Shackleton's Heroes (22 page)

So they hooked the sledges together and pulled as one team of six men and four dogs. Richards tells us in his book that Joyce was in the lead at the end of a long rope. Behind him were Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild attached to this rope by harness, and then behind them were the four dogs, whose harness was also tied to the central rope. Behind the dogs he was tied to one side of the sledge with an 8-foot rope, and Hayward similarly tied to the other side. Richards says that ‘tied' was hardly the correct word, as knots could not be loosened with the fingers in the cold conditions so all fastenings were made in such a way that they could be released by their hands encased in their fingerless mittens.
28

They began to make excellent progress southward and Richards in
The Ross Sea Shore Party
tells us that the men now started to realise that the dogs would be an important factor in their attempt to lay the depot at Mount Hope and return. They were perhaps subconsciously aware that their own fate was linked to the dogs' well-being. From then on they began to take more and more care of them and whenever possible Richards tells us he heated up a hot ‘hoosh' for them every night: dog pemmican and dog biscuits.
29

Spencer-Smith often recorded the temperature, and those for that day, 8 January, were typical for January. The morning temperature was 9°F, that is twenty-three degrees below freezing, and the evening temperature was 18°F, fourteen below.

Hayward:

Wild: ‘We went by ourselves this morning. In the afternoon we shackled the two sledges and pulled together. A much better day. We packed up early so as to have a good night's rest.'
31

Spencer-Smith was also happy:

On the morning of Sunday 9 January the six men were approximately 180 miles from Mount Hope. Richards remembered that Sundays were treated like any other day, even for Spencer-Smith. There were no prayers. Richards thought that even though Spencer-Smith was a clergyman he may have been a little hesitant asking people if they would like a religious service. It just didn't seem to occur to the men that a day was a Sunday.
33

They mention ‘pie-crust', which was a particular surface which would just take their weight for a second and then drop them down an inch or two. Richards remembered they found it a very tiring surface to march on.
34
Mackintosh described it as ‘snow that gave in with every step taken on it',
35
and to Joyce it was the most difficult surface to travel over, ‘you sink in to the ankles … so makes ones feet very sore indeed'.
36

Spencer-Smith: ‘Beautiful, though hot day, working rather longer hours we have done 10 m. 700 yds. Heavy going with a lot of pie-crust.

‘Heb. 7.25. “To the uttermost”.'
37

Joyce:

He then added a note: ‘Skipper asked me to take over the parties which I will do until the depots are laid.'
39

(None of the others mention this claim by Joyce, to support it, or to discredit it, but there was no apparent reason why Joyce would write this note, if it were not true. In his field diary he simply recorded facts and events as they happened, or soon after and without any apparent
embellishment
. However, there were no comments by any of the other men that
indicate Mackintosh had relinquished command to Joyce at this time. It is only when Mackintosh collapsed six weeks later that Joyce (with Richards) took over leading the party.)

The previous evening it was clear and they could see Mount Markham, a 14,272-foot-high peak in the Trans-Antarctic Mountains, the mountains that stretch from the Ross Sea across the continent. But on the morning of the 10th they were forced to steer using the ‘black cairn method'. A piece of black cloth was placed on a cairn before they left it and this back cairn could then be seen more easily – they would steer away from it, rather than steer towards a feature in the distance. They used the method in times of poor visibility. Richards recalled that the black cloth came from an old pair of his canvas trousers, ones that were covered with black blubber and soot. They cut them into squares of about 6 inches and placed that on the cairn they were leaving.

To steer when visibility was so poor they could not even see the cairn behind they used Joyce, who was in the lead, at the end of a 20–30-
foot-long
rope. Richards was tied on to the bows of the sledge and he would take a bearing with the prismatic compass on the correct route and put Joyce on that route. After a short while they would stop, Richards would take another bearing and readjust Joyce's line if he had wandered. If there was no blizzard it was easy enough to steer on a cloud or some feature in the distance, or back-steer from their own cairns.
40

That day they trekked almost 10 miles but Spencer-Smith was now limping. Joyce inserted a callous note in his diary.

Spencer-Smith:

Joyce:

The men were shocked at their appearance.

Wild:

Spencer-Smith: ‘A gruelling day – rather overcast. We borrowed Hayward's glass in evening & trimmed beards &c. We were all horrified at our faces. Lip very sore and looks nasty. Trek 10 m. 150 yds.'
45

Joyce:

On 12 January the six men reached 81°S (150 miles from Mount Hope) and left provisions for their return journey, and for Shackleton. Joyce was unable to steer because of snow blindness so Mackintosh took over. Their next depot was to be at 82°S, 70 miles to the south, and from there it would only be another 80 miles to Mount Hope.

Wild: ‘Depot here 3 weeks provisions, 3 tins oil, & extra biscuits for dogs, nearly 200 lbs with the Skipper's boots.'
47

Joyce:

On the first day out from the 81°S depot the weather was poor but they decided to march.

Joyce:

Over the next four days the six men edged their way towards the 82°S depot point, covering a similar mileage (around 10 miles) each day. Richards recalled in later years that that trudging along hour after hour, day after day, with a canvas harness over his shoulders and around his waist was a rather fantastic experience.
50
A northerly wind helped them at times where they could set a sail on the sledges and on these days, such as on 14 January, Joyce recorded that they ‘went along at a good pace'.
51

When the weather cleared they could see more of the Trans-Antarctic Mountains, including Mount Longstaff, a series of peaks 13,000 feet high which are to the east of Mount Markham. For Joyce, the mountains gave him direction to Mount Hope.

None of the men were recording lengthy diary entries, but it was particularly noticeable with Hayward, who had been such a prolific diary writer in 1915. Wild's diary over this period contained entries on basic necessities. At this stage of the journey one of the primus cookers had developed a fault – presumably it was an old primus that had been left at Cape Evans by Scott's earlier expeditions. The primus was absolutely crucial to their survival.

Hayward: ‘13 Jan 15 to 18 Jan 15. Pulled out from 81°S & made depot @ 82°S (3 weeks) on above dates respectively. Skipper & Smith very crocked.'
52

Joyce:

Spencer-Smith:

Wild:

The six men reached 82°S, just over 80 miles from Mount Hope, at lunchtime on 18 January. There they left provisions, for themselves and Shackleton's party, sufficient to make the journey back north to the 81°S depot.

Mackintosh's original plan was for him, Spencer-Smith and Wild to go on to Mount Hope and for Joyce, Richards and Hayward to return from
the 82°S depot. However, there were two factors that arose to change this planned course of action: the faulty primus cooker and the slowly worsening condition of Mackintosh and Spencer-Smith. Richards, Joyce and Hayward by now had decided that they were not going to turn back. They had come to the conclusion that both Mackintosh and Spencer-Smith were sick men as they were both limping, especially Mackintosh. The end result was that Mackintosh agreed to them all going on.