the bird could be worked
out. As the Emperor is peculiar in nesting at the coldest season
of the year, this journey entailed the risk of sledge traveling in
mid-winter, and the travelers had also to traverse about a hundred
miles of the Barrier surface, and to cross a chaos of crevasses
which had previously taken a party as much as two hours to cross
by daylight.
[Illustration: PITCHING THE DOUBLE TENT ON THE SUMMIT. (P.O. Evans;
Dr. Wilson.) _Photo by Lieut. H. R. Bowers._]
Such was the enterprise for which Wilson, Bowers and Cherry-Garrard
were with the help of others making preparations, and apart from the
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extraordinarily adventurous side of this journey, it was most
interesting because the travelers were to make several experiments.
Each man was to go on a different food scale, eiderdown sleeping-bags
were to be carried inside the reindeer ones, and a new kind of
crampon and a double tent were to be tried. 'I came across a hint
as to the value of a double tent in Sverdrup's book, "New Land,"'
Scott wrote on June 20, 'and P.O. Evans has made a lining for one
of the tents, it is secured on the inner side of the poles and
provides an air space inside the tent. I think it is going to be
a great success.'
By the 26th preparations for the party to start from Cape Evans
were completed, their heavy load when they set out on the following
morning being distributed on two 9-foot sledges, 'This winter travel
is a new and bold venture, but the right men have gone to attempt
it. All good luck go with them!'
While the winter travelers were pursuing their strenuous way work
went steadily on at Cape Evans, with no exciting nor alarming incident
until July 4. On the morning of that day the wind blew furiously,
but it moderated a little in the afternoon when Atkinson and Gran,
without Scott's knowledge, decided to start over the floe for the
North and South Bay thermometers respectively. This happened at
5.30 P.M., and Gran had returned by 6.45, but not until later did
Scott hear that he had only gone two or three hundred yards from
the land, and that it had taken him nearly an hour to find his
way back.
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Atkinson's continued absence passed unnoticed until dinner was
nearly finished, but Scott did not feel seriously alarmed until
the wind sprang up again and still the wanderer did not return. At
9.30, P.O. Evans, Crean and Keohane, who had been out looking for
him, returned without any news, and the possibility of a serious
accident had to be faced. Organized search parties were at once
dispatched, Scott and Clissold alone remaining in the hut. And as
the minutes slipped slowly by Scott's fears naturally increased,
as Atkinson had started for a point not much more than a mile off
and had been away more than five hours. From that fact only one
conclusion could be drawn, and there was but small comfort to be
got from the knowledge that every spot which was likely to be the
scene of an accident would be thoroughly searched.
Thus 11 o'clock came, then 11.30 with its six hours of absence;
and the strain of waiting became almost unbearable. But a quarter
of an hour later Scott heard voices from the Cape, and presently,
to his extreme relief, Meares and Debenham appeared with Atkinson,
who was badly frost-bitten in the hand, and, as was to be expected
after such an adventure, very confused.
At 2 A.M. Scott wrote in his diary, 'The search parties have returned
and all is well again, but we must have no more of these very
unnecessary escapades. Yet it is impossible not to realize that this
bit of experience has done more than all the talking I could have
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ever accomplished to bring home to our people the dangers of a
blizzard.'
On investigation it was obvious that Atkinson had been in great
danger. First of all he had hit Inaccessible Island, and not until
he arrived in its lee did he discover that his hand was frost-bitten.
Having waited there for some time he groped his way to the western
end, and then wandering away in a swirl of drift to clear some
irregularities at the ice-foot, he completely lost the island when he
could only have been a few yards from it. In this predicament he clung
to the old idea of walking up wind, and it must be considered wholly
providential that on this course he next struck Tent Island. Round
this island he walked under the impression that it was Inaccessible
Island, and at last dug himself a shelter on its lee side. When
the moon appeared he judged its bearing well, and as he traveled
homeward was vastly surprised to see the real Inaccessible Island
appear on his left. 'There can be no doubt that in a blizzard a man
has not only to safeguard the circulation in his limbs, but must
struggle with a sluggishness of brain and an absence of reasoning
power which is far more likely to undo him.'
About mid-day on Friday, July 7, the worst gale that Scott had
ever known in Antarctic regions began, and went on for a week. The
force of the wind, although exceptional, had been equaled earlier
in the year, but the extraordinary feature of this gale was the
long continuance of a very cold temperature. On
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Friday night the thermometer registered -39°, and throughout Saturday
and the greater part of Sunday it did not rise above -35°. It was
Scott's turn for duty on Saturday night, and whenever he had to
go out of doors the impossibility of enduring such conditions for
any length of time was impressed forcibly upon him. The fine snow
beat in behind his wind guard, the gusts took away his breath,
and ten paces against the wind were enough to cause real danger
of a frost-bitten face. To clear the anemometer vane he had to go
to the other end of the hut and climb a ladder; and twice while
engaged in this task he had literally to lean against the wind
with head bent and face averted, and so stagger crab-like on his
course.
By Tuesday the temperature had risen to +5° or +7°, but the gale
still continued and the air was thick with snow. The knowledge,
however, that the dogs were comfortable was a great consolation to
Scott, and he also found both amusement and pleasure in observing
the customs of the people in charge of the stores. The policy of
every storekeeper was to have something up his sleeve for a rainy
day, and an excellent policy Scott thought it. 'Tools, metal material,
leather, straps, and dozens of items are administered with the same
spirit of jealous guardianship by Day, Lashly, Oates and Meares,
while our main storekeeper Bowers even affects to bemoan imaginary
shortages. Such parsimony is the best guarantee that we are prepared
to face any serious call.'
For an hour on Wednesday afternoon the wind
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moderated, and the ponies were able to get a short walk over the
floe, but this was only a temporary lull, for the gale was soon
blowing as furiously as ever. And the following night brought not
only a continuance of the bad weather but also bad news. At mid-day
one of the best ponies, Bones, suddenly went off his feed, and in
spite of Oates' and Anton's most careful attention he soon became
critically ill. Oates gave him an opium pill and later on a second,
and sacks were heated and placed on the suffering animal, but hour
after hour passed without any improvement. As the evening wore on
Scott again and again visited the stable, only to hear the same
tale from Oates and Crean,[1] who never left their patient. 'Towards
midnight,' Scott says, 'I felt very downcast. It is so certain that
we cannot afford to lose a single pony--the margin of safety has
already been overstepped, we are reduced to face the circumstance
that we must keep all the animals alive or greatly risk failure.'
[Footnote 1: Bones was the pony which had been allotted to Crean.]
Shortly after midnight, however, there were signs of an improvement,
and two or three hours afterwards the pony was out of danger and
proceeded to make a rapid and complete recovery. So far, since the
return to Cape Evans, the ponies had given practically no cause for
anxiety, and in consequence Scott's hopes that all would continue
to be well with them had steadily grown; but this shock shattered
his sense of security, and although various alterations were made
in the arrangements of the stables and extra
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precautions were taken as regards food, he was never again without
alarms for the safety of the precious ponies.
Another raging blizzard swept over Cape Evans on July 22 and 23,
but the spirit of good comradeship still survived in spite of the
atrocious weather and the rather monotonous life. 'There is no
longer room for doubt that we shall come to our work with a unity
of purpose and a disposition for mutual support which have never
been equaled in these paths of activity. Such a spirit should tide
us over all minor difficulties.'
By the end of the month Scott was beginning to wonder why the Crozier
Party did not return, but on Tuesday, August 1, they came back
looking terribly weather-worn and 'after enduring for five weeks
the hardest conditions on record.' Their faces were scarred and
wrinkled, their eyes dull, and their hands whitened and creased
with the constant exposure to damp and cold. Quite obviously the
main part of their afflictions arose from sheer lack of sleep,
and after a night's rest they were very different people both in
mind and body.
Writing on August 2, Scott says, 'Wilson is very thin, but this
morning very much his keen, wiry self--Bowers is quite himself
to-day. Cherry-Garrard is slightly puffy in the face and still
looks worn. It is evident that he has suffered most severely--but
Wilson tells me that his spirit never wavered for a moment. Bowers
has come through best, all things
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considered, and I believe that he is the hardest traveler that ever
undertook a Polar journey, as well as one of the most undaunted;
more by hint than direct statement I gather his value to the party,
his untiring energy and the astonishing physique which enables him
to continue to work under conditions which are absolutely paralyzing
to others. Never was such a sturdy, active, undefeatable little
man.'
Gradually Scott gathered an account of this wonderful journey from
the three travelers who had made it. For more than a week the
thermometer fell below -60°, and on one night the minimum showed
-71°, and on the next -77°. Although in this fearful cold the air
was comparatively still, occasional little puffs of wind eddied
across the snow plain with blighting effect. 'No civilized being
has ever encountered such conditions before with only a tent of
thin canvas to rely on for shelter.' Records show that Amundsen when
journeying to the N. magnetic pole met temperatures of a similar
degree, but he was with Esquimaux who built him an igloo shelter
nightly, he had also a good measure of daylight, and finally he
turned homeward and regained his ship after five days' absence,
while this party went outward and were absent for five weeks.
Nearly a fortnight was spent in crossing the coldest region, and
then rounding C. Mackay they entered the wind-swept area. Blizzard
followed blizzard, but in a light that was little better than complete
darkness they staggered on. Sometimes they found
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themselves high on the slopes of Terror on the left of the track,
sometimes diving on the right amid crevasses and confused ice
disturbance. Having reached the foothills near Cape Crozier they
ascended 800 feet, packed their belongings over a moraine ridge,
and began to build a hut. Three days were spent in building the
stone walls and completing the roof with the canvas brought for
the purpose, and then at last they could attend to the main object
of their journey.
The scant twilight at mid-day was so short that a start had to be
made in the dark, and consequently they ran the risk of missing
their way in returning without light. At their first attempt they
failed to reach the penguin rookery, but undismayed they started
again on the following day, and wound their way through frightful
ice disturbances under the high basalt cliffs. In places the rock
overhung, and at one spot they had to creep through a small channel
hollowed in the ice. At last the sea-ice was reached, but by that
time the light was so far spent that everything had to be rushed.
Instead of the 2,000 or 3,000 nesting birds that had been seen at
this rookery in _Discovery_ days, they could only count about a
hundred. As a reason for this a suggestion was made that possibly
the date was too early, and that if the birds had not permanently
deserted the rookery only the first arrivals had been seen.
With no delay they killed and skinned three penguins to get blubber
for their stove, and with six eggs, only three of which were saved,
made a hasty dash
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for their camp, which by good luck they regained.
On that same night a blizzard began, and from moment to moment
increased in fury. Very soon they found that the place where they
had, with the hope of shelter, built their hut, was unfortunately
chosen, for the wind instead of striking them directly was deflected
on to them in furious, whirling gusts. Heavy blocks of snow and
rock placed on the roof were hurled away and the canvas ballooned
up, its disappearance being merely a question of time.
Close to the hut they had erected their tent and had left several
valuable articles inside it; the tent had been well spread and
amply secured with snow and boulders, but one terrific gust tore
it up and whirred it away. Inside the hut they waited for the roof
to vanish, and wondered, while they vainly tried to make it secure,
what they could do if it went. After fourteen hours it disappeared,
as they were trying to pin down one corner. Thereupon the smother of
snow swept over them, and all they could do was to dive immediately
for their sleeping-bags. Once Bowers put out his head and said,
'We're all right,' in as ordinary tones as he could manage, whereupon
Wilson and Cherry-Garrard replied, 'Yes, we're all right'; then
all of them were silent for a night and half a day, while the wind
howled and howled, and the snow entered every chink and crevice
of their sleeping-bags.
'This gale,' Scott says, 'was the same (July 23) in which we registered
our maximum wind force, and
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it seems probable that it fell on Cape Crozier even more violently
than on us.'
The wind fell at noon on the following day, and the wretched travelers
then crept from their icy nests, spread the floorcloth over their
heads, and lit their primus. For the first time in forty-eight
hours they tasted food, and having eaten their meal under these
extraordinary conditions they began to talk of plans to build shelters
on the homeward route. Every night, they decided, they must dig a
large pit and cover it as best they could with their floorcloth.
Fortune, however, was now to befriend them, as about half a mile
from the hut Bowers discovered their tent practically uninjured.
But on the following day when they started homeward another blizzard
fell upon them, and kept them prisoners for two more days.
By this time the miserable condition of their effects was beyond
description. The sleeping-bags could not be rolled up, in fact
they were so thoroughly frozen that attempts to bend them actually
broke the skins. All socks, finnesko, and mitts had long been coated
with ice, and when placed in breast-pockets or inside vests at night
they did not even show signs of thawing. Indeed it is scarcely
possible to realize the horrible discomforts of these three forlorn
travelers, as they plodded back across the Barrier in a temperature
constantly below -60°.
[Illustration: ADÉLIE PENGUIN ON NEST. _Photo by C. S. Wright._]
[Illustration: EMPEROR PENGUINS ON SEA-ICE. _Photo by C. S. Wright._]
'Wilson,' Scott wrote, 'is disappointed at seeing so little of the
penguins, but to me and to everyone
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who has remained here the result of this effort is the appeal it
makes to our imagination as one of the most gallant stories of Polar
history. That men should wander forth in the depth of a Polar night
to face the most dismal cold and the fiercest gales in darkness
is something new; that they should have persisted in this effort in
spite of every adversity for five full weeks is heroic. It makes a
tale for our generation which I hope may not be lost in the telling.
'Moreover the material results are by no means despicable. We shall
know now when that extraordinary bird the Emperor penguin lays
its eggs, and under what conditions; but even if our information
remains meager concerning its embryology, our party has shown the
nature of the conditions which exist on the Great Barrier in winter.
Hitherto we have only imagined their severity; now we have proof,
and a positive light is thrown on the local climatology of our
Strait.'
Of the indomitable spirit shown by his companions on this journey
Cherry-Garrard gives wonderful and convincing proof in his diary.
Bowers, with his capacity for sleeping under the most distressing
conditions, was 'absolutely magnificent'; and the story of how
he arranged a line by which he fastened the cap of the tent to
himself, so that if it went away a second time it should not be
unaccompanied, is only one of the many tales of his resource and
determination.
In addition to the eggs that the party had brought back and the
knowledge of the winter conditions on
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the Barrier that they had gained, their journey settled several
points in connection with future sledding work. They had traveled
on a very simple food ration in different and extreme proportions,
for the only provisions they took were pemmican, butter, biscuit
and tea. After a short experience they found that Wilson, who had
arranged for the greatest quantity of fat, had too much of it,
while Cherry-Garrard, who had declared for biscuit, had more than
he could eat. Then a middle course was struck which gave a proportion
agreeable to all of them, and which at the same time suited the
total quantities of their various articles of food. The only change
that was suggested was the addition of cocoa for the evening meal,
because the travelers, thinking that tea robbed them of their slender
chance of sleep, had contented themselves with hot water. 'In this
way,' Scott decided, 'we have arrived at a simple and suitable
ration for the inland plateau.'
Of the sleeping-bags there was little to be said, for although the
eiderdown bag might be useful for a short spring trip, it became
iced up too quickly to be much good on a long journey. Bowers never
used his eiderdown bag,[1] and in some miraculous manner he managed
more than once to turn his reindeer bag. The weights of the
sleeping-bags before and after the journey give some idea of the
ice collected.
[Footnote 1: He insisted upon giving it to Cherry-Garrard. 'It
was,' the latter says, 'wonderfully self-sacrificing of him, more
than I can write. I felt a brute to take it, but I was getting
useless unless I got some sleep, which my big bag would not allow.']
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Starting Final
Weight Weight
Wilson, reindeer and eiderdown. 17 lbs. 40 lbs.
Bowers, reindeer only. 17 " 33 "
C.-Garrard, reindeer and eiderdown. 18 " 45 "
The double tent was considered a great success, and the new crampons
were much praised except by Bowers, whose fondness for the older
form was not to be shaken. 'We have discovered,' Scott stated in
summing up the results of the journey, 'a hundred details of clothes,
mitts, and footwear: there seems no solution to the difficulties
which attach to these articles in extreme cold; all Wilson can
say, speaking broadly, is "The gear is excellent, excellent." One
continues to wonder as to the possibilities of fur clothing as made
by the Esquimaux, with a sneaking feeling that it may outclass our
more civilized garb. For us this can only be a matter of speculation,
as it would have been quite impossible to have obtained such articles.
With the exception of this radically different alternative, I feel
sure we are as near perfection as experience can direct. At any
rate we can now hold that our system of clothing has come through
a severer test than any other, fur included.'
With the return of the Cape Crozier Party lectures were resumed,
and apart from one or two gales the weather was so good and the
returning light so stimulating both to man and beast, that the
spirits of the former rose apace while those of the latter became
almost riotous when exercised. On August 10, Scott
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and the new masters were to take charge on September 1, so that
they could exercise their respective animals and get to know them
as well as possible. The new arrangement was:
Bowers Victor
Wilson Nobby
Atkinson Jehu
Wright Chinaman
Cherry-Garrard Michael
Evans (P.O.) Snatcher
Crean Bones
Keohane Jimmy Pigg
Oates Christopher
Scott and Oates Snippets.
On the same day Oates gave his second excellent lecture on 'Horse
Management,' and afterwards the problem of snow-shoes was seriously
discussed. Besides the problem of the form of the shoes was also
the question of the means of attachment, and as to both points all
sorts of suggestions were made. At that time Scott's opinion was
that the pony snow-shoes they had, which were made on the grating or
racquet principle, would probably be the best, the only alternative
seeming to be to perfect the principle of the lawn mowing shoe.
'Perhaps,' he adds, 'we shall come to both kinds: the first for the
quiet animals and the last for the more excitable. I am confident
the matter is of first importance.'
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Ten days later Scott had to admit that the ponies were becoming
a handful, and for the time being they would have been quite
unmanageable if they had been given any oats. As it was, Christopher,
Snippets and Victor were suffering from such high spirits that all
three of them bolted on the 21st.
A prolonged gale arrived just as the return of the sun was due,
and for three days everyone was more or less shut up in the hut.
Although the temperature was not especially low anyone who went
outside for even the briefest moment had to dress in wind clothes,
because exposed woolen or cloth materials became so instantaneously
covered with powdery crystals, that when they were brought back
into the warmth they were soon wringing wet. When, however, there
was no drift it was quicker and easier to slip on an overcoat, and
for his own garment of this description Scott admits a sentimental
attachment. 'I must confess,' he says, 'an affection for my veteran
uniform overcoat, inspired by its persistent utility. I find that
it is twenty-three years of age and can testify to its strenuous
existence. It has been spared neither rain, wind, nor salt sea
spray, tropic heat nor Arctic cold; it has outlived many sets of
buttons, from their glittering gilded youth to green old age, and
it supports its four-stripe shoulder straps as gaily as the single
lace ring of the early days which proclaimed it the possession of
a humble sub-lieutenant. Withal it is still a very long way from
the fate of the "one-horse shay."'
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Not until August 26 did the sun appear, and everyone was at once
out and about and in the most cheerful frame of mind. The shouts
and songs of men could be heard for miles, and the outlook on life
of every member of the expedition seemed suddenly to have changed.
For if there is little that is new to be said about the return
of the sun in Polar regions, it must always be a very real and
important event to those who have lived without it for so many
months, and who have almost forgotten the sensation of standing
in brilliant sunshine.
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