Shackleton's Heroes (12 page)

I am sorry to say that I have had occasion to do a roar to-night, which was heartily endorsed by Ninnis & Richards my fellow ‘tenties' & their opinions are the only ones worth having, as the others have no experience of cold weather travel & conditions & are moreover hopelessly inefficient & incapable of even pulling their pound.

Really they are the biggest messrs humbugs that it has been my misfortune to be up against & instead of realizing that we have a duty to perform and hard work in front of us they think it is a bally afternoon tea party, they will certainly be shaken up by us before we are through.
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A Penguin sat upon the Barrier Edge

Singing what have you been doing all the day?

Six great men a tiny little sledge

You must have been stopping on the way

What the Hell? What the Hell? What the Hell is it all about?

You've got to put your back to it

Before you can do a shout.
47

My rupture is a bit painful tonight and we are all fairly tired … Most of the party are not taking too kindly to their rations – especially pemmican … Sledging is monotonous. Very often too short of wind to talk and travel for hours without a word spoken. The bunk at night on the hard snow is relished as much as any feather bed.
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The rupture had been sustained at football the previous season and under medical advice at the time I used a truss. I cannot imagine how incredibly foolish I was to conceal this disability which could have had disastrous results had things gone wrong badly with me the following year. In the upshot I threw the truss away when discarding everything possible in our retreat from Mt. Hope the following year.
49

You ought really to see me now in my bag writing this to you thinking sweet thoughts of you & feasting my eyes on your dear picture, which by the way, I have fastened on to the fly leaf of this note-book.
50

We have just finished our Hoosh & tea & I am just beginning to feel comparatively warm once more. I have brought with me on this trip my old favourite
Lorna Doone
& am about to have a rasp of it. Did you ever read it? I have an idea that I got it for you, to do so, but somehow think that you said you could not tackle it. When I come back I am going to insist upon you reading it, but in case you defy me, I will insist upon reading it to you.

At last we are on the move again, very hot day travelling, have had to divest myself of quite a lot of sweaters & things. Relayed 2 sledges 1½ miles. I have had a piece of rotten luck to-day.

When we were ready to haul up 2nd sledge, we found it was stuck in the loose snow & after Ninnis had had several unsuccessful attempts to start her up I got hold of the thing & gave a terrific wrench to get it out, the bally thing didn't budge & I strained my back pretty badly, it has been very painful hauling.
51

I am sorry to find that my back is awfully stiff this morning and I know it means a rough passage for me for a few days at least. Camped for midday meal, the cold made it very comfortless & we were glad to get going again 4 o/c pm.

We tried an experiment for tea – had Pemmican, Plasmon, Biscuit Hoosh & found it quite a success, it will certainly become a frequent addition to the menu.

The total distance covered today is barely 4 miles not much result for so much real hard work.
Anyhow this I do know & I want you when you read this to see that it is carried out. Just you and I are going to have 2 champagne suppers. 1) At the Crown Stanmore & 2) At ‘Ye Old Cheshire Cheese' Fleet St.

Menus suggested by me are

1) Thick gravy soup

Salmon mayonnaise

Spring chicken in aspic

Roast Rib Beef & Yorkshire Pudding Sauté Potatoes

Black Currant boiled Jam Roll

Stewed mixed Fruits

Gorgonzola Cheese (Ripe)

Black Coffee & Kummel

& for me a Pkt of Wills Gold Flake Cigs

2) Real Turtle Soup (Thick)

Braised Gosling & Red Currant Jelly

Pigeon Pie

The Pudding (Beef, Steak, Lark & Oyster)

Some other dish optional

Toasted Cheshire Cheese

Black Coffee &c

Now please do not forget to remind me of this, not that I think it will be necessary. Marching along here, with a lot on one's mind & very little in ones ‘innards' I feel like breaking something when I think of it just your dear little self and myself making veritable ‘gormandizers' of ourselves. By jingo would it be good.

I am in my bag at present it is about 1 o/c Tuesday aft. Writing this occasionally lending the others a hand, to prepare our frugal breakfast. Half a mug of Skilly oatmeal, a Pannikin of tea, 10 lumps of sugar & 2 very Hard biscuits.

However it's all in the game & I can keep on thinking of the good times to come eh!

However in my bag & reading
Lorna Doone
does me alright, but I cannot help feeling that there is too much pottering going on this trip which is by no means satisfactory. The following strikes me as being a jolly nice expression of thought
& sentiment by the Girt Jan Ridd the strong man in love with the sweet Lorna Doone, but whose love at this time is not reciprocated don't you think it nice. He had promised not to try see her again till a month had passed & during this time was working on his farm, thinking naturally more of Lorna than of the work he was engaged upon so:–

‘Perhaps it is needless for me to say, that all this time while my month was running or rather crawling, for never month went so slow as that with me, neither weed nor seed, nor cattle, nor my own mothers anxiety, nor any care for my sister, kept me from looking once every day & even twice on Sunday for any sign of Lorna … All the beauty of the Spring went for happy men to think of, all the increase of the year was for other eyes to mark, not a sign of any Sunrise for me, from my fount of life: not a breath to stir the dead leaves fallen on my hearts spring.'

Ethel I can appreciate all this fully & even if I could not write it so beautifully I can at any rate substituting you for Lorna Doone remember when I have thought exactly similar thoughts. In any case I am sure you will understand how, down here, where everything breathes of the unknown & appears so vast & limitless, how nice it is to be reminded in such a nice way of other & more pleasant scenes, even though certain of them are bitter-sweet.

I have been thinking of those lovely times of which I have such a vivid recollection, those times which we have spent together at Pinner, Stanmore, Chorleywood & Woldingham & really I find it difficult to find any one occasion which appeals more strongly to me than another, in fact I would not detract from the merit of either by trying to do so, they are all such sweet episodes, full of interest & delight & this applies none the less to those times when no doubt we have both experienced the ‘bitter sweetness' of a combat of wills, or indeed when this has developed into open conflict, it has always been sufficient for me to just have been with you & under all circumstances I have been so satisfied.

Nevertheless as you will understand some episodes retain their freshness with us more than others naturally & I have been thinking particularly of that Sunday when it was raining hard & we went to Chorleywood this was after a few days of silence between us, & I shall never forget the sweet, gentle way in which you accepted my, obvious & apparent efforts to fix things up which of course were successful. I wonder if you can call to mind what took place, with the same accuracy as I can.
52

It turned very cool towards evening and when I came to take my boots off socks were frozen hard to the boots and were with difficulty removed without damage. The sleeping bag was frozen. On running my hand inside I could feel ice all over the bottom. However, notwithstanding managed to get through a fairly comfortable night. I am changing my footwear for today's march. In place of boots which freeze as hard as boards and are very cold I shall wear pair of finneskoe.
53

Am now just having a nice smoke. For some time I have been making my cigarettes with tissue paper from the biscuit tins, but just now I am in clover, as yesterday I swapped a black silk navy neckerchief with Ninnis for 20 Virginian cigarettes & consider I made a good bargain, anyway I am enjoying one immensely just at present especially as my sleeping bag is nice & warm & DRY.
54

I have had a desperate time, trying to get comfortable in my bag, & when I tell you that the temperature dropped to 50 degrees below freezing point
¶¶
you will understand why.

You can have no idea what this means every breath one takes condenses in the atmosphere of the tent & makes everything damp for the time, this then freezes up, then when we get the cooker going as we just have for the Pemmican, all this thaws out & down drops the moisture all over one, wetting one through, then to complete the operation this freezes hard & cold, when the cooker is turned off.
55

Spent a very comfortable night, the most comfortable since starting as a matter of fact we placed our bags close together & of course had the benefit of our combined warmth.

Have had breakfast, very good too, by Jingo, a man feels good after his pannikin of Porridge & Hut Tea, he is ready to push Mount Erebus over, the only thing preventing him is that although it looks quite close it is something like 60 miles off & therefore quite safe.

We have had a regular gorge to-night, Pemmican & oatmeal Hoosh thick, & a pannikin of tea with 20 lumps of sugar in it each it was a feed for the Gods & I have the most comfortable feeling inside that I have known for some time. It is going to be very cold to-night in fact even now I can hardly hold the pencil I am writing with & shall have to chuck it, till it gets warmer.
56

This morning we have been laying a depôt here, & making up our load on the one sledge according to arrangement made yesterday. Depot consists of, 1 sledge 1 Case Biscuits 1 Box provisions 1 Pr ski, 2 Coils Rope 1 Kit Box, 3 tins Kerosene & Sundries. Sledge buried at the bows to amidships Cairn erected & surmounted by flag. Sledge to go on weighs 1200 lb.

The weather to-day has been delightful, it has been possible to potter around with no hat or mitts & to feel quite warm, whilst lying here smoking we actually have the tent door open as it is quite unbearable inside without.

I meant to make reference to the remarkable phenomenon noticed yesterday with regard to the sun, over & under the sun appeared two small concave patches of rainbow effect & on the outsides two converse patches of a similar kind, whilst the sun itself shone with a quite white light.

This was distinctly visible for about 1 hour & a half, from 9 AM till 10.30., when it gradually disappeared. Nobody of our party which includes two meteorologists have seen or heard of anything like it & it must be quite unique.

Several of us are suffering from frost bite, my neck & cheeks are quite stiff & swollen & it is quite painful to turn round or laugh. In my case I suppose I must not be surprised as even in the coldest winds I have marched without my hat on & as I left the ship with my hair closely clipped & have continued to keep my beard also clipped (on account of the beastly mess one face gets in, if one favours a beard, when it freezes up & icicles form on it).

I have had no very great protection, although not finding it cold at the time, in my case these little things are undoubtedly sent to try us & without them to contend with, I expect one would almost feel out of place, I am pleased to say that I have now got the better of my strained back & shall no doubt get the better of frost bite without having to force the growth of a protective ‘face fungus'.

You would not realise the terrible silence & monotony which exists here. & when on the march one thinks & thinks & thinks & only thinks & pulls & pulls & thinks, he thinks no doubt because he has not sufficient breath to converse with, but more particularly because he can think of things which take him out of the present surroundings to other & more homely & pleasing ones.

We were surprised shortly afterwards at being invaded by the other three, bringing
with them all the snow they could possibly accommodate on their enormous feet into our tent, of which we are always careful, even changing our footgear for the purpose of leaving the snow outside.

They were also armed with a big Thermos flask & it was evident that something important was toward. It turned out to be another re-arrangement of plans, to be discussed immediately everybody had partaken of hot tea from the flask. In course of this process, two of our visitors Cope, Hooke, managed to upset the contents of their mugs over Richards & myself respectively & in consequence the meeting was nearly broken up, peace & order was eventually restored however & the discussion duly took place.

We had a lovely gorge to-night before turning in, we always celebrate occasions of this sort in this way, we had 4 biscuits each, an extra whack of sugar 20 lumps each & half a bar of chocolate. First we had a nice drop of Pemmican & Oatmeal mixed, then we each crushed 2 biscuits put them together with enough water, added 1 spoonful of Glaxo, & 1 of Plasmon, brought to the boil & wolfed it, it was great, followed by a nice mug of tea. I turned in & remember nothing more till now.
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