Shackleton's Heroes (26 page)

On the evening of 17 February, they camped, worn out but with less than 10 miles to reach the Bluff depot. Richards tells us in an interview that during the day their progress was particularly slow, and towards evening, with a low drift blowing, that they had lost their line of cairns (those laid on the way out to Mount Hope).
70
They had lost them because they had what Richards called ‘carpet sweepers'; that is, snow drift, up to perhaps 4 or 5 feet. That day they had been going on a bearing which Richards recalled as being ‘pretty right' but they were not on the line of cairns when they camped that night. They were not anxious as they thought they would pick up the line again in the morning.
71

The men knew they still had a difficult job ahead of them but Richards does not remember feeling worried at that particular stage.
72
From their diaries of 17 February the others also appear unconcerned and their thoughts were on reaching the Minna Bluff depot, with its ample supply of provisions. However, their serious problems were about to begin, or as Richards remembered, from that time on things began to get ‘distinctly sticky'.
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Wild: ‘Hope to reach Bluff Depot tomorrow.'
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Joyce: ‘If fine tomorrow, very doubtful heavy clouds flying around, we ought to reach the Depot.'
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Spencer-Smith prayed, ‘Oh God hear O Lord': ‘Given light we should be at the Bluff tomorrow afternoon. “Domine Deus exaudi”.'
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It was 17 February and the six men, one being the incapacitated Spencer-Smith on a sledge, were only 80 miles from the complete safety of Hut Point. Autumn was now closing in.

H
AYWARD'S DIARY TABLE
summarises the six days from 18 February:

‘Do' means ditto. They remained 81 miles from Hut Point. They did not move.

On the first morning of the blizzard, they found conditions were too thick
for travelling. It had been blowing a blizzard all night so they decided to wait and see if it would clear. With the dogs curled up in the snow outside their tents, the men lay in their sleeping bags and waited for the blizzard to stop. They were not perturbed and even thought the enforced rest might even be of some benefit. Spencer-Smith was the only one to portray any unease in his diary that day.

Wild:

Joyce:

Spencer-Smith: ‘A real fierce blizzard all night and all day so we are still in situ quo. The wind – still howling – seems about the strongest I remember and almost carries a note of personal animus. This tent stands it magnificently.'
5

Richards wrote later that they were not really worried at this stage. They went onto half rations but the depot was only 10 miles ahead, and they expected the weather would soon lift and enable them to travel again.
6

Joyce: ‘Still Blizzarding. Put ourselves on 2 meals a day for case of emergency let us hope for a June day tomorrow.'
7

Hayward: ‘No apparent change in weather conditions, & we further decreased our rations, having all day 2 pots of hoosh between the 3 of us.'
8

Spencer-Smith: ‘Wind eased a bit between 9 and 10 but still very thick. No chance of travelling: last Primus full of oil began for supper tonight. Unutterably boring. Dogs ate biscuits. 80 left.'
9

For the six men, Joyce, Richards, Hayward in one tent, and Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild in the other, this was their third day of blizzard. During the blizzard they could not get out of the tent, so they had to stay in the tent to have what Richards termed their ‘natural motions'. He tells us that the man needing to go to the toilet would say ‘heads under' and the other two would put their heads under their sleeping bags. That man would get up and with a knife dig a square out of the snow and lift it out. In Richards's words he would ‘have a bog there' and put it back again. Richards tells us it ‘was perfectly odourless and quite all right'.
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Spencer-Smith had to be helped by Wild.

They were starting to realise that their position was becoming serious. Their food was running out and the sick men were not improving. The dogs were weakening and they now had no more fuel for the primus cooker, but Wild seems to retain his sense of humour. The men wrote about their food supplies dwindling and running out of fuel but they rarely wrote about the abhorrent conditions inside their tents. Hayward, twelve months before, had described what it was like trying to sleep in a wet sleeping bag, describing his ‘bag coated with frost inches thick, inside also frosty'. The bag became ‘positively wet, as it became warmed' and he ‘did not sleep a wink & felt like an old man of 290' when he got up, ‘stiff & sore all over. It was hell.'
11

Joyce :

Wild: ‘We are on one meal a day again, about the same place too.'
13

Spencer-Smith noted it was the ninth Sunday before Easter: ‘Septuagesima. Somewhat calmer in the morning, but as wild as ever in the afternoon. We are now on one hot meal per diem: any further desire to be satisfied with hard biscuit and chocolate.'
14

With no sign of a break in the weather their position had now become critical, although Wild continued to look at their situation in a light-hearted manner. They had reduced their daily rations to a quarter of a pint of pemmican and one biscuit. Their oil was exhausted, and the only way to get something warm was to pour some methylated spirit into a mug and ignite it, which Richards recalled as being a very slow process.
15

Joyce :

Wild: ‘Still reducing rations. I shall have to make more holes in my belt.'
17

Spencer-Smith: ‘
Même jeu
!
*
And the barometer going down again, after a
short rise – Cheer O! N.B. though not particularly hungry I keep on thinking of new milk, creamy butter, cheese, salad, new brown bread, and jam: sometimes new laid eggs and pickles intrude – all at Althorne.'
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Hayward was still optimistic: ‘Proceeded again as yesterday confident that we should wear it down by the morning.'
19

The blizzard surpassed in length and fury anything Richards had experienced. He wrote later that it was impossible to see or communicate with the other tent because of the howling of the wind. The snow was now almost covering their tent, and exiting might be difficult. The drift had banked up against the frail walls and gradually restricted the space inside. Their three sleeping bags were crowded together side by side, and ‘hour after monotonous hour' was spent in them as the days went by. By this time there was plenty of ice adhering to the hairs inside the bags and they found real rest impossible.
20

Their position on the Great Ice Barrier was ominously close to where Captain Scott perished. On 19 March 1912, Scott, Wilson and Bowers were camped just 11 miles from their next food depot, the One Ton Depot, which was at latitude 79° 30´S. The six men of the Mount Hope Party were camped 10 miles from their next food depot, the Minna Bluff depot, which was close to latitude 79° S. Richards recalled some years later that they knew scurvy had taken hold on them and one of the effects of scurvy was to lose one's will-power.
21
He also related in one of his interviews that he was thinking at this stage that ‘it was very easy to die'. He added that he had no thought of dying; only that it occurred to him that it was quite easy to do so.
22

On this day the food for the dogs ran out. For themselves they had only one meal, to have just before they started again. Richards, Joyce and Hayward then decided they would just have to make the effort to reach the Bluff depot, or they would suffer the same fate as Scott, who in Richards's opinion lost his resolve to travel and died in his tent. They were aware
that they were held up just a few miles north of where Scott died, and that they were a similar distance away from their depot as Scott was from his One Ton Depot.
23

Hayward: ‘Still no let up of the blizzard, in fact it seems to have increased in fury and with more drift and we naturally began to realise the seriousness of our situation and still further curtailed our ration.'
24

Joyce:

Wild's only note for the day: ‘Have had two biscuits and a chunk of snow.'
28

Spencer-Smith: ‘Sleeping bag sopping wet. Slight rise of Bar. No hot
meal. The lee-side of the tent is drifted up as high as the roof: it will be a great struggle to get out tomorrow – or the next day. But Wild did it!'
29

At the end of six days with no progress, and the blizzard continuing, Joyce, Richards and Hayward talked the matter over again and they felt the six of them had to make the effort and get under way.
30
They knew they just had to march, no matter what risk of disaster might be involved, even though the wind and drift were still as violent as ever. Richards recalled that under normal circumstances they would not have contemplated travelling.
31

Richards recalled that they had difficulty in making Mackintosh start as he believed they could not march in the conditions prevailing. To Richards that was correct but only for Mackintosh and Spencer-Smith. He and the three fitter men knew they could march and they just had to make a start that day.
32

There was an incident with Mackintosh on the
Nimrod
Expedition in 1909 that bears a correlation to the situation he was now in. He and a colleague had become lost in the hills around Mount Erebus and were attempting to reach their hut, but found their way blocked by impassable crevasses. Mackintosh later wrote that it was his companion, a sailor, who took control of the situation, over him, the officer. Mackintosh admitted to being morose and dejected: ‘I became despondent and did not care what happened,' he wrote in his diary. Mackintosh said the other man was in better spirits.
33
This aspect of Mackintosh's character, becoming despondent when under pressure, not caring what happens when in a tight situation and allowing a non-commissioned officer to lead, appears to have now resurfaced. Sixty years later Richards could remember the situation of 23 February 1916 and in his opinion Mackintosh had lost all initiative and was quite content to remain. He was not particularly anxious to move as he did not feel well; however, he agreed to make the effort.
34

Fortunately the weather eased slightly mid-morning.

Hayward: ‘About 10 o/c we made out the sun dimly shining through our tent & immediately started preparations for getting under way, although the wind had abated nothing & still very heavy low drift.'
35

Joyce:

Spencer-Smith heard Joyce's call: