ANTARCTICA--THROUGH THE PACK ICE TO LAND
We sighted our first iceberg in latitude 62 degrees on the evening of
Wednesday, December 7. Cheetham's squeaky hail came down from aloft and I
went up to the crow's-nest to look at it, and from this time on we passed
all kinds of icebergs, from the huge tabular variety to the little
weathered water-worn bergs. Some we steamed quite close to and they
seemed for all the world like great masses of sugar floating in the sea.
From latitudes 60 to 63 degrees we saw a fair number of birds: southern
fulmars, whale birds, molly-mawks, sooty albatrosses, and occasionally
Cape-pigeons still. Then the brown-backed petrels began to appear, sure
precursors of the pack ice--it was in sight right enough the day after
the brown-backs were seen. By breakfast time on December 9, when nearly
in latitude 65 degrees, we were steaming through thin streams of broken
pack with floes from six to twelve feet across. A few penguins and seals
were seen, and by 10 a.m. no less than twenty-seven icebergs in sight.
The newcomers to these regions were clustered in little groups on the
forecastle and poop sketching and painting, hanging over the bows and
gleefully watching this lighter stuff being brushed aside by our strong
stem.
We were passing through pack all day, but the ice hereabouts was not
close enough nor heavy enough to stop us appreciably. The ship was
usually conned by Pennell and myself from the crow's-nest, and I took the
ship very near one berg for Ponting to cinematograph it. We now began to
see snow petrels with black beaks and pure white bodies, rather
resembling doves. Also we saw great numbers of brown-backed petrels the
first day in the pack, whole flights of them resting on the icebergs. The
sun was just below the horizon at midnight and we had a most glorious
sunset, which was first a blazing copper changing to salmon pink and then
purple. The pools of water between the floes caught the reflection, the
sea was perfectly still and every berg and ice-floe caught something of
the delicate colour. Wilson, of course, was up and about till long after
midnight sketching and painting. The Antarctic pack ice lends itself to
water-colour work far better than to oils.
When conning the ship from up in the crow's-nest one has a glorious view
of this great changing ice-field. Moving through lanes of clear blue
water, cannoning into this floe and splitting it with iron-bound stem,
overriding that and gnawing off a twenty ton lump, gliding south, east,
west, through leads of open water, then charging an innocent-looking
piece which brings the ship up all-standing, astern and ahead again,
screwing and working the wonderful wooden ship steadily southward until
perhaps two huge floes gradually narrow the lane and hold the little lady
fast in their frozen grip.
This is the time to wait and have a look round: on one side floes the
size of a football field, all jammed together, with their torn up edges
showing their limits and where the pressure is taken. Then three or four
bergs, carved from the distant Barrier, imprisoned a mile or so away,
with the evening sun's soft rays casting beautiful shadows about them and
kissing their glistening cliff faces.
Glancing down from the crow's-nest the ship throws deep shadows over the
ice and, while the sun is just below the southern horizon, the still
pools of water show delicate blues and greens that no artist can ever do
justice to. It is a scene from fairyland.
I loved this part of the voyage, for I was in my element. At odd times
during the night, if one can call it night, the crow's-nest would have
visitors, and hot cocoa would be sent up in covered pots by means of
signal halyards. The pack ice was new to all the ship's officers except
myself, but they soon got into the way of conning and working through
open water leads and, as time went on, distinguished the thinner ice from
the harder and more dangerous stuff.
On December 10 we stopped the ship and secured her to a heavy floe from
which we took in sufficient ice to make eight tons of fresh water, and
whilst doing this Rennick sounded and obtained bottom in 1964 fathoms,
fora-minifera and decomposed skeleton unicellular organs, also two pieces
of black basic lava. Lillie and Nelson took plankton and water bottle
samples to about 280 fathoms. A few penguins came round and a good many
crab-eater seals were seen. In the afternoon we got under way again and
worked for about eight miles through the pack, which was gradually
becoming denser. About 2:30 p.m. I saw from the crow's-nest four seals on
a floe. I slid down a backstay, and whilst the officer on watch worked
the ship close to them, I got two or three others with all our firearms
and shot the lot from the forecastle head. We had seal liver for dinner
that night; one or two rather turned up their noses at it, but, as Scott
pointed out, the time would come when seal liver would be a delicacy to
dream about.
Campbell did not do much conning except in the early morning, as his
executive duties kept him well occupied. The Polar sledge journey had its
attractions, but Campbell's party were to have interesting work and were
envied by many on board. For reasons which need not here be entered into
Campbell had to abandon the King Edward VII. Land programme, but in these
days his mob were known as the Eastern Party, to consist of the Wicked
Mate, Levick, and Priestley, with three seamen, Abbott, Browning, and
Dickason. Campbell had the face of an angel and the heart of a hornet.
With the most refined and innocent smile he would come up to me and ask
whether the Eastern Party could have a small amount of this or that
luxury. Of course I would agree, and sure enough Bowers would tell me
that Campbell had already appropriated a far greater share than he was
ever entitled to of the commodity in question. This happened again and
again, but the refined smile was irresistible and I am bound to say the
Wicked Mate generally got away with it, for even Bowers, the
incomparable, was bowled over by that smile.
We crossed the Antarctic Circle on the morning of the 10th, little
dreaming in those happy days that the finest amongst us would never
recross it again.
We took a number of deep-sea soundings, several of over 2000 fathoms, on
this first southward voyage. Rennick showed himself very expert with the
deep-sea gear and got his soundings far more easily than we had done in
the "Discovery" and "Morning" days.
We were rather unfortunate as regards the pack ice met with, and must
have passed through 400 miles of it from north to south. On my two
previous voyages we had had easier conditions altogether, and then it had
not mattered, but all with these dogs and ponies cooped up and losing
condition, with the "Terra Nova" eating coal and sixty hungry men
scoffing enormous meals, we did not seem to be doing much or getting on
with the show. It was, of course, nobody's fault, but our patience was
sorely tried.
We made frequent stops in the pack ice, even letting fires out and
furling sail, and sometimes the ice would be all jammed up so that not a
water hole was visible--this condition would continue for days. Then, for
no apparent reason, leads would appear and black water-skies would tempt
us to raise steam again. Scott himself showed an admirable patience, for
the rest of us had something to occupy our time with. Pennell and I, for
instance, were constantly taking sights and working them out to find our
position and also to get the set and drift of the current. Then there
were magnetic observations to be taken on board and out on the ice away
from the magnetic influence of the ship, such as it was. Simpson had
heaps to busy himself with, and Ponting was here, there, and everywhere
with his camera and cinematograph machine. Had it not been for our
anxiety to make southward progress, the time would have passed pleasantly
enough, especially in fine weather. Days came when we could get out on
the floe and exercise on ski, and Gran zealously looked to all our
requirements in this direction.
December 11 witnessed the extraordinary sight of our company standing
bareheaded on deck whilst Captain Scott performed Divine Service. Two
hymns were sung, which broke strangely the great white silence. The
weather was against us this day in that we had snow, thaw, and actually
rain, but we could not complain on the score of weather conditions
generally. Practically all the ship's company exercised on the floes
while we remained fast frozen. Next day there was some slight loosening
of the pack and we tried sailing through it and managed half a degree
southward in the forty-eight hours. We got along a few miles here and
there, but when ice conditions continued favourable for making any
serious advance it was better to light up and push our way onward with
all the power we could command. We got some heavy bumps on the 13th
December and as this hammering was not doing the ship much good, since I
was unable to make southing then at a greater rate than one mile an hour,
we let fires right out and prepared, as Captain Scott said, "To wait till
the clouds roll by." For the next few days there was not much doing nor
did we experience such pleasant weather.
Constant visits were made to the crow's-nest in search of a way through.
December 16 and 17 were two very gray days with fresh wind, snow, and
some sleet. Affectionate memories of Captain Colbeck and the little
relief ship, "Morning," came back when the wind soughed and whistled
through the rigging: This sound is most uncanny and the ice always seemed
to exaggerate any noise.
I hated the overcast days in the pack. It was bitterly cold in the
crow's-nest however much one put on then, and water skies often turned
out to be nimbus clouds after we had laboured and cannoned towards them.
The light, too, tired and strained one's eyes far more than on clear
days.
When two hundred miles into the pack the ice varied surprisingly. We
would be passing through ice a few inches thick and then suddenly great
floes four feet above the water and twelve to fifteen feet deep would be
encountered. December 18 saw us steaming through tremendous leads of open
water. A very funny occurrence was witnessed in the evening when the wash
of the ship turned a floe over under water and on its floating back a
fish was left stranded. It was a funny little creature, nine inches in
length, a species of notathenia. Several snow petrels and a skua-gull
made attempts to secure the fish, but the afterguard kept up such a
chorus of cheers, hoots and howls that the birds were scared away till
one of us secured the fish from the floe.
Early on the 19th we passed close to a large iceberg which had a shelving
beach like an island. We began to make better progress to the
south-westward and worked into a series of open leads. We came across our
first emperor penguin, a young one, and two sea-leopards, besides
crab-eater seals, many penguins, some giant petrels, and a Wilson petrel.
That afternoon tremendous pieces of ice were passed; they were absolutely
solid and regular floes, being ten to twelve feet above water and, as far
as one could judge, about 50 feet below. The water here was beautifully
clear.
We had now reached latitude 68 degrees and, as penguins were plentiful,
Archer and Clissold, the cooks, made us penguin stews and "hooshes" to
eke out our fresh provisions. Concerning the penguins, they frequently
came and inspected the ship. One day Wilson and I chased some, but they
continually kept just out of our reach; then Uncle Bill lay down on the
snow, and when one, out of curiosity, came up to him he grabbed it by the
leg and brought it to the ship, protesting violently, for all the world
like a little old man in a dinner jacket. Atkinson and Wilson found a new
kind of tapeworm in this penguin, with a head like a propeller. This worm
has since been named after one of us!
We were now down to under 300 tons of coal, some of which had perforce to
be landed, in addition to the 30 tons of patent fuel which were under the
forward stores. I had no idea that Captain Scott could be so patient. He
put the best face on everything, although he certainly was disappointed
in the "Terra Nova" and her steaming capacity. He could not well have
been otherwise when comparing her with his beloved "Discovery." Whilst in
the pack our leader spent his time in getting hold of the more detailed
part of our scientific programme and mildly tying the scientists in
knots.
We had some good views of whales in the pack. Whenever a whale was
sighted Wilson was called to identify it unless it proved to belong to
one of the more common species. We saw Sibbald's whale; Rorquals, and
many killer whales, but no Right whales were properly identified this
trip.
I very much wanted to show Scott the island we had discovered in the
first Antarctic Relief Expedition and named after him, but when in its
vicinity snow squalls and low visibility prevented this.
On the 22nd Bowers, Wright, Griffith Taylor and myself chased a lot of
young penguins on the ice and secured nine for our Christmas dinner. We
spent a very pleasant Christmas this year, devoting great attention to
food. We commenced the day with kidneys from our frozen meat store.
Captain Scott conducted the Christmas church service and all hands
attended since we had no steam up and were fast held in the pack. The
ward-room was decorated with our sledge flags and a new blue tablecloth
generally brightened up our Mess. We had fresh mutton for lunch and the
seamen had their Christmas dinner at this time. The afterguard dined at
6.30 on fresh penguin, roast beef, plum pudding, mince pies, and
asparagus, while we had champagne, port, and liqueurs to drink and an
enormous box of Fry's fancy chocolates for dessert. This "mortal gorge"
was followed by a sing-song lasting until midnight, nearly every one,
even the most modest, contributing. Around the Christmas days we made but
insignificant headway, only achieving thirty-one miles in the best part
of the week, but on the 29th the floes became thin and the ice showed
signs of recent formation, though intermingled with heavier floes of old
and rotten ice. There was much diatomacea in the rotten floes. About 2.40
a.m. the ship broke through into a lead of open water six miles in
length.
I spent the middle watch in the crow's-nest, Bowers being up there with
me talking over the Expedition, his future and mine. He was a wonderful
watch companion, especially when he got on to his favourite subject,
India. He had some good tales to tell of the Persian Gulf, of days and
weeks spent boat-cruising, of attacks made on gun-running dhows and
kindred adventure. He told me that one dhow was boarded while he was up
the Gulf, when the Arabs, waiting until most of the boat's crew of
bluejackets were on board, suddenly let go the halyards of their great
sail and let it down crash over the lot, the boom breaking many heads and
the sail burying our seamen, while the Arabs got to work and practically
scuppered the crowd.
Soon after 4 a.m. I went below and turned in, confident that we were
nearing the southern extreme of the pack. Captain Scott awoke when I went
into the cabin, pleased at the prospect, but after so many adverse ice
conditions he shook his head, unwilling to believe that we should get
clear yet awhile. I bet him ten sardine sandwiches that we should be out
of the pack by noon on the 30th, and when I turned out at 8 o'clock I was
delighted to find the ship steaming through thin floes and passing into a
series of great open water leads. By 6 p.m. on the 29th a strong breeze
was blowing, snow was falling, and we were punching along under steam and
sail. Sure enough we got out of the pack early on the 30th and, cracking
on all our canvas, were soon doing eight knots with a following wind.
Later in the day the wind headed us with driving snow, fine rain, and,
unfortunately, a considerable head swell. This caused the ship to pitch
so badly that the ponies began to give trouble again. Oates asked for the
speed to be reduced, but we got over this by setting fore and aft sail
and keeping the ship's head three or four points off the wind. New Year's
Eve gave us another anxious time, for we encountered a hard blow from the
S.S.E. It was necessary to heave the ship to most of the day under bare
poles with the engines just jogging to keep the swell on her bow. A thin
line of pack ice was sighted in the morning and this turned out to be
quite a blessing in disguise, for I took the ship close to the edge of it
and skirted along to leeward. The ice formed a natural break-water and
damped the swell most effectually. The swell and sea in the open would
have been too much for the ponies as it must be remembered that they had
been in their stalls on board for five weeks.
We had now reached the Continental Shelf, the depth of water had changed
from 1111 fathoms on the 30th to 180 fathoms this day. The biologists
took advantage of our jogging along in the open water to trawl, but very
few specimens were obtained. At midnight the "youth of the town" made the
devil of a din by striking sixteen bells, blowing whistles on the siren,
hooting with the foghorn, cheering and singing. What children we were,
but what matter!
1911 came like the opening of a new volume of an exciting book. This was
the year in which Scott hoped to reach the Pole, the ideal date he had
given being December 21. This was the year that Campbell and his party
were looking forward to so eagerly--if only they could be successful in
landing their gear and equipment in King Edward VII. Land--and, for the
less showy but more scientific sledgers, 1911 held a wealth of excitement
in store. Griffith Taylor and Debenham knew pretty well that next New
Year's Day would see them in the midst of their Western journey with the
secrets of those rugged mountains revealed perhaps. I do not know what my
own feelings were, it would be impossible to describe them. I read up
part of Shackleton's diary and something of what his companion Wilde had
written. Just this:
12 _miles_, 200 _yards_.--1/1/08.
"Started usual time. Quan (pony) got through the forenoon fairly well
with assistance, but after lunch the poor chap broke down and we had
to take him out of harness. Shackleton, Adams, and Marshall dragged
his sledge, and I brought the ponies along with the other load. As
soon as we camped I gave Quan the bullet, and Marshall and I cut him
up. He was a tough one. I am cook this week with Marshall as my tent
mate."
The more one read into Shackleton's story the more wonderful it all
seemed, and with our resources failure appeared impossible--yet that
telegram which Captain Scott had received at Melbourne:
"Beg leave to inform you proceeding Antarctic.
----AMUNDSEN."
We all knew that Amundsen had no previous Antarctic sledging experience,
but no one could deny that to Norwegians ice-work, and particularly
ski-ing, was second nature, and here lay some good food for thought and
discussion. Where would the "Fram" enter the pack? Where would Amundsen
make his base? The answers never once suggested anything like the truth.
Actually on New Year's Day Amundsen was between 500 and 600 miles north
of us, but of Roald Amundsen more anon.
How strange to be once more in open water, able to steer whatever course
we chose, with broad daylight all night, and at noon only a couple of
days' run from Cape Crozier. Practically no ice in sight, but a sunlit
summer sea in place of the pack, with blue sky and cumulo stratus clouds,
so different from the gray, hard skies that hung so much over the great
ice field we had just forced. The wind came fair as the day wore on and
by 10 p.m. we were under plain sail, doing a good six knots. High
mountains were visible to the west-ward, part of the Admiralty Range, two
splendid peaks to be seen towering above the remainder, which appeared to
be Mounts Sabine and Herschell. Coulman Island was seen in the distance
during the day.
What odd thrills the sight of the Antarctic Continent sent through most
of us. Land was first sighted late on New Year's Eve and I think
everybody had come on deck at the cry "Land oh!" To me those peaks always
did and always will represent silent defiance; there were times when they
made me shudder, but it is good to have looked upon them and to remember
them in those post-War days of general discontent, for they remind me of
the four Antarctic voyages which I have made and of the unanimous
goodwill that obtained in each of the little wooden ships which were our
homes for so long. How infinitely distant those towering mountains seemed
and how eternal their loneliness.
As we neared Cape Crozier Wilson became more and more interested. He was
dreadfully keen on the beach there being selected as a base, and his
enthusiasm was infectious. Certainly Scott was willing enough to try to
effect a landing even apart from the advantage of having a new base. The
Cape Crozier beach would probably mean a shorter journey to the Pole, for
we should be spared the crevasses which radiated from White Island and
necessitated a big detour being made to avoid them.
As we proceeded the distant land appeared more plainly and we were able
to admire and identify the various peaks of the snow-clad mountain range.
The year could not have opened more pleasantly. We had church in a warm
sun, with a temperature several degrees above freezing point, and most of
us spent our off-time basking in the sunshine, yarning, skylarking, and
being happy in general.
We tried to get a white-bellied whale on the 2nd January, but our
whale-gun did not seem to have any buck in it and the harpoon dribbled
out a fraction of the distance it was expected to travel.
The same glorious weather continued on January 2, and Oates took five of
the ponies on to the upper deck and got their stables cleared out. The
poor animals had had no chance of being taken from their stalls for
thirty-eight days, and their boxes were between two and three feet deep
with manure. The four ponies stabled on the upper deck looked fairly well
but were all stiff in their legs.
Rennick took soundings every forty or fifty miles in the Ross Sea, the
depth varying from 357 fathoms comparatively close up to Cape Crozier to
180 fathoms in latitude 73 degrees.
Cape Crozier itself was sighted after breakfast on the 3rd, and the Great
Ice Barrier appeared like a thin line on the southern horizon at 11.30
that morning. We were close to the Cape by lunch time, and by 1.30 we had
furled sail in order to manoeuvre more freely. The "Terra Nova" steamed
close up to the face of the Barrier, then along to the westward until we
arrived in a little bay where the Barrier joins Cape Crozier. Quite a
tide was washing past the cliff faces of the ice; it all looked very
white, like chalk, while the sun was near the northern horizon, but later
in the afternoon blue and green shadows were cast over the ice, giving it
a softer and much more beautiful appearance. Ponting was given a chance
to get some cinema films of the Barrier while we were cruising around,
and then we stopped in the little bay where the Ice Barrier joins Cape
Crozier, lowered a boat, and Captain Scott, Wilson, myself, and several
others went inshore in a whaler. We were, however, unable to land as the
swell was rather too heavy for boat work. We saw an Emperor penguin chick
and a couple of adult Emperors, besides many Adèlie penguins and
skua-gulls. We pulled along close under the great cliffs which frown over
the end of the Great Ice Barrier. They contrasted strangely in their
blackness with the low crystal ice cliffs of the Barrier itself. In one
place we were splashed by the spray from quite a large waterfall, and one
realised that the summer sun, beating down on those black foothills, must
be melting enormous quantities of ice and snow. A curious ozone smell,
which must have been the stench of the guano from the penguin rookeries,
was noticed, but land smells of any sort were pleasant enough now for it
brought home to us the fact that we should shortly embark on yet another
stage of the Expedition.
Pennell conned the ship close under the cliffs and followed the boat
along the coast. The "Terra Nova" was quite dwarfed by the great rocky
bluffs and we realised the height of the cliffs for the first time.
Whilst we were prospecting Nelson obtained water-bottle samples and
temperatures at 10, 50, 100, and 200 fathoms. The deep water apparently
continued to the foot of the cliff in most places but there were two or
three tiny steep beaches close to the junction of the Barrier and Ross
Island.
Captain Scott being satisfied that no landing was possible, we in the
boat returned to the ship and proceeded in her to the penguin rookery, a
mile or so farther west. When half a mile from the shore, we found the
bottom rapidly shoaling, the least depth being 9 1/2 fathoms. Several
small bergs were ashore hereabouts, but the swell breaking on the beach
plainly told us that a landing was out of the question. After carefully
searching the shore with glasses while the ship steamed slowly along it
all, ideas of a landing were abandoned and we set course for McMurdo
Sound. As soon as the ship was headed for her new destination we
commenced to make a running survey of the coast to Cape Bird. This took
until ten o'clock at night, and we found a great bight existed in Ross
Island which quite changed its shape on the map. After 10 p.m. we ran
into some fairly heavy pack ice, gave up surveying, and had a meal.
I went up to the crow's-nest in order to work the ship to the best
advantage, and spent eleven hours on end there, but the excitement of
getting the "Terra Nova" round Cape Bird and into McMurdo Sound made the
time fly. Occasionally the ship crashed heavily as she charged her way
through the ice masses which skirted the shore. Whilst I conned the ship
leadsmen sounded carefully, and I was able to work her close in to the
coast near Cape Bird and avoid some heavy ice which we could never have
forced. At 4.30 a.m. I broke through the Cape Bird ice-field and worked
the ship on as far as Cape Royds, which was passed about 6.30 a.m.
Looking through our binoculars we noticed Shackleton's winter hut looking
quite new and fresh.
Leaving Cape Royds we made our way up McMurdo's Sound as far as
Inaccessible Island, where we found the Strait frozen over from east to
west. Skirting along the edge of the sea ice I found there was no way in,
although I endeavoured to break into it at several points to reach what
looked like open water spaces a mile or two from the ice edge.
Accordingly, we stopped and I came down to report on the outlook. Captain
Scott, Wilson, and I eventually went aloft to the cross-trees and had a
good look round; we finally decided to land and look at a place where
there appeared to be a very good beach. In "Discovery" days this spot was
known as the skuary, being a favourite nesting place for skua-gulls, a
sort of little cape. I piloted the ship as close I could to this
position, which is situate midway between Cape Bird and Cape Armitage on
Ross Island. An ice anchor was laid out and then Scott, Wilson, and I
landed on the sea ice and walked a mile or so over it to the little cape
in question.
It appeared to be an ideal winter quarters, and was then and there
selected as our base. Captain Scott named it Cape Evans, after me, for
which I was very grateful. Wilson already had a Cape named after him on
the Victoria Land coast in latitude 82 degrees.
We now returned on board and immediately commenced landing motor sledges,
ponies, etc. For better working, once the various parties were landed, we
adopted the standard time of meridian 180 degrees, in other words, twelve
hours fast on Greenwich Mean Time.
We now organised ourselves into three parties and I gave up the command
of the "Terra Nova" to Pennell till the ship returned from New Zealand
next year. The charge of the transport over the one and a half miles of
sea ice which lay between the ship and shore was given to Campbell,
whilst I took charge of the Base Station, erection of huts, and so forth,
Captain Scott himself supervising, planning and improving.
We continued getting stuff out on the ice until late at night, and by
dinner time, 7 p.m., we had put two motor sledges, all the dogs and
ponies ashore, besides most of the ordinary sledges and tents.
Next day we turned out all hands at 4.30, breakfasted at 5, started work
at 6, and landed all the petrol, kerosene, and hut timber. Most of the
haulage was done by motors and men, but a few runs were made with ponies.
We erected a big tent on the beach at Cape Evans and in this the
hut-building party and those who were stowing stores and unloading
sledges on the beach got their meals and sleep. We worked continuously
until 10 p.m. with only the shortest of meal intervals, and then, tired
but contented, we "flattened out" in our sleeping-bags, bunks, or
hammocks.
The following day the same routine was continued and nearly the whole of
the provision cases came ashore and were stacked in neat little piles
under Bowers's direction. This indefatigable little worker now devoted
himself entirely to the western party stores. He knew every case and all
about it. Each one weighed approximately 60 lb. We had purposely arranged
that this should be so when ordering stores in London to save weight and
space. The cases were made of Venesta 3-ply wood. Of course, the
instruments and heavier scientific gear could not stow in these handy
packages, but the sixty-pound-Venesta was adhered to whenever possible.
The ponies were not worked till the afternoon of the 6th, and then only
the best of them with light loads.
Davis, the carpenter, had with him seaman Ford, Keohane, and Abbot. Their
routine was a little different from ours: they worked at hut building
from 7 a.m. till midnight usually, and their results were little short of
marvellous. Odd people helped them when they could, and of these Pouting
showed himself to be _facile princeps_ as carpenter. I never saw anything
like the speed in which he set up tongued and grooved match boarding.
Day, Nelson, and Lashly worked with the motor sledges; the newest motor
frequently towed loads of 2500 lb. over the ice at a six mile an hour
speed. The oldest hauled a ton and managed six double trips a day. Day,
the motor engineer, had been down here before--both he and Priestley came
from the Shackleton Expedition. The former had a decidedly comic vein
which made him popular all round. From start to finish Day showed himself
to be the most undefeated sportsman, and it was not his fault that the
motor sledges did badly in the end.
Perhaps my diary from January 7, 1911, to the 8th gives a good idea of
the progress we were making with the base station and of the general
working day here. It reads as follows:
"_Saturday, January_ 7, 1911.
"All hands hard at work landing stores. Meares and Dimitri running dog
teams to and fro for light gear.
"Captain Scott, Dr. Wilson, Griffith Taylor, Debenham, Cherry-Garrard,
and Browning leading ponies. Campbell, Levick, and Priestley hauling
sledges with colossal energy and enormous loads, the majority of the
ship's party unloading stores; Bowers, two seamen, Atkinson, and I
unloading sledges on the beach and carrying their contents up to their
assigned positions, Simpson and Wright laying the foundations for a
magnetic hut, and so on. Every one happy and keen, working as
incessantly as ants. I took on the job of ice inspector, and three or
four times a day I go out and inspect the ice, building snow bridges
over the tide cracks and thin places. The ice, excepting the floe to
which the ship is fast, is several feet thick. The floe by the 'Terra
Nova' is very thin and rather doubtful. We, ashore, had dinner at 10
p.m. and turned in about 11."
But the following day, although included here, was by no means typical.
"_Sunday, January_ 8.
"This morning a regrettable accident took place. The third and newest
motor sledge was hoisted out and, while being hauled clear on to the
firm ice, it broke through and sank in deep water. Campbell and Day
came in with the news, which Captain Scott took awfully well.
"It was nobody's fault, as Simpson and Campbell both tested the floe
first and found it quite thick and apparently good. However, there it
is, in about 100 fathoms of water.
"We stopped sledging for the day and those on board shifted the ship
by warping, but could not get her into a satisfactory billet, so
raised steam.
"We spent the day working on the hut and putting chairs and benches
together. Captain Scott put the sledge meters together and I helped
him. These are similar to the distance meters on motor-cars. They
register in nautical miles (6084 feet) and yards, to 25 yards or less
by interpolation.
"Took a True Bearing and found the approximate variation for Simpson
(149 degrees E.)."
On the following day those on board the ship shifted her to a new
position alongside the fast ice, just under a mile from our beach. The
transportation of stores continued and we got ashore a great number of
bales of compressed fodder, also some Crown Preserve Patent Fuel. As
there was nothing much to do on the beach my party lent a hand with the
landing of fodder, and I led the ponies Miki, Jehu, and Blossom; the
latter, having suffered greatly on the outward voyage, was in poor
condition. Still, most of the ponies were doing well, and at night were
picketed on a snowdrift behind the hut. They occasionally got adrift, but
I usually heard them and got up to make them fast, my small sleeping-tent
being right alongside their tethering space.
Nelson continued working with me unless the requirements of his
biological work called him away. In less than a week we had the whole of
our stores and equipment landed, and from the beginning many of us took
up our quarters at Cape Evans itself. We pitched several small tents on
the beach; and it was an agreeable change to roll up and sleep in a fur
bag after the damp, cold berths we had occupied in the ship. Teddy Nelson
became my particular friend in the shore party and shared a sledging tent
with me. The rest of the shore staff paired off and slept in the small
tents, while Captain Scott had one to himself. We called it the "Holy of
Holies," and from the privacy of this tiny dwelling Scott issued his
directions, supervised, planned, and improved whenever improvement could
be made in anything. He had a marvellous brain and a marvellous way of
getting the best possible work out of his subordinates, still he never
spared himself. One did with extraordinary little sleep, and in the sunny
days it became necessary to leave tent doors wide open, otherwise the
close-woven wind-proof tent cloth kept all the fresh air out and one woke
with a terrific head.
To rightly get hold of our wintering place one must imagine a low spit of
land jutting out into a fiord running, roughly north and south and
bounded on both sides by a steep-to coast line indented with glaciers of
vast size. Here and there gigantic snow-slopes were to be seen which more
gradually lowered into the sea, and all around ice-covered mountains with
black and brown foothills. A few islands rose to heights of 300 or 400
feet in McMurdo Sound, and these had no snow on them worth speaking of
even in the winter. The visible land was of black or chocolate-brown,
being composed of volcanic tuff, basalts, and granite. There were
occasional patches of ruddy brown and yellow which relieved the general
black and white appearance of this uninhabitable land, and close to the
shore on the north side of Cape Evans were small patches of even gritty
sand. In the neighbourhood of our Cape hard, brittle rocks cropped up
everywhere, rocks that played havoc with one's boots. Sloping up fairly
steeply from Cape Evans itself we had more and more rock masses until a
kind of rampart was reached, on which one could see a number of
extraordinary conical piles of rock, which looked much as if they had
been constructed by human hands for landmarks or surveying beacons--these
were called debris cones. This part above and behind Cape Evans was
christened The Ramp, and from it one merely had to step from boulders and
stones on to the smooth blue ice-slope that extended almost without
interruption to the summit of Erebus itself. From The Ramp one could gaze
in wonder at that magnificent volcano, White Lady of the Antarctic,
beautiful in her glistening gown of sparkling crystal with a stole of
filmy smoke-cloud wrapped about her wonderful shoulders.
We used to gaze and gaze at that constantly changing smoke or steam which
the White Lady breathes out at all seasons, and has done for thousands of
years.
Those were such happy days during the first Cape Evans summer. For the
most part we had hot weather and could wash in the thaw pools which
formed from the melting snow, and even draw our drinking water from the
cascades which bubbled over the sun-baked rock, much as they do in
summer-time in Norway.
The progress made by Davis and his crew of voluntary carpenters was
amazing. One week after our arrival at the Cape, Nelson, Meares, and I
commenced to cut a cave out of the ice cap above our camp for stowing our
fresh mutton in. When knock-off work-time came Bowers, Nelson, and I made
our way over to the ship with a hundred gallons of ice from this cave to
be used for drinking water, it all helped to save coal and nobody made a
journey to or fro empty handed if it could be helped. Once on board we
took the opportunity to bath and shave. In this country it is certainly a
case of "Where I dines I sleeps," so after supper on board we coiled down
in somebody's beds and slept till 5.30 next morning when we returned to
camp and carried on all day, making great progress with the grotto, which
was eventually lit by electric light. We had plenty of variety in the
matter of work; one part of the grotto was intended for Simpson's
magnetic work, and this was the illuminated section. Whenever people
visited the ice caves we got them to do a bit of picking and hewing; even
roping in Captain Scott, who did a healthy half-hour's work when he came
along our way.
Scott and Wilson got their hands in at dog-driving now, as I did
occasionally myself. Nobody could touch Meares or Dimitri at dog-team
work, although later on Cherry-Garrard and Atkinson became the experts.
The hut was finished externally on January 12 and fine stables built up
on its northern side. This complete, Bowers arranged an annexe on the
south side from which to do the rationing and provision issues. How we
blessed all this fine weather; it was hardly necessary to wear snow
glasses, in spite of so much sunshine, for the glare was relieved by the
dark rock and sand around us. When all the stores had been discharged
from the ship she lightened up considerably, and Campbell then set to
work to ballast her for Pennell. Meares amused the naval members of our
party by asking, with a childlike innocence, "Had they got all the cargo
out of the steamer?" There was nothing wrong in what he said, but the
"Terra Nova," Royal Yacht Squadron--and "cargo" and "steamer"--how our
naval pride was hurt!
Incidentally we called the sandy strand (before the winter snow came, and
covered it, and blotted it all out) Hurrah Beach; the bay to the
northward of the winter quarters we christened Happy Bay. Although our
work physically was of the hardest we lived in luxury for a while. Nelson
provided cocoa for Captain Scott and myself at midnight just before we
slept. He used to make it after supper and keep it for us in a great
thermos flask. We only washed once a week and we were soon black with sun
and dirt but in splendid training. In the first three weeks my shore
gang, which included the lusty Canadian physicist, Wright, carried many
hundreds of cases, walked miles daily, dug ice, picked, shovelled, handed
ponies, cooked and danced. Outwardly we were not all prototypes of "the
Sentimental Bloke," but occasionally in the stillness of the summer
nights, we some of us unbent a bit, when the sun stood low in the south
and all was quiet and still, and we did occasionally build castles in the
air and draw home-pictures to one another, pictures of English summers,
of river picnics and country life that framed those distant homes in gold
and made them look to us like little bits of heaven--however, what was
more important, the stores were all out of the "Terra Nova," even to
stationery, instruments, and chronometers, and we could have removed into
the hut at a pinch a week before we did, or gone sledging, for that
matter, had we not purposely delayed to give the ponies a chance to
regain condition. It was certainly better to let the carpenter and his
company straighten up first, and in our slack hours we, who were to live
in the palatial hut, got the house in order, put up knick-knacks, and
settled into our appointed corners with our personal gear and
professional impedimenta only at the last moment, a day or two before the
big depot-laying sledge journey was appointed to start. Simpson and
Ponting had the best allotments in the hut, because the former had to
accommodate anemometers, barometers, thermometers, motors, bells, and a
diversity of scientific instruments, but yet leave room to sleep amongst
them without being electrocuted, while the latter had to arrange a
small-sized dark room, 8 ft. by 6 ft. floor dimension, for all his
developing of films and plates, for stowing photographic gear and
cinematograph, and for everything in connection with his important and
beautiful work as camera artist to the Expedition. Ponting likewise slept
where he worked, so a bed was also included in the dark room.
Before moving the chronometers ashore Pennell, Rennick, and I myself took
astronomical observations to determine independently the position of the
observation spot on the beach at Cape Evans. The preliminary position
gave us latitude 77 degrees 38 minutes 23 seconds S. longitude 166
degrees 33 minutes 24 seconds E., a more accurate determination was
arrived at by running meridian distances from New Zealand and taking
occultations during the ensuing winter, for longitude: latitudes were
obtained by the mean results of stars north and south and meridian
altitudes of the sun above and below pole.
Before getting busy with the preliminaries for the big depot journey, I
took stock of the fresh meat in the grotto. The list of frozen flesh
which I handed over to Clissold, the cook, looked luxurious enough, for
it included nothing less than 700 lb. of beef, 100 sheep carcasses, 2
pheasants, 3 ox-tails, and 3 tongues, 10 lb. of sweetbread, 1 box of
kidneys, 10 lb. of suet, 82 penguins, and 11 skua-gulls! The cooks'
corner in the hut was very roomy, and, if my memory serves me aright, our
cooking range was of similar pattern to one supplied to the Royal yacht,
"Alexandra."
On January 19 a snow road was made over to the ice foot on the south side
of Cape Evans in order to save the ponies' legs and hoofs. The Siberian
ponies were not shod, and this rough, volcanic rock would have shaken
them considerably.
A great deal of the bay ice had broken away and drifted out of the Sound,
so that by the 20th the ship was only a few hundred yards from Hurrah
Beach. This day Rennick, smiling from ear to ear, came across the ice
with the pianola in bits conveyed on a couple of sledges. He fixed it up
with great cleverness at one end of the hut and it was quite wonderful to
see how he stripped it on board, brought it through all sorts of spaces,
transported it undamaged over ice and rocky beach, re-erected it, tuned
it, and then played "Home, Sweet Home." What with the pianola going all
out, the gramophone giving us Melba records, and the ship's company's
gramophone squawking out Harry Lauder's opposition numbers, Ponting
cinematographing everything of interest and worthy of pictorial record,
little Anton rushing round with nosebags for the ponies, Meares and
Dimitri careering with the dog teams over ice, beach, packing cases, and
what not, sailors with coloured tam-o'-shanters bobbing around in
piratical style, the hot sun beating down and brightening up everything,
one might easily have imagined this to be the circus scene, in the great
Antarctic joy-ride film. Everything ran on wheels in these days, and it
was difficult to imagine that in three months there would be no sun, that
this sweltering beach would be encrusted with ice, and that the cold,
dark winter would be upon us.
The 21st was quite an exciting day. Captain Scott woke me at 4 a.m. to
tell me that the ship was in difficulties. I got up at once, called the
four seamen, and with Uncle Bill we all went out on to the floe. The ice
to which the ship was fast had broken away, and so we helped her re-moor
with her ice-anchors. Petty Officer Evans went adrift on the floe, but we
got him back in the pram. We turned in again at 5.15 and set a watch, but
at 6.30 the "Terra Nova" hoisted an ensign at the main, a pre-arranged
signal, and so all hands again went out and got her ice anchors; she
slipped the ends of the wire hawsers holding them and stood out into the
Sound. The ice was breaking up fast, a swell rolling in causing the big
floes to grind and crunch in rather alarming fashion. Fortunately,
Pennell had raised steam, which was just as well for before he got clear
the ship was only half a cable from Cape Evans, which lay dead to
leeward--she was well out of it. We took the wire hawsers, pram and ice
anchors to our winter quarters and kept them in readiness for the ship's
return, then had a delightful breakfast, with appetites sharpened from
the early morning exercise and chill wind. Afterwards we continued the
preparations for the depot trip and got eight out of eleven sledges
fitted up with the bulk of their gear and a portion of stores.
At about 3 p.m. the "Terra Nova" came in, and just as she was turning to
come alongside the fast ice she struck a rock with only twelve feet of
water on it. This pinnacle, as it proved to be, lay within twenty feet of
a sounding of eleven fathoms. Pennell immediately sounded all round,
shifted several tons weight aft, and with the engines going full speed
astern, he made his crew run from side to side and roll ship. Scott sent
me out in the whaler with a party to assist the ship; we sounded all
round and quickly made a plan of the relative disposition of the
soundings round the "Terra Nova." However, as we finished, the ship moved
astern and successfully floated, the crew gave three cheers, and we
cheered lustily from the whaler. Pennell, as usual, was quite equal to
the occasion when the ship struck; he was absolutely master of the
situation, cool, decided, and successful. I was thankful to see the ship
floating again, for, unlike the "Discovery" expedition, we had no plans
for a relief ship.
When I told Captain Scott that the "Terra Nova" had run ashore he took it
splendidly. We ran down to the beach, and when we beheld the ship on a
lee shore heeling over to the wind, a certain amount of sea and swell
coming in from the northward, and with the ultimate fate of the
Expedition looking black and doubtful, Scott was quite cheerful, and he
immediately set about to cope with the situation as coolly as though he
were talking out his plans for a sledge journey.
After the "Terra Nova" got off this intruding rock she was steamed round
to the edge of the fast ice, near the glacier tongue which juts out
between Cape Evans and Cape Barne. We placed her ice-anchors, and after
that Wilson and I went on board and had a yarn with Pennell, whom we
brought back to tea. Scott was awfully nice to him about the grounding
and told him of his own experience in 1904, when the "Discovery" was
bumping heavily in a gale just after freeing herself from the ice at Hut
Point.
Nelson, Griffith Taylor, Meares, and Day helped me with the sledge
packing until 11.30 p.m. when we rolled into our bunks tired out and
immediately fell asleep.
The next day, a Sunday, was entirely devoted to preparing personal gear
for the depot journey: this means fitting lamp wick straps to our fur
boots or finnesko, picking from our kits a proportion of puttees and
socks, sewing more lamp wick on to our fur gloves so that these could
hang from our shoulders when it was necessary to uncover our hands. We
also had to fit draw-strings to our wind-proof blouses and adjust our
headgear according to our individual fancy, and finally, tobacco and
smokers' requisites would be added to the little bundle, which all packed
up neatly in a pillow-slip. This personal bag served also as a pillow.