South: The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition, 1914-1917
Hayward, too.” The two men were about again on November 24, and the
party started south on its third journey to the Bluff on the 25th.
Mackintosh was some distance ahead, but the two parties met on the 28th
and had some discussion as to plans. Mackintosh was proceeding to the
Bluff depot with the intention of taking a load of stores to the depot
placed on lat. 80° S. in the first season’s sledging. Joyce, after
depositing his third load at the Bluff, would return to Hut Point for a
fourth and last load, and the parties would then join forces for the
journey southward to Mount Hope.
Joyce left 729 lbs. at the Bluff depot on December 2, reached Hut Point
on December 7, and, after allowing dogs and men a good rest, he moved
southward again on December 13. This proved to be the worst journey the
party had made. The men had much trouble with crevasses, and they were
held up by blizzards on December 16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 26, and 27. They
spent Christmas Day struggling through soft snow against an icy wind
and drift. The party reached the Bluff depot on December 28, and found
that Mackintosh, who had been much delayed by the bad weather, had gone
south two days earlier on his way to the 80° S. depot. He had not made
much progress and his camp was in sight. He had left instructions for
Joyce to follow him. The Bluff depot was now well stocked. Between 2800
and 2900 lbs. of provisions had been dragged to the depot for the use
of parties working to the south of this point. This quantity was in
addition to stores placed there earlier in the year.
Joyce left the Bluff depot on December 29, and the parties were
together two days later. Mackintosh handed Joyce instructions to
proceed with his party to lat. 81° S and place a depot there. He was
then to send three men back to Hut Point and proceed to lat. 82° S.,
where he would lay another depot. Then if provisions permitted he would
push south as far as lat. 83°. Mackintosh himself was reinforcing the
depot at lat. 80° S. and would then carry on southward. Apparently his
instructions to Joyce were intended to guard against the contingency of
the parties failing to meet. The dogs were hauling well, and though
their number was small they were of very great assistance. The parties
were now ninety days out from Cape Evans, and “all hands were feeling
fit.”
The next incident of importance was the appearance of a defect in one
of the two Primus lamps used by Joyce’s party. The lamps had all seen
service with one or other of Captain Scott’s parties, and they had not
been in first-class condition when the sledging commenced. The
threatened failure of a lamp was a matter of grave moment, since a
party could not travel without the means of melting snow and preparing
hot food. If Joyce took a faulty lamp past the 80° S. depot, his whole
party might have to turn back at lat. 81° S., and this would imperil
the success of the season’s sledging. He decided, therefore, to send
three men back from the 80° S. depot, which he reached on January 6,
1916. Cope, Gaze, and Jack were the men to return. They took the
defective Primus and a light load, and by dint of hard travelling,
without the aid of dogs, they reached Cape Evans on January 16.
Joyce, Richards, and Hayward went forward with a load of 1280 lbs.,
comprising twelve weeks’ sledging rations, dog food and depot supplies,
in addition to the sledging-gear. They built cairns at short intervals
as guides to the depots. Joyce was feeding the dogs well and giving
them a hot hoosh every third night. “It is worth it for the wonderful
amount of work they are doing. If we can keep them to 82° S. I can
honestly say it is through their work we have got through.” On January
8 Mackintosh joined Joyce, and from that point the parties, six men
strong, went forward together. They marched in thick weather during
January 10, 11, and 12, keeping the course by means of cairns, with a
scrap of black cloth on top of each one. It was possible, by keeping
the cairns in line behind the sledges and building new ones as old ones
disappeared, to march on an approximately straight line. On the evening
of the 12th they reached lat. 81° S., and built a large cairn for the
depot. The stores left here were three weeks’ rations for the ordinary
sledging unit of three men. This quantity would provide five days’
rations for twelve men, half for the use of the overland party, and
half for the depot party on its return journey.
The party moved southwards again on January 13 in bad weather.
“After a little consultation we decided to get under way,” wrote Joyce.
“Although the weather is thick, and snow is falling, it is worth while
to make the effort. A little patience with the direction and the
cairns, even if one has to put them up 200 yds. apart, enables us to
advance, and it seems that this weather will never break. We have cut
up an old pair of trousers belonging to Richards to place on the sides
of the cairns, so as to make them more prominent. It was really
surprising to find how we got on in spite of the snow and the pie-crust
surface. We did 5 miles 75 yds. before lunch. The dogs are doing
splendidly. I really don’t know how we should manage if it were not for
them.... The distance for the day was 10 miles 720 yds., a splendid
performance considering surface and weather.”
The weather cleared on the 14th; and the men were able to get bearings
from the mountains to the westward. They advanced fairly rapidly during
succeeding days, the daily distances being from ten to twelve miles,
and reached lat. 82° S. on the morning of January 18. The depot here,
like the depot at 81° S., contained five days’ provisions for twelve
men. Mackintosh was having trouble with the Primus lamp in his tent,
and this made it inadvisable to divide the party again. It was decided,
therefore, that all should proceed, and that the next and last depot
should be placed on the base of Mount Hope, at the foot of the
Beardmore Glacier, in lat. 83° 30´ S. The party proceeded at once and
advanced five miles beyond the depot before camping on the evening of
the 18th.
The sledge loads were now comparatively light, and on the 19th the
party covered 13 miles 700 yds. A new trouble was developing, for
Spencer-Smith was suffering from swollen and painful legs, and was
unable to do much pulling. Joyce wrote on the 21st that Smith was
worse, and that Mackintosh was showing signs of exhaustion. A mountain
that he believed to be Mount Hope could be seen right ahead, over
thirty miles away. Spencer-Smith, who had struggled forward gamely and
made no unnecessary complaints, started with the party the next morning
and kept going until shortly before noon. Then he reported his
inability to proceed, and Mackintosh called a halt. Spencer-Smith
suggested that he should be left with provisions and a tent while the
other members of the party pushed on to Mount Hope, and pluckily
assured Mackintosh that the rest would put him right and that he would
be ready to march when they returned. The party agreed, after a brief
consultation, to adopt this plan. Mackintosh felt that the depot must
be laid, and that delay would be dangerous. Spencer-Smith was left with
a tent, one sledge, and provisions, and told to expect the returning
party in about a week. The tent was made as comfortable as possible
inside, and food was placed within the sick man’s reach. Spencer-Smith
bade his companions a cheery good-bye after lunch, and the party was
six or seven miles away before evening. Five men had to squeeze into
one tent that night, but with a minus temperature they did not object
to being crowded.
On January 23 a thick fog obscured all landmarks, and as bearings of
the mountains were now necessary the party had to camp at 11 a.m.,
after travelling only four miles. The thick weather continued over the
24th, and the men did not move again until the morning of the 25th.
They did 17¾ miles that day, and camped at 6 p.m. on the edge of “the
biggest ice-pressure” Joyce had ever seen. They were steering in
towards the mountains and were encountering the tremendous congestion
created by the flow of the Beardmore Glacier into the barrier ice.
“We decided to keep the camp up,” ran Joyce’s account of the work done
on January 26. “Skipper, Richards, and myself roped ourselves together,
I taking the lead, to try and find a course through this pressure. We
came across very wide crevasses, went down several, came on top of a
very high ridge, and such a scene! Imagine thousands of tons of ice
churned up to a depth of about 300 ft. We took a couple of photographs,
then carried on to the east. At last we found a passage through, and
carried on through smaller crevasses to Mount Hope, or we hoped it was
the mountain by that name. We can see a great glacier ahead which we
take for the Beardmore, which this mountain is on, but the position on
the chart seems wrong. [It was not.—E.H.S.] We nearly arrived at the
ice-foot when Richards saw something to the right, which turned out to
be two of Captain Scott’s sledges, upright, but three-quarters buried
in snow. Then we knew for certain this was the place we had struggled
to get to. So we climbed the glacier on the slope and went up about one
and a quarter miles, and saw the great Beardmore Glacier stretching to
the south. It is about twenty-five miles wide—a most wonderful sight.
Then we returned to our camp, which we found to be six miles away. We
left at 8 a.m. and arrived back at 3 p.m., a good morning’s work. We
then had lunch. About 4 p.m. we got under way and proceeded with the
two sledges and camped about 7 o’clock. Wild, Hayward and myself then
took the depot up the Glacier, a fortnight’s provisions. We left it
lashed to a broken sledge and put up a large flag. I took two
photographs of it. We did not arrive back until 10.30 p.m. It was
rather a heavy pull up. I was very pleased to see our work completed at
last.... Turned in 12 o’clock. The distance done during day 22 miles.”
The party remained in camp until 3.30 p.m. on the 27th, owing to a
blizzard with heavy snow. Then they made a start in clearer weather and
got through the crevassed area before camping at 7 p.m. Joyce was
suffering from snow-blindness. They were now homeward bound, with 365
miles to go. They covered 16½ miles on the 28th, with Joyce absolutely
blind and hanging to the harness for guidance, “but still pulling his
whack.” They reached Spencer-Smith’s camp the next afternoon and found
him in his sleeping-bag, quite unable to walk. Joyce’s diary of this
date contains a rather gloomy reference to the outlook, since he
guessed that Mackintosh also would be unable to make the homeward
march. “The dogs are still keeping fit,” he added. “If they will only
last to 80° S. we shall then have enough food to take them in, and then
if the ship is in I guarantee they will live in comfort the remainder
of their lives.”
No march could be made on the 30th, since a blizzard was raging. The
party made 8 miles on the 31st, with Spencer-Smith on one of the
sledges in his sleeping-bag. The sufferer was quite helpless, and had
to be lifted and carried about, but his courage did not fail him. His
words were cheerful even when his physical suffering and weakness were
most pronounced. The distance for February 1 was 13 miles. The next
morning the party abandoned one sledge in order to lighten the load,
and proceeded with a single sledge, Spencer-Smith lying on top of the
stores and gear. The distance for the day was 15½ miles. They picked up
the 82° S. depot on February 3, and took one week’s provisions, leaving
two weeks’ rations for the overland party. Joyce, Wild, Richards, and
Hayward were feeling fit. Mackintosh was lame and weak; Spencer-Smith’s
condition was alarming. The party was being helped by strong southerly