Shackleton's Heroes (23 page)

Before continuing on south from the 82°S depot, Mackintosh made Richards sign an agreement – which Mackintosh dictated and Spencer-Smith wrote out on a page of foolscap. Richards thought that it may have occurred to Mackintosh, at 82°S: ‘Well this bugger Richards, I suppose he may blow the gaff when he gets back, we had better seal him up.' Richards says that it was then signed by Macintosh and witnessed by Spencer-Smith. He thought that no other legal agreement had been made closer to the South Pole, or the North Pole.
61

Richards's Agreement:

Richards had already signed such an agreement in Sydney, when he was interviewed by Mackintosh, so why he had him sign another is not clear. He and Mackintosh may have forgotten the original one. Certainly in his later years Richards made no mention of the original agreement, not in his book, in his letters or at any of his interviews. The Sydney original agreement resides at the SPRI in Cambridge, England, and the Antarctic agreement is at the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand.

The six men and four dogs pushed on southward from the 82°S depot and for the first three days, they averaged 13 miles a day. Joyce was preoccupied in determining which mountain in the range was Mount Hope.

Over these days Spencer-Smith's condition worsened, showing symptoms of scurvy, but he continued on. He made occasional diary notes on what went through his mind as he dragged himself along but there are no notes of wanting to stop, or give in. However, his thoughts may well have echoed those of Scott from December 1902. At that time Scott, Shackleton and Wilson were on the Great Ice Barrier, heading south towards the 82°S latitude line, where they would reach the farthest south at that time (82° 11´S). Then Scott wrote that while they could walk there was only one way they could go, that is south. He remarked that they could not stop, or go back, no matter how sickening the work was. There was no alternative.
63

The lack of fitness of Mackintosh and Spencer-Smith was giving Joyce, Richards and Hayward increasing cause for concern. The two men both complained of lameness and showed unmistakable signs of exhaustion. Richards recalled that he and the others discussed this often in their tent, but there was little that could be done but to go on because, in their minds, the depot at Mount Hope just had to be placed. Richards tells us that Mackintosh was in charge of the party at this time and he was determined to see the final depot laid.
64

Richards in later years wrote on how much he admired the effort
Spencer-Smith made in helping to pull the sledge. Spencer-Smith was on the rope in front of him and Richards could see him limping and obviously in pain.
65
Over the three days of 18–20 January they covered close to 40 miles and the trend of the mountains brought them closer. As they slowly drew near all the men were deeply impressed with their magnificent grandeur. Travelling slowly, as they were covering only 10 or 12 miles a day, Richards recalled they had abundant time to take in every spectacular feature. They had the mountain range to their west and the Barrier to their east, which Richards described as a ‘featureless level expanse of the ice shelf [that] stretched away apparently endlessly'.

Richards's recollection was that the six men rarely talked as they trudged along. There was no conversation on the trail. One step forward was a little in advance of the last, and all their energies were needed for the job in hand. He remembered that the silence was acute, the soft crunch of their feet in the snow and the faint swish of the sledge runners merely serving to emphasise it. Profound silence, that is, unless a blizzard was raging, and then their tiny party was lost in what Richards called a ‘howling shrieking wilderness of whirling snow'.

Richards also recalled that the hours of a day's march seemed endless. He did not know what went on in his companions' minds over those months while trudging along but in his case he used to perform long useless computations of one sort or another in his head. He did not think this was a deliberate act on his part but rather an automatic reaction to the monotony that was forced on him; ‘an anodyne to the weariness of the body' he called it.
66

He tells us he even spoke with Joyce and Wild, presumably when they were stopped for lunch or the evening, about coming back to the area the following year. Richards had become more and more intrigued with the region, especially that known as Shackleton Inlet, a re-entrant (a small valley) in the Trans-Antarctic Mountains, about 10 miles wide, which at this stage of their journey was quite close. He tells us that the three of them agreed to make a trip back to that area of the mountains in the 1917 summer season as they thought it might have some mining potential.
67

Spencer-Smith:

Joyce:

Wild: ‘19 Jan: Primus working rotten. 20 Jan: Primus bit better. 21 Jan: Primus working all bands now.'
73

The six men were now only 30 miles from Mount Hope. Mackintosh
and Spencer-Smith were having trouble walking but there had been no indication so far that they would not be able to continue. The weather had been excellent for most of the past two weeks.

A
T 11.30 ON
the morning of 22 January, a few miles short of 83°S, Spencer-Smith suddenly sat himself down and told the others he could go no further. He said he had been just finding it too difficult to walk.
1

Richards remembered in later years that the overriding thought on everyone's mind was that they must place the food depot for Shackleton at Mount Hope. They believed he would make the crossing and he and his men were dependent on that depot. So they made the decision to leave Spencer-Smith while they would go on the 30–40 miles to Mount Hope. There was no other choice – they couldn't go on with Spencer-Smith and there was no point in turning back at that stage.
2

They pitched two tents, had a meal and put Spencer-Smith in his sleeping bag, fully expecting that when they came back that he would be able to get on his feet again. He was perfectly cheerful and he too was confident
that after the rest he would be able to make the return journey. In Richards's memory Spencer-Smith happily agreed to stay; he said he would be quite alright. They left him with a supply of calico bags containing cocoa, oatmeal, cheese, sugar and pemmican, and a primus next to his bag.
3

The others suggested to Mackintosh that he should remain with Spencer-Smith and rest; however, Mackintosh resisted that idea and decided to go on. Richards thought that Mackintosh, as the leader of the party, felt it was his duty to see that the depot was made. They could do nothing about it, short of restraining him.
4

Spencer-Smith:

Joyce:

Hayward:

Wild: ‘We had to leave poor old Smithy behind; he has got a bad leg, so we are rather jammed up with five in a tent.'
8

After the others departed, Spencer-Smith made his first diary entry. He was alone on the Barrier, 325 miles from Hut Point.

Spencer-Smith:

Spurred on by their anxiety to get back to Spencer-Smith, the five men made good progress. They had a light load on because they only needed to carry provisions for the final depot for Shackleton and their own use. However, a blizzard caused them to lay up for a day and a half.

Joyce:

Hayward tells us: ‘Skipper, Wild, Joyce and self played Bridge (auction) till turning in.'
11

Wild: ‘Had a game at “auction bridge”
†
this afternoon. We lost. The Skipper was my partner.'
12

Spencer-Smith read, dreamt and planned a comedy in his mind:

The blizzard stopped after two days so the five men went on. They were now quite close to the mountain range along which they had been travelling since October, and were steering directly for a detached rounded mountain a few
thousand feet high which they were confident was Mount Hope. In the afternoon Joyce steered towards this mountain (which was indeed Mount Hope) but they came across crevasses and pressure ridges and were forced to camp.

In his book, Richards tells us that as they approached the mountains the surface had begun to change and they passed over huge gentle undulations, which would have been pressure ridges. Gradually these intensified until they reached what Richards described as ‘a remarkably broken-up area' where they camped for the night. They had experienced a long tiring day during which they had made their record mileage (almost 18 miles), so they did not want to try to find a passage through the heavily crevassed area until they had rested.
15

Richards says that Mackintosh had kept going gamely, but he was very lame at the end of the day. Behind his knee there was a considerable area of blue discoloration and the others were somewhat puzzled as to why this had not cleared up by now. It was not until they returned to pick up Spencer-Smith and found black patches on their own gums and behind their own knees that they realised it was scurvy. Mackintosh was able to gain some relief by massaging his knees with methylated spirits.
16
As their scurvy worsened they often rubbed their joints with methylated spirits, and this seemed to help. (Possibly the ethanol in the methylated spirits dried the skin and this eased the pain, temporarily.)

After weeks of scanty diary entries, Hayward returned to something like his earlier detailed notes.

Joyce:

Hayward:

Wild may have been missing life on the sea:

25 January was Spencer-Smith's third day waiting for the others to return from Mount Hope. Not for the first time he mentions his heart, worrying that it may be ‘ricked', and he was dispirited that his condition had not improved:

On the morning of 26 January Mackintosh, Joyce and Richards set off to find a passage through the crevasses. The three men took great care as the surface became almost impossible to travel over. There were huge pressure
ridges to haul the sledges over. Crevasses were everywhere but usually filled in except at the edges, where there was breadth enough for a man to drop in and hang up by his elbows and his harness.
21
They could see the crevasses quite clearly and in Richards's view they ‘fatalistically believed' they would have no trouble with them; they simply had to find a place where they could get across.
22

Eventually, they passed through the dangerous area and sixty years afterwards Richards still remembered the day, and the sights. He tells us it was a beautifully calm day and the sun was shining brightly as they climbed up a snow slope with Mount Hope on their left and the mountain range on their right. Below them was the Beardmore Glacier stretching away to the distance, 25 miles wide, and to Richards everything was on a ‘gigantic scale'. He remembered that ‘the scene was full of colour and simply magnificent'.
23

The ice of the glacier was flanked by sheer steep rock faces splashed with vivid colours, and on the glacier itself below where the men were standing they could see a number of dark patches, which they thought was probably rock that had become dislodged from the steep sides.
24
Richards says he lay down with the glasses as he could see a blob of rock that looked the same shape as the tent they were using; like Shackleton used. He lay down for quite a long time looking at this ‘tent' wondering if anyone would come out of it; if it was a tent. But they saw no sign of life.
25

Hayward: ‘We have reconnoitered in the morning at least Skipper, Joyce & Richards reconnoitered in the morning. Wild & I remained in camp & made tea several times.'
26

Joyce: