South: The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition, 1914-1917
January 25. They had nine dogs and one heavily loaded sledge, and
started off briskly to the accompaniment of a cheer from their
shipmates. The dogs were so eager for exercise after their prolonged
confinement aboard the ship that they dashed forward at their best
speed, and it was necessary for one man to sit upon the sledge in order
to moderate the pace. Mackintosh had hoped to get to Hut Point that
night, but luck was against him. The weather broke after he had
travelled about five miles, and snow, which completely obscured all
landmarks, sent him into camp on the sea-ice. The weather was still
thick on the following morning, and the party, making a start after
breakfast, missed its way. “We shaped a course where I imagined Hut
Point to be,” wrote Captain Mackintosh in his diary, “but when the
sledge-meter showed thirteen miles fifty yards, which is four miles in
excess of the distance from the slip to Hut Point, I decided to halt
again. The surface was changing considerably and the land was still
obscured. We have been travelling over a thick snow surface, in which
we sink deeply, and the dogs are not too cheerful about it.” They
started again at noon on January 27, when the weather had cleared
sufficiently to reveal the land, and reached Hut Point at 4 p.m. The
sledge-meter showed that the total distance travelled had been over
seventeen miles. Mackintosh found in the hut a note from Joyce, who had
been there on the 25th, and who reported that one of his dogs had been
killed in a fight with its companions. The hut contained some stores
left there by earlier Expeditions. The party stayed there for the
night. Mackintosh left a note for Stenhouse directing him to place
provisions in the hut in case the sledging parties did not return in
time to be taken off by the ship. Early next morning Joyce reached the
hut. He had encountered bad ice and had come back to consult with
Mackintosh regarding the route to be followed. Mackintosh directed him
to steer out towards Black Island in crossing the head of the Sound
beyond Hut Point.
Mackintosh left Hut Point on January 28. He had taken some additional
stores, and he mentions that the sledge now weighed 1200 lbs. This was
a heavy load, but the dogs were pulling well and he thought it
practicable. He encountered difficulty almost at once after descending
the slope from the point to the sea-ice, for the sledge stuck in soft
snow and the party had to lighten the load and relay until they reached
a better surface. They were having trouble with the dogs, which did not
pull cheerfully, and the total distance covered in the day was under
four miles. The weather was warm and the snow consequently was soft.
Mackintosh had decided that it would be best to travel at night. A fall
of snow held up the party throughout the following day, and they did
not get away from their camp until shortly before midnight. “The
surface was abominably soft,” wrote Mackintosh. “We harnessed ourselves
on to the sledge and with the dogs made a start, but we had a struggle
to get off. We had not gone very far when in deeper snow we stopped
dead. Try as we would, no movement could be produced. Reluctantly we
unloaded and began the tedious task of relaying. The work, in spite of
the lighter load on the sledge, proved terrific for ourselves and for
the dogs. We struggled for four hours, and then set camp to await the
evening, when the sun would not be so fierce and the surface might be
better. I must say I feel somewhat despondent, as we are not getting on
as well as I expected, nor do we find it as easy as one would gather
from reading.”
The two parties met again that day. Joyce also had been compelled to
relay his load, and all hands laboured strenuously and advanced slowly.
They reached the edge of the Barrier on the night of January 30 and
climbed an easy slope to the Barrier surface, about thirty feet above
the sea-ice. The dogs were showing signs of fatigue, and when
Mackintosh camped at 6.30 a.m. on January 31, he reckoned that the
distance covered in twelve and a half hours had been about two and a
half miles. The men had killed a seal at the edge of the sea-ice and
placed the meat on a cairn for future use. One dog, having refused to
pull, had been left behind with a good feed of meat, and Mackintosh
hoped the animal would follow. The experiences of the party during the
days that followed can be indicated by some extracts from Mackintosh’s
diary.
“_Sunday, January_ 31.—Started off this afternoon at 3 p.m. Surface too
dreadful for words. We sink into snow at times up to our knees, the
dogs struggling out of it panting and making great efforts. I think the
soft snow must be accounted for by a phenomenally fine summer without
much wind. After proceeding about 1000 yds. I spotted some poles on our
starboard side. We shaped course for these and found Captain Scott’s
Safety Camp. We unloaded a relay here and went back with empty sledge
for the second relay. It took us four hours to do just this short
distance. It is exasperating. After we had got the second load up we
had lunch. Then we dug round the poles, while snow fell, and after
getting down about three feet we came across, first, a bag of oats,
lower down two cases of dog-biscuit—one with a complete week’s ration,
the other with seal meat. A good find. About forty paces away we found
a venesta-lid sticking out of the snow. Smith scraped round this with
his ice-axe and presently discovered one of the motor-sledges Captain
Scott used. Everything was just as it had been left, the petrol-tank
partly filled and apparently undeteriorated. We marked the spot with a
pole. The snow clearing, we proceeded with a relay. We got only half a
mile, still struggling in deep snow, and then went back for the second
load. We can still see the cairn erected at the Barrier edge and a
black spot which we take to be the dog.
“_February_ 1.—We turned out at 7.30 p.m., and after a meal broke camp.
We made a relay of two and a half miles. The sledge-meter stopped
during this relay. Perhaps that is the cause of our mileage not
showing. We covered seven and a half miles in order to bring the load
two and a half miles. After lunch we decided, as the surface was
getting better, to make a shot at travelling with the whole load. It
was a back-breaking job. Wild led the team, while Smith and I pulled in
harness. The great trouble is to get the sledge started after the many
unavoidable stops. We managed to cover one mile. This even is better
than relaying. We then camped—the dogs being entirely done up, poor
brutes.
“_February_ 2.—We were awakened this afternoon, while in our bags, by
hearing Joyce’s dogs barking. They have done well and have caught us
up. Joyce’s voice was heard presently, asking us the time. He is
managing the full load. We issued a challenge to race him to the Bluff,
which he accepted. When we turned out at 6.30 p.m. his camp was seen
about three miles ahead. About 8 p.m., after our hoosh, we made a
start, and reached Joyce’s camp at 1 a.m. The dogs had been pulling
well, seeing the camp ahead, but when we arrived off it they were not
inclined to go on. After a little persuasion and struggle we got off,
but not for long. This starting business is terrible work. We have to
shake the sledge and its big load while we shout to the dogs to start.
If they do not pull together it is useless. When we get the sledge
going we are on tenter-hooks lest it stop again on the next soft slope,
and this often occurs. Sledging is real hard work; but we are getting
along.”
The surface was better on February 2, and the party covered six miles
without relaying. They camped in soft snow, and when they started the
next day they were two hours relaying over one hundred and fifty yards.
Then they got into Joyce’s track and found the going better. Mackintosh
overtook Joyce on the morning of February 4 and went ahead, his party
breaking trail during the next march. They covered ten miles on the
night of the 4th. One dog had “chucked his hand in” on the march, and
Mackintosh mentions that he intended to increase the dogs’ allowance of
food. The surface was harder, and during the night of February 5
Mackintosh covered eleven miles twenty-five yards, but he finished with
two dogs on the sledge. Joyce was travelling by day, so that the
parties passed one another daily on the march.
A blizzard came from the south on February 10 and the parties were
confined to their tents for over twenty-four hours. The weather
moderated on the morning of the next day, and at 11 a.m. Mackintosh
camped beside Joyce and proceeded to rearrange the parties. One of his
dogs had died on the 9th, and several others had ceased to be worth
much for pulling. He had decided to take the best dogs from the two
teams and continue the march with Joyce and Wild, while Smith, Jack,
and Gaze went back to Hut Point with the remaining dogs. This involved
the adjustment of sledge-loads in order that the proper supplies might
be available for the depots. He had eight dogs and Smith had five. A
depot of oil and fuel was laid at this point and marked by a cairn with
a bamboo pole rising ten feet above it. The change made for better
progress. Smith turned back at once, and the other party went ahead
fairly rapidly, the dogs being able to haul the sledge without much
assistance from the men. The party built a cairn of snow after each
hour’s travelling to serve as guides to the depot and as marks for the
return journey. Another blizzard held the men up on February 13, and
they had an uncomfortable time in their sleeping-bags owing to low
temperature.
During succeeding days the party plodded forward. They were able to
cover from five to twelve miles a day, according to the surface and
weather. They built the cairns regularly and checked their route by
taking bearings of the mountains to the west. They were able to cover
from five to twelve miles a day, the dogs pulling fairly well. They
reached lat. 80° S. on the afternoon of February 20. Mackintosh had
hoped to find a depot laid in that neighbourhood by Captain Scott, but
no trace of it was seen. The surface had been very rough during the
afternoon, and for that reason the depot to be laid there was named
Rocky Mountain Depot. The stores were to be placed on a substantial
cairn, and smaller cairns were to be built at right angles to the depot
as a guide to the overland party. “As soon as breakfast was over,”
wrote Mackintosh the next day, “Joyce and Wild went off with a light
sledge and the dogs to lay out the cairns and place flags to the
eastward, building them at every mile. The outer cairn had a large flag
and a note indicating the position of the depot. I remained behind to
get angles and fix our position with the theodolite. The temperature
was very low this morning, and handling the theodolite was not too warm
a job for the fingers. My whiskers froze to the metal while I was
taking a sight. After five hours the others arrived back. They had
covered ten miles, five miles out and five miles back. During the
afternoon we finished the cairn, which we have built to a height of
eight feet. It is a solid square erection which ought to stand a good
deal of weathering, and on top we have placed a bamboo pole with a
flag, making the total height twenty-five feet. Building the cairn was
a fine warming job, but the ice on our whiskers often took some ten
minutes thawing out. To-morrow we hope to lay out the cairns to the
westward, and then to shape our course for the Bluff.”
The weather, became bad again during the night. A blizzard kept the men
in their sleeping-bags on February 21, and it was not until the
afternoon of the 23rd that Mackintosh and Joyce made an attempt to lay
out the cairns to the west. They found that two of the dogs had died