Friday, 15 September 1911

Scott

Scott, P.O. Evans, Simpson, and Bowers leaving on "a remarkably pleasant and instructive little spring journey" to the Western Mountains on 15th September 1911. [1]

"Bowers, Simpson, Petty Officer Evans, and I are off to the west," wrote Scott. "I want to have another look at the Ferrar Glacier, to measure the stakes put out by Wright last year, to bring my sledging impressions up to date (one loses details of technique very easily), and finally to see what we can do with our cameras. I haven't decided how long we shall stay away or precisely where we shall go; such vague arrangements have an attractive side," he added. [2]

"It is not quite clear," Debenham wrote in his diary, "why they are going or what they are going to do." [3]


Amundsen

Framheim, unknown date. [4]

The temperature rose to -44° C. With only forty miles to Framheim, and the going suddenly good, Amundsen ordered the distance to be done at a single stretch, and they set off at seven in the morning.

Amundsen was forerunner for the journey, and thus had no sledge; he flung himself on Wisting's sledge, and with Helmer Hanssen, they set off so quickly that soon they were to Bjaaland "just a white dot far away." [5] They reached Framheim at four in the afternoon.

"Our reception was so-so," Helmer Hanssen recorded. "The first Lindstrøm said to us was: 'I told you so!' and we each had a wigging [for starting on a Friday]." [6]

The others were still out on the Barrier. Those dogs that weakened were loosed from their harness and left to make their own way home.

With no forerunner, Stubberud's dogs slowed down. His feet were frostbitten and he had to sit on his sledge. "[I was] quite alone," he recalled later. "And if there had been a blizzard ... the situation would have been precarious. I had no fuel, Primus or tent and little food, only a few biscuits. There was nothing to be done but wait for those behind me, and that took a fairly long time." [7]

As Bjaaland took the lead, Stubberud's team picked up; they reached Framheim at about six o'clock in the evening. Amundsen, hearing that they had seen nothing of the other three, "[hoped that] since the weather was turning thick Johansen, as an old experienced Polar traveller, would make camp and wait until the next day." [8] Hassel, though, arriving a little later, said that the other two had no fuel or food.

Prestrud's dogs, still out on the Barrier, could barely pull the empty sledge; Johansen's were also failing, but he managed to race on ahead and early in the afternoon had overtaken Hassel. Johansen, Hassel noted, was "very bitter over the inconsideration shown by Amundsen, thus racing away from them.... He wanted me to wait, but I preferred to continue, as we were still 16 miles from Framheim and had neither Primus, petroleum nor pans, and the need would be just as great whether we were two to share it [or three]." [9] Hassel gave Johansen his tent and went on.

Johansen waited for Prestrud, who arrived after another two hours, his feet badly frostbitten. Johansen, experienced as he was with cold and ice, realised that Prestrud had to be got warm as soon as possible and pressed on, reaching Framheim at half past midnight, guided in the dark and fog only by the barking of the dogs. The temperature was -51° C.

It was, Johansen wrote the next day, "a woeful aftermath. A profound gloom and misfortune has arisen among us, and no more are we happy and content." [10]


Notes:

[1] Guardian.co.uk.
[2] R.F. Scott, diary, 14 September, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.
[3] Frank Debenham, 13 September, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.402.
[4] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[5] Olav Bjaaland, diary, 16 September, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.409.
[6] Helmer Hanssen, Gjennem Isbaksen, p.88, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.409.
[7] Jørgen Stubberud, Reminiscences, "Den Siste ave Sydpolens Erobrere", Vi Menn, 1 February, 1972, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.409.
[8] Roald Amundsen, [diary? date not given], quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.409.
[9] Sverre Hassel, diary, 16 September, 1911, quoted in Dagboksnotater fra Sydpolen (Skien : Vågemots miniforlag, 1997), p.6.
[10] Hjalmar Johansen, diary, 17 September, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.410.