South: The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition, 1914-1917
the highest traditions of Polar service; and it was a privilege to me
to have had under my command men who, through dark days and the stress
and strain of continuous danger, kept up their spirits and carried out
their work regardless of themselves and heedless of the limelight. The
same energy and endurance that they showed in the Antarctic they
brought to the greater war in the Old World. And having followed our
fortunes in the South you may be interested to know that practically
every member of the Expedition was employed in one or other branches of
the active fighting forces during the war. Several are still abroad,
and for this very reason it has been impossible for me to obtain
certain details for this book.
Of the fifty-three men who returned out of the fifty-six who left for
the South, three have since been killed and five wounded. Four
decorations have been won, and several members of the Expedition have
been mentioned in dispatches. McCarthy, the best and most efficient of
the sailors, always cheerful under the most trying circumstances, and
who for these very reasons I chose to accompany me on the boat journey
to South Georgia, was killed at his gun in the Channel. Cheetham, the
veteran of the Antarctic, who had been more often south of the
Antarctic circle than any man, was drowned when the vessel he was
serving in was torpedoed, a few weeks before the Armistice. Ernest
Wild, Frank Wild’s brother, was killed while minesweeping in the
Mediterranean. Mauger, the carpenter on the _Aurora_, was badly wounded
while serving with the New Zealand Infantry, so that he is unable to
follow his trade again. He is now employed by the New Zealand
Government. The two surgeons, Macklin and McIlroy, served in France and
Italy, McIlroy being badly wounded at Ypres. Frank Wild, in view of his
unique experience of ice and ice conditions, was at once sent to the
North Russian front, where his zeal and ability won him the highest
praise.
Macklin served first with the Yorks and later transferred as medical
officer to the Tanks, where he did much good work. Going to the Italian
front with his battalion, he won the Military Cross for bravery in
tending wounded under fire.
James joined the Royal Engineers, Sound Ranging Section, and after much
front-line work was given charge of a Sound Ranging School to teach
other officers this latest and most scientific addition to the art of
war.
Wordie went to France with the Royal Field Artillery and was badly
wounded at Armentières.
Hussey was in France for eighteen months with the Royal Garrison
Artillery, serving in every big battle from Dixmude to Saint-Quentin.
Worsley, known to his intimates as Depth-Charge Bill, owing to his
success with that particular method of destroying German submarines,
has the Distinguished Service Order and three submarines to his credit.
Stenhouse, who commanded the _Aurora_ after Mackintosh landed, was with
Worsley as his second in command when one of the German submarines was
rammed and sunk, and received the D.S.C. for his share in the fight. He
was afterwards given command of a Mystery Ship, and fought several
actions with enemy submarines.
Clark served on a mine-sweeper. Greenstreet was employed with the
barges on the Tigris. Rickenson was commissioned as
Engineer-Lieutenant, R.N. Kerr returned to the Merchant Service as an
engineer.
Most of the crew of the _Endurance_ served on minesweepers.
Of the Ross Sea Party, Mackintosh, Hayward, and Spencer-Smith died for
their country as surely as any who gave up their lives on the fields of
France and Flanders. Hooke, the wireless operator, now navigates an
airship.
Nearly all of the crew of the _Aurora_ joined the New Zealand Field
Forces and saw active service in one or other of the many theatres of
war. Several have been wounded, but it has been impossible to obtain
details.
On my return, after the rescue of the survivors of the Ross Sea Party,
I offered my services to the Government, and was sent on a mission to
South America. When this was concluded I was commissioned as Major and
went to North Russia in charge of Arctic Equipment and Transport,
having with me Worsley, Stenhouse, Hussey, Macklin, and Brocklehurst,
who was to have come South with us, but who, as a regular officer,
rejoined his unit on the outbreak of war. He has been wounded three
times and was in the retreat from Mons. Worsley was sent across to the
Archangel front, where he did excellent work, and the others served
with me on the Murmansk front. The mobile columns there had exactly the
same clothing, equipment, and sledging food as we had on the
Expedition. No expense was spared to obtain the best of everything for
them, and as a result not a single case of avoidable frost-bite was
reported.
Taking the Expedition as a unit, out of fifty-six men three died in the
Antarctic, three were killed in action, and five have been wounded, so
that our casualties have been fairly high.
Though some have gone there are enough left to rally round and form a
nucleus for the next Expedition, when troublous times are over and
scientific exploration can once more be legitimately undertaken.
APPENDIX I
SCIENTIFIC WORK
By J. M. WORDIE, M.A. (Cantab.), Lieut. R.F.A.
The research undertaken by the Expedition was originally planned for a
shore party working from a fixed base on land, but it was only in South
Georgia that this condition of affairs was fully realized. On this
island, where a full month was spent, the geologist made very extensive
collections, and began the mapping of the country; the magnetician had
some of his instruments in working order for a short while; and the
meteorologist was able to co-operate with the Argentine observer
stationed at Grytviken. It had been realized how important the
meteorological observations were going to be to the Argentine
Government, and they accordingly did all in their power to help, both
before and at the end of the Expedition. The biologist devoted most of
his time, meanwhile, to the whaling industry, there being no less than
seven stations on the island; he also made collections of the neritic
fauna, and, accompanied by the photographer, studied the bird life and
the habits of the sea-elephants along the east coast.
By the time the actual southern voyage commenced, each individual had
his own particular line of work which he was prepared to follow out.
The biologist at first confined himself to collecting the _plankton_,
and a start was made in securing water samples for temperature and
salinity. In this, from the beginning, he had the help of the
geologist, who also gave instructions for the taking of a line of
soundings under the charge of the ship’s officers. This period of the
southward voyage was a very busy time so far as the scientists were
concerned, for, besides their own particular work, they took the full
share of looking after the dogs and working the ship watch by watch. At
the same time, moreover, the biologist had to try and avoid being too
lavish with his preserving material at the expense of the shore station
collections which were yet to make.
When it was finally known that the ship had no longer any chance of
getting free of the ice in the 1914–1915 season, a radical change was
made in the arrangements. The scientists were freed, as far as
possible, from ship’s duties, and were thus able to devote themselves
almost entirely to their own particular spheres. The meteorological
investigations took on a more definite shape; the instruments intended
for the land base were set up on board ship, including self-recording
barographs, thermometers, and a Dines anemometer, with which very
satisfactory results were got. The physicist set up his quadrant
electrometer after a good deal of trouble, but throughout the winter
had to struggle constantly with rime forming on the parts of his
apparatus exposed to the outer air. Good runs were being thus
continually spoilt. The determination of the magnetic constants also
took up a good part of his time.
Besides collecting _plankton_ the biologist was now able to put down
one or other of his dredges at more frequent intervals, always taking
care, however, not to exhaust his store of preserving material, which
was limited. The taking of water samples was established on a better
system, so that the series should be about equally spaced out over the
ship’s course. The geologist suppressed all thought of rocks, though
occasionally they were met with in bottom samples; his work became
almost entirely oceanographical, and included a study of the sea-ice,
of the physiography of the sea floor as shown by daily soundings, and
of the bottom deposits; besides this he helped the biologist in the
temperature and salinity observations.
The work undertaken and accomplished by each member was as wide as
possible; but it was only in keeping with the spirit of the times that
more attention should be paid to work from which practical and economic
results were likely to accrue. The meteorologist had always in view the
effect of Antarctic climate on the other southern continents, the
geologist looked on ice from a seaman’s point of view, and the
biologist not unwillingly put whales in the forefront of his programme.
The accounts which follow on these very practical points show how
closely scientific work in the Antarctica is in touch with, and helps
on the economic development of, the inhabited lands to the north.
SEA-ICE NOMENCLATURE
By J. M. WORDIE, M.A. (Cantab.), Lieut. R.F.A.
During the voyage of the _Endurance_ it was soon noticed that the terms
being used to describe different forms of ice were not always in
agreement with those given in Markham’s and Mill’s glossary in “The
Antarctic Manual,” 1901. It was the custom, of course, to follow
implicitly the terminology used by those of the party whose experience
of ice dated back to Captain Scott’s first voyage, so that the terms
used may be said to be common to all Antarctic voyages of the present
century. The principal changes, therefore, in nomenclature must date
from the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when there was no one
to pass on the traditional usage from the last naval Arctic Expedition
in 1875 to the _Discovery_ Expedition of 1901. On the latter ship
Markham’s and Mill’s glossary was, of course, used, but apparently not
slavishly; founded, as far as sea-ice went, on Scoresby’s, made in
1820, it might well have been adopted in its entirety, for no writer
could have carried more weight than Scoresby the younger, combining as
he did more than ten years’ whaling experience with high scientific
attainments. Above all others he could be accepted both by practical
seamen and also by students of ice forms.
That the old terms of Scoresby did not all survive the period of
indifference to Polar work, in spite of Markham and Mill, is an
indication either that their usefulness has ceased or that the original
usage has changed once and for all. A restatement of terms is therefore
now necessary. Where possible the actual phrases of Scoresby and of his
successors, Markham and Mill, are still used. The principle adopted,
however, is to give preference to the words actually used by the Polar
seamen themselves.
The following authorities have been followed as closely as possible:
W. Scoresby, Jun., “An Account of the Arctic Regions,” 1820, vol. i,
pp. 225–233, 238–241.
C. R. Markham and H. R. Mill in “The Antarctic Manual,” 1901, pp,
xiv–xvi.
J. Payer, “New Lands within the Arctic Circle,” 1876, vol. i, pp. 3–14.