winter in the Antarctic, but that, having landed a party of men, she
should return northward before the ice made such a journey
impossible. A hut had been provided for this party, but in February
a spot was found in McMurdo Sound in which it was thought that the
ship would pass the winter in safety. Consequently Scott decided to
use the _Discovery_ as his headquarters, and to utilize the hut for
other purposes.
The task of erecting the huts (in addition to the main hut there were
two smaller ones for magnetic work) was difficult, but it was
eventually accomplished, and the party began to settle down to spend
the approaching winter. Before, however, the winter set in, Scott,
knowing how ignorant he and his companions were of sledging, was
anxious to gain as much experience as possible. And the result of
the sledging expeditions that were made only showed how urgently this
experience was needed. "Even at this time [early in March]," Scott
wrote, "I was conscious how much there was to be learnt, and felt
that we must buy our experience through many a discomfort; and on
looking back I am only astonished that we bought that experience so
cheaply, for clearly there were the elements of catastrophe as well
as of discomfort in the disorganized condition in which our
sledge-parties left the ship."*
* _The Voyage of the "Discovery,"_ page 170.
When the _Discovery_ was brought into McMurdo Sound there was good
reason to suppose that she would soon be frozen in. But weeks passed
before the sea became frozen, and until the ship was firmly fixed in
the ice there was always a chance that she might be driven away by a
gale and be unable to return. This uncertainty hampered operations
for some time, and it was not until the last days of March, 1902,
that the ship was satisfactorily frozen in.
The sun departed at the end of April, and during the long winter that
followed the party of explorers had much to occupy them and to
discuss. Scott had taken dogs with him for sledging purposes, but
although he knew that they must increase his radius of action, he
always detested the idea of using them because of the suffering that
must necessarily be caused. But the question of using dogs was only
one of the many problems in connection with sledging that was debated
during that Antarctic winter.
In judging the journeys that followed in the spring, it is to be
remembered that as far as the Antarctic regions are concerned they
were pioneer efforts, and also that the conditions of Antarctic
sledging differ considerably from those of the Arctic. In these
journeys Scott and his companions were taught lessons that were
afterwards of the greatest value to other explorers as well as to
themselves--lessons that nothing except experience could teach.
The journey that Scott, with Wilson, Shackleton, and several dogs,
began on 2nd November with the object of pushing as far south as
possible, was accompanied at the outset by a supporting party; but
this party turned back by the 15th, and Scott, Wilson, and Shackleton
had immediate cause to know how strenuous a task they had before
them. The dogs were already causing anxiety, and were quite unable
to do the work expected from them. Relay work, which meant that each
mile had to be travelled three times, became the order of the day,
and in consequence the advance towards the South was greatly
hindered. Soon afterwards the men themselves began to suffer from
blistered noses, cracked lips, and painful eyes; but on the 21st
Scott took a meridian altitude, and found the latitude to be 80° 1'.
In spite of all discomforts and anxieties, Scott was in a happy mood
that night when he wrote: "All our charts of the Antarctic regions
show a plain white circle beyond the eightieth parallel.... It has
always been our ambition to get inside that white space, and now we
are there the space can no longer be a blank; this compensates for a
lot of trouble."
[Illustration: South Polar Regions.]
As the advance laboriously continued, the condition of the dogs, to
Scott's poignant sorrow, went from bad to worse, and by 21st December
the question of turning back had to be considered. At this time
additional anxiety was caused by Shackleton, who was showing symptoms
of scurvy; but Christmas Day was in sight, and as on that festival
the travellers had decided to have a really satisfying meal, they
resolved to push on farther.
Their meal on Christmas Day put new life into the party; but they
realized all too acutely that their food supplies were so inadequate
that, if they were to continue the advance they must be prepared to
face the risk of famine. There were, however, strong incentives to
urge them on their way. Each day took them farther and farther into
regions hitherto untrodden by the feet of men. Who can blame them
for taking the risks that were involved in their determination to
continue the march?
But on 27th December, Wilson, whose industry in sketching and
determination not to give in were beyond praise, was suffering so
severely from snow-blindness that he had to march blindfold; and at
last the decision to turn back had to be made. Observations taken at
their last camp showed that they had reached between 82° 16' and 82°
17' S.--a finer record than Scott anticipated, after he had realized
that the dogs were unable to fulfill the hopes placed in them.
The return march was a prolonged period of suspense. By January 9,
1903, only four out of the nineteen dogs which had started on the
journey were alive, and on the 15th the last of them had to be
killed. "I think," Scott wrote, "we could all have wept." Even more
serious was the fact that at this time Shackleton became seriously
ill.
A grim struggle followed, for although Shackleton showed unending
courage he was suffering severely from scurvy, and Scott and Wilson,
who were themselves attacked in a lesser degree by this disease,
often had cause to wonder whether this return journey was not beyond
their powers. It was with feelings of profound thankfulness that, at
the beginning of February, Scott and his companions reached the ship.
For ninety-three days they had been on the march, and during that
time they had travelled 960 statute miles.
When the explorers reached their goal they found that the relief
ship, the _Morning_, had arrived, and Shackleton returned in her; but
the _Discovery_, after being so reluctant to freeze firmly into the
ice, refused entirely to thaw out, and consequently Scott and most of
his original party spent a second winter in the Antarctic. During
this additional year Scott, with Edgar Evans and Lashley as his
companions, made a wonderful western journey, in which adventures
enough to last ordinary men for a lifetime were almost part of the
daily routine.
Not until February, 1904, was the _Discovery_ freed from the ice, and
on 10th September she reached Spithead after an absence from England
of over three years. In those years a crop of most useful
information had been gathered, and many geographical discoveries had
been made. Among the latter were King Edward Land, Ross Island, and
the Victoria Mountains, and--most important of all--the great ice-cap
on which the South Pole is situated.
Not for some years yet was the South Pole to reveal its secret, but
Scott's first expedition may truthfully be said to have shown the way
towards that revelation. In the years to come Amundsen frankly
admitted how carefully he and his companions studied the accounts of
Scott's and Shackleton's expeditions.
III
After Scott's return from his first visit to the Antarctic no further
attempt was immediately made to visit the Far South. But that great
explorer, Ernest Shackleton, had seen enough of the South to be
gripped by the desire to solve more of its problems, and in the
_Geographical Journal_ of March, 1907, he stated the programme of a
proposed expedition. In this programme Shackleton said: "I do not
intend to sacrifice the scientific utility of the expedition to a
mere record-breaking journey, but say frankly, all the same, that one
of my great efforts will be to reach the southern geographical Pole."
The financial difficulties that seemed to be inseparable from Polar
expeditions followed, but they were ultimately removed, and on July
30, 1907, the _Nimrod_ sailed for New Zealand.
Bearing in mind the failure of the dogs in Scott's expedition,
Shackleton decided to use Manchurian ponies as his principal means of
traction. The utmost care was taken in preparing the equipment and
in choosing the staff to accompany the expedition. Shackleton
intended to land a shore party, and among this party were Frank Wild
and Ernest Joyce (who had been with Scott), Douglas Mawson,
Lieutenant J. B. Adams, Dr. E. Marshall, Raymond Priestley, and G. E.
Marston.
Before leaving England, Shackleton decided, if possible, to establish
his winter quarters on King Edward VII. Land in preference to Scott's
old quarters at Hut Point in McMurdo Sound; but he was unable to
carry out this plan, and ultimately he landed close to Cape Royds on
the east coast of Ross Island. On February 22, 1908, his ship, the
_Nimrod_, started upon her journey to New Zealand.
The winter quarters that had necessarily to be chosen were separated
from Hut Point by some 20 miles of frozen ice, and Shackleton was
greatly disappointed that he was prevented from landing on King
Edward VII. Land, where he would not only have broken fresh ground,
but would also have been considerably nearer to the Pole. In the
light of subsequent events it is of interest to note that Shackleton,
in his search for winter quarters off the Barrier, looked with
eagerness upon a bay which he named "The Bay of Whales," but owing to
the conditions of the ice he thought it necessary to leave this spot
as quickly as possible. In another respect this expedition met with
poor fortune--namely, in the loss of ponies. When the party settled
down to spend the winter only four ponies were still alive, and it is
no cause for wonder that they were watched with the closest
attention. And as a Manchurian pony has been endowed with more than
his fair share of original sin, he requires a very great deal of
watching.
Before the winter set in, an attempt was made to reach the top of
Mount Erebus, and this attempt met with a success that acted as a
tonic both to those who took part in it and to those who had remained
in winter quarters. As soon as mid-winter day had passed, Shackleton
began to make arrangements for the sledging work that had to be done
in the approaching spring. Depots had to be laid in the direction of
the South Pole, which was over 880 statute miles distant from Cape
Royds.
These preparations went on apace, and with a view to starting on the
Southern march from the nearest possible point to the Pole, stores,
etc., were transferred to Hut Point, and depots were also laid to
help the travellers on their way. Adams, Marshall, and Wild were
chosen to accompany Shackleton in this determined effort to reach the
South Pole, and on 29th October they set out with the four ponies and
the four sledges. By 3rd November they had left the sea-ice and were
on the Barrier; but instead of finding a better surface they found it
increasingly difficult. At the outset, however, the ponies did
splendid work, though one of them, on 9th November, nearly
disappeared into "a great fathomless chasm." At the time the
travellers were in a nest of crevasses, and Adams's pony suddenly
went down a crack. Fortunately, with help from Wild and Shackleton,
the pony and the sledge were saved from falling into this abyss; but
it was an alarming incident, for, as all the cooking gear and
biscuits and a large portion of the oil were on this sledge, the loss
of it would have been an irretrievable disaster to the Southern
journey.
The 26th November was a day to be remembered by Shackleton and his
companions, for at night they found that they had reached latitude
82° 18' S., and so had passed Scott's "farthest south." On 1st
December, latitude 83° 16' S. was reached, but by this time three of
the ponies had been killed, and only one was left. A few days later
this last pony disappeared down a crevasse, and nearly took Wild and
the sledge with him. Serious as the loss of this gallant pony was,
there was great cause for thankfulness that Wild and the sledge had
almost miraculously been saved. Had the sledge gone, only two
sleeping bags would have been left for the four men, and the
equipment would have been so short that the explorers could scarcely
have got back to winter quarters.
Presently the travellers left the Barrier and attacked the great
Beardmore Glacier which was between them and the plateau. On 9th
December, 340 geographical miles lay between them and the Pole, and
progress was painfully slow, for the surface consisted mainly of
rotten ice through which their feet continually broke. A week later
they had travelled over nearly 100 miles of crevassed ice, and had
risen 6,000 feet; but the plateau which they so eagerly longed to
reach still lay ahead of them. "Never," Shackleton wrote, "do I
expect to meet anything more tantalizing than the plateau."
Appalling surfaces, to walk on which Wild described as like walking
over the glass roof of a station, continued after the plateau had
been reached, and before Christmas arrived it was obvious, if the
advance was to be continued, that absolute hunger, amounting almost
to starvation, stared the explorers in the face.
On the evening of New Year's Day, 1909, the Pole was only 172½ miles
distant, but the men's strength was nearly exhausted. The
thermometer remained obstinately below zero, and on 6th January there
were over 50 degrees of frost, with a blizzard and drift. A last
dash onwards followed, and on 9th January Shackleton and his party
reached 88° 23' S., and left the Union Jack flying on the plateau.
The attempt to reach the Pole had failed; but it was a gallant
attempt, and the homeward marches that followed show clearly enough
that to have advanced farther was beyond the powers of the men.
Indeed, the return journey was a terrible experience--a grim struggle
against starvation; and to add to the misery of it, dysentery--owing,
in Shackleton's opinion, to eating diseased pony's meat--attacked
each member of the party. All that was possible had been done, and
had not the wind been behind the explorers during one of their
acutest periods of suffering, it is improbable that they would ever
have reached their winter quarters.
While Shackleton was making his great march, a party, consisting of
David, Mawson, and Mackay, had set out, with a view to determining
the position of the south magnetic Pole. In this they were
successful, the mean position of the magnetic Pole being marked down
by Mawson as in latitude 72° 25' S., longitude 155° 16'. This was a
great triumph for the explorers, and, needless to say, it was not
gained without many perilous adventures and narrow escapes.
In March, 1909, the _Nimrod_ returned safely to Lyttelton, New
Zealand, where Shackleton and his men met with the warmest of
welcomes. Once again the South Pole had resisted the attempt to
locate it, but the time was drawing near for its mysteries to be
disclosed.
IV
When, on September 13, 1909, Captain Scott published his plans for a
British Antarctic expedition in the following year, Roald Amundsen
was not thinking about the Far South. The _Fram_, it is true, was
being prepared for a third voyage, but the Arctic was again to be her
destination. Then, during the September of 1909 came the news that
Peary had reached the North Pole. One of the great secrets of the
world had been revealed; but another was still undiscovered, and
Amundsen's thoughts were promptly turned from the Arctic to the
Antarctic.
For various reasons Amundsen did not announce his change of plans,
and when the _Fram_ sailed in August, 1910, only a very few people
knew where she was bound for. Not until the ship left Madeira did
Amundsen announce his destination to the men who were accompanying
him, and they received the news with joy.
In two or three respects Amundsen's expedition differed considerably
from Scott's new expedition. Amundsen, for instance, relied on dogs
for his motive power; Scott relied on ponies. Then, again, Amundsen
decided to make his winter headquarters off the Bay of Whales, which
was a degree farther south than McMurdo Sound, where Scott wintered.
Scott was to take the Beardmore Glacier as his route to the South
Pole; Amundsen's plan, when he set out for the Pole, was to leave
Scott's route alone and push straight south from his starting-place.
"Our starting-point lay 350 geographical miles," Amundsen wrote,
"from Scott's winter quarters in McMurdo Sound, so there could be no
question of encroaching upon his sphere of action." Lastly, it must
be mentioned that the Norwegians were as at home on ski as they were
on their feet, while most of Scott's men were at their best only
moderate performers upon ski.
All went well with the _Fram_ on her voyage to the South. She
crossed the Antarctic Circle on January 2, 1911, and twelve days
later she was in the Bay of Whales. In landing on the Great Barrier,
Amundsen knew that he was taking a considerable amount of risk, for
there was no certainty that it was not afloat where he landed on it
from the Bay of Whales. In Amundsen's opinion, however, the Barrier
there rests "upon a good solid foundation, probably in the form of
small islands, skerries, or shoals."*
* Amundsen's _The South Pole_ (John Murray), Vol. I., page 49.
And indeed the Barrier treated him well. The landing was performed
with supreme ease, and enough seals were found to relieve any
possible anxiety as to the supply of fresh meat. Penguins, those
delightful birds which provide both humour and food for visitors to
Antarctica, were not plentiful, and those that were seen were chiefly
of the Adélie species.
"Framheim," the hut in which the South Pole party were to live during
the winter, was soon erected, and Amundsen found infinite
satisfaction in the number of dogs which were safely landed. So far
from losing dogs on the voyage, he had started with 97 and finished
with 116, a most welcome addition.
The _Fram_, leaving eight men to winter on shore, was due to sail in
the middle of February upon an oceanographical cruise, but before
leaving she received some unexpected visitors. On 4th February,
Captain Scott's ship, the _Terra Nova_, with the party which had
vainly hoped to land on King Edward VII. Land, came into the Bay of
Whales.
The news that Amundsen was safely established reached Scott on 22nd
February, and he could not fail to be impressed by it. "One thing
only," he wrote characteristically, "fixes itself definitely in my
mind. The proper, as well as the wiser, course for us is to proceed
exactly as though this had not happened; to go forward and do our
best for the honour of the country without fear or panic. There is
no doubt that Amundsen's plan is a very serious menace to ours. He
has a shorter distance to the Pole by 60 miles. I never thought he
could have got so many dogs safely to the ice. But above and beyond
all, he can start his journey early in the season--an impossible
condition with ponies."* Words that, in the light of future events,
are more than ordinarily significant.
* _The Voyages of Captain Scott_ (John Murray), page 259.
Before the winter set in Amundsen determined to deposit food, etc.,
on the way to the Pole, and on 10th February he set out on his first
journey with three men, three sledges, and eighteen dogs.
This first trip upon the Barrier was full of exciting possibilities.
Amundsen was without knowledge of the ground over which he had to
travel, and he did not know whether the dogs would respond to the
demands made upon them, or if his outfit would stand the severe test
to which it was to be put. This was essentially a trial trip, and
the travellers were naturally anxious that it should be successful.
Eighty degrees South was reached, and in every respect save one
Amundsen was satisfied with his journey. The only fly in his
ointment was that time had been wasted in preparations before the
party was ready to start in the mornings. But it was only a small
fly, and Amundsen knew that with thought it could easily be removed.
The dogs had responded so splendidly to the calls made upon them,
that perhaps the most important question of all had been
satisfactorily answered.
More depot-laying expeditions followed, and before the winter closed
around the explorers, they had placed three tons of supplies at
depots in latitudes 80°, 81°, and 82° S. Amundsen and his men could,
therefore, settle down for their period of waiting with justifiable
hopes that the great spring march to the Pole would end in triumph.
The winter was spent in paying attention to the minutest details of
equipment, and the inhabitants of "Framheim" were kept gloriously
busy and contented. But with the coming of spring Amundsen began to
be impatient to be up and away on his great journey. Temperatures,
however, remained very low--somewhere in the neighbourhood of -60°
F.--and until they ceased "to grovel in the depths," no start could
be made.
With the beginning of September the temperatures began to improve,
and Amundsen was determined to start as soon as he possibly could,
arguing that he could turn round and come back if he found that he
had started too soon. So on 8th September he did set out, and soon
discovered that the dogs could not endure the intense cold. On the
11th the temperature was -67.9° F.; on the following day it was
-61.6° F., with a breeze dead against the travellers. On reaching
the 80° S. depot, Amundsen deposited more stores, and then returned
to "Framheim."
More than a month passed before the South Pole party was able to make
another start, and it is of interest to note that, whereas Amundsen
ultimately got off on 19th October, Scott was unable to start before
1st November.
The South Pole party which set out from "Framheim" consisted of
Amundsen, Hanssen, Wisting, Hassel, and Bjaaland, and they were
accompanied by fifty-two dogs drawing four sledges. As an
illustration of the dangers that lay between the explorers and the
Pole, it is enough to say that on the first day's journey a terrible
disaster was only avoided by a few inches. In the thick weather they
had steered too far to the east, and almost fell into what Amundsen
describes as "a yawning black abyss, large enough to have swallowed
us all, and a little more."
On the 21st Bjaaland's sledge sank down a crevasse, and had to be
unloaded before it could be brought again to the surface. Wisting,
with the Alpine rope fastened round him, went down and unloaded the
sledge, and when he came up again and was asked if he was not glad to
be out of such a position, he replied, "It was nice and warm down
there."
It is true that such events are far from unusual in the lives of
Polar explorers, but Wisting's answer is worth quoting, because it is
typical of the cheerful spirit shown by Amundsen's companions during
the whole of the journey. In temperament they were admirably suited
for the task that they had undertaken.
With a view to landmarks on the return journey, Amundsen, rightly
leaving nothing more to chance than he could help, decided to build
snow-beacons. The first beacon was built in 80° 23' S., and
altogether 150 beacons were erected, six feet in height.
Up to 82° S. the course had already been travelled by depot-laying
parties, but when, on 6th November, they left 82° S. behind them,
their journey was absolutely into the unknown. At this time they
were marching about 23 miles daily, and at this rate they advanced a
degree in three days.
On reaching 83° S., the explorers deposited provisions for five men
and twelve dogs for four days, and depots were subsequently made at
84° S., and 85° S. It was from the latter depot that they decided to
make what may, without exaggeration, be called their dash for the
Pole. From their camp at 85° S., the distance to the Pole and back
was 683 miles. After consideration Amundsen determined to take
forward provisions, etc., for sixty days on the sledges, and depot
the rest of the supplies and outfit.
A weary ascent to the plateau lay before the explorers, and they
started upon it on 17th November. Three days later they had reached
the plateau, but although they were happy enough in having
accomplished a long and dangerous climb, their first camp on the
plateau was not one of happy memory.