THROUGH STORMY SEAS
After all it was a relief to get going at last and to have the Expedition
on board in its entirety, but what a funny little colony of souls. A
floating farm-yard best describes the appearance of the upper deck, with
the white pony heads peeping out of their stables, dogs chained to
stanchions, rails, and ring-bolts, pet rabbits lolloping around the ready
supply of compressed hay, and forage here, there, and everywhere. If the
"Terra Nova" was deeply laden from Cardiff, imagine what she looked like
leaving New Zealand. We had piled coal in sacks wherever it could be
wedged in between the deck cargo of petrol. Paraffin and oil drums filled
up most of the hatch spaces, for the poop had been rendered uninhabitable
by the great wooden cases containing two of our motor sledges.
The seamen were excellent, and Captain Scott seemed delighted with the
crowd. He and Wilson were very loyal to the old "Discovery" men we had
with us and Scott was impressed with my man, Cheetham, the Merchant
Service boatswain, and could not quite make out how "Alf," as the sailors
called him, got so much out of the hands--this little squeaky-voiced
man--I think we hit on Utopian conditions for working the ship. There
were no wasters, and our seamen were the pick of the British Navy and
Mercantile Marine. Most of the Naval men were intelligent petty officers
and were as fully alive as the merchantmen to "Alf's" windjammer
knowledge. Cheetham was quite a character, and besides being immensely
popular and loyal he was a tough, humorous little soul who had made more
Antarctic voyages than any man on board.
The seamen and stokers willingly gave up the best part of the crew space
in order to allow sheltered pony stables to be built in the forecastle;
it would have fared badly with the poor creatures had we kept them out on
deck on the southward voyage.
A visit to the Campbell Islands was projected, but abandoned on account
of the ship being unable to lay her course due to strong head winds on
December 1. We therefore shaped to cross the Antarctic Circle in 178
degrees W. and got a good run of nearly 200 miles in, but the wind rose
that afternoon and a gale commenced at a time when we least could afford
to face bad weather in our deeply-laden conditions. By 6 p.m. I had to
heave the ship to under lower topsails and fore topmast staysail. Engines
were kept going at slow speed to keep the ship under control, but when
night fell the prospect was gloomy enough. Captain Scott had consented to
my taking far more on board than the ship was ever meant to carry, and we
could not expect to accomplish our end without running certain risks. To
sacrifice coal meant curtailing the Antarctic cruising programme, but as
the weather grew worse we had to consider throwing coal overboard to
lighten the vessel. Quite apart from this, the huge waves which washed
over the ship swamped everything and increased the deck weights
considerably. Ten tons of coal were thrown over to prevent them from
taking charge and breaking petrol cases adrift. In spite of a liberal use
of oil to keep heavy water from breaking over, the decks were continually
swept by the seas and the rolling was so terrific that the poor dogs were
almost hanging by their chains. Meares and Dimitri, helped by the watch,
tended them unceasingly, but in spite of their combined efforts one dog
was washed overboard after being literally drowned on the upper deck. One
pony died that night, Oates and Atkinson standing by it and trying their
utmost to keep the wretched beast on its feet. A second animal succumbed
later, and poor Oates had a most trying time in caring for his charges
and rendering what help he could to ameliorate their condition. Those of
his ship-mates who saw him in this gale will never forget his strong,
brown face illuminated by a hanging lamp as he stood amongst those
suffering little beasts. He was a fine, powerful man, and on occasions he
seemed to be actually lifting the poor little ponies to their feet as the
ship lurched heavily to leeward and a great sea would wash the legs of
his charges from under them. One felt somehow, glancing into the ponies'
stalls, which Captain Scott and I frequently visited together, that
Oates's very strength itself inspired his animals with confidence. He
himself appeared quite unconscious of any personal suffering, although
his hands and feet must have been absolutely numbed by the cold and wet.
In the middle watch Williams, the Chief Engineer, reported that his pumps
were choked and that as fast as he cleared them they choked again, the
water coming into the ship so fast that the stoke-hold plates were
submerged and water gaining fast. I ordered the watch to man the
hand-pump, but that was soon choked too. Things now looked really
serious, since it was impossible to get to the pump-well while terrific
seas were washing over the ship and the afterhatch could not be opened.
Consequently we started to bail the water out with buckets and also
rigged the small fire-engine and pumped with this as well.
The water in the engine room gradually gained until it entered the ashpit
of the centre furnace and commenced to put the fires out. Both Williams
and Lashly were up to their necks in water, clearing and re-clearing the
engine room pump suctions, but eventually the water beat them and I
allowed Williams to let fires out in the boiler. It could not be
otherwise. We stopped engines, and with our cases of petrol being lifted
out of their lashings by the huge waves, with the ponies falling about
and the dogs choking and wallowing in the water and mess, their chains
entangling them and tripping up those who tried to clear them, the
situation looked as black and disheartening as it well could be.
When dawn broke the greater part of the lee bulwarks had been torn away
and our decks laid open to the sea, which washed in and out as it would
have over a rock. The poor ship laboured dreadfully, and after
consultation with Captain Scott we commenced to cut a hole in the engine
room bulkhead to get at the hand pump-well.
Meanwhile I told the afterguard off into watches, and, relieving every
two hours, they set to work, formed a chain at the engine room ladder way
and bailed the ship out with buckets. In this way they must have
discharged between 2000 and 3000 gallons of water. The watch manned the
hand pump, which, although choked, discharged a small stream, and for
twenty-four hours this game was kept up, Scott himself working with the
best of them and staying with the toughest.
It was a sight that one could never forget: everybody saturated, some
waist-deep on the floor of the engine room, oil and coal dust mixing with
the water and making every one filthy, some men clinging to the iron
ladder way and passing full buckets up long after their muscles had
ceased to work naturally, their grit and spirit keeping them going. I did
admire the weaker people, especially those who were unhardened by the
months of physical training of the voyage out from England.
When each two-hour shift was relieved, the party, coughing and
spluttering, would make their way into the ward-room where Hooper and
Neale, the stewards, mere boys, supplied them with steaming cocoa. How on
earth the cooks kept the galley fires going I could never understand:
they not only did this, but fed us all at frequent intervals.
By 10 p.m. on the 2nd December the hole in the engine room bulkhead was
cut completely. I climbed through it, followed by Bowers, the carpenter,
and Teddy Nelson, and when we got into the hold there was just enough
room to wriggle along to the pump-well over the coal. We tore down a
couple of planks to get access to the shaft and then I went down to the
bottom to find out how matters stood. Bowers came next with an electric
torch, which he shone downwards whilst I got into the water, hanging on
to the bottom rungs of the ladder leading to the bilge. Sitting on the
keel the water came up to my neck and, except for my head, I was under
water till after midnight passing up coal balls, the cause of all the
trouble. Though, of course, we had washed out the bilges in New Zealand,
the constant stream of water which leaked in from the topsides had
carried much coal-dust into them. This, mixed with the lubricating oil
washed down from the engines, had cemented into buns and balls which
found their way down and choked both hand and engine pump suctions. I
sent up twenty bucketfuls of this filthy stuff, which meant frequently
going head under the unspeakably dirty water, but having cleared the
lower ends of the suction pipe the watch manning the hand pump got the
water down six inches, and it was obvious by 4 o'clock in the morning
that the pump was gaining. We therefore knocked the afterguard off
bailing, and the seamen worked steadily at the pump until 9 a.m. and got
the water right down to nine inches, so we were able to light fires again
and once more raise steam. We made a serviceable wire grating to put
round the hand pump suction to keep the bigger stuff from choking the
pipes in future. It was days before some of us could get our hair clean
from that filthy coal-oil mixture.
One more pony died during the gale, but when the weather moderated early
on the 3rd, the remaining seventeen animals bucked up and, when not
eating their food, nonchalantly gnawed great gaps in the stout planks
forming the head parts of their stalls. At last the sun came out and
helped to dry the dogs. Campbell and his seamen cleared up the decks and
re-secured the top hamper in the forenoon, we reset sail, and after tea
Scott, Oates, Atkinson, and a few more of us hoisted the two dead ponies
out of the forecastle, through the skylight, and over the side. It was a
dirty job, because the square of the hatch was so small that a powerful
purchase had to be used which stretched out the ponies like dead rabbits.
We only made good twenty-three miles that day and, although the gale had
abated, it left us a legacy in the shape of a heavy uncomfortable swell.
Most of the bunks were in a sad state, the ship having worked so badly
that the upper deck seams opened everywhere and water had literally
poured into them.
Looking at the fellows' faces in the ward-room at dinner that night there
was no trace of anxiety, worry, or fatigue to be seen. We drank to
sweet-hearts and wives, it being Saturday evening, and those who had no
watch were glad to turn in early.
More fresh wind next day but finer weather to follow. Gran declared he
saw an iceberg on the 5th December, but it turned out to be a whale
spouting. Our runs were nothing to boast of, 150 miles being well above
the average, but the lengthening days told us that we were rapidly
changing our latitude and approaching the ice.