Sunday, 8 January 1911

Scott

"Men pulling a motor-sledge from the 'Terra Nova' on 8 January 1911. Taken by Herbert George Ponting in 1911, during the British Antarctic ('Terra Nova') Expedition (1910-1913)." [1]

The third of the motor sledges was lost when it fell through the thawing sea ice as it was being unloaded. "We realised that the ice was getting very rotten," Priestley wrote in his diary, but no-one wanted to disobey Scott's orders to hurry. The sledge had been lowered onto the ice when Williamson went through to his knees, "[the] car suddenly dipped, the ice gave way beneath her after end and she fell with all her weight vertically on the rope. The rope began cutting through the thin ice, and we were never able to hold her steady for a moment. Man after man was forced to leave the rope through his hands, and when only five of us were left she took charge at a gallop and is now resting on the bottom at a depth of 120 fathoms." Priestley himself, having gone back to the ship for a life-line and Day's goggles, fell through and was swept under by a strong current, bursting up again through the rotten ice "like a cork out of a champagne bottle." [2] "Day, here are your goggles," he said calmly. [3]

"A day of disaster," Scott wrote in his journal. [4]


Notes:

[1] National Library of New Zealand.
[2] Raymond Priestley, diary, 8 January, 1911, quoted by David Crane in Scott of the Antarctic (New York : Knopf, c2005), p.404.
[3] Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World, ch.4.
[4] R.F. Scott, diary, 8 January, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.

Saturday, 7 January 1911

"View of ice, with the ship 'Terra Nova' in the distance, taken 7 January 1911 by Herbert George Ponting during the British Antarctic Expedition." [1]

Work continued unloading the Terra Nova. Two parties of officers made ten journeys apiece, with loads of 250 to 300 lbs. per man, 25 miles over the ice to the site of the hut. The ponies, fractious and restive after their long confinement aboard ship, two or three times got away from their handlers, once with a loaded sledge. "Oates is splendid with them," wrote Scott, "I do not know what we should do without him." [2]

The dogs, too, were restless, and a team got away from Meares, so unexpectedly that one of the dogs lost its footing and was dragged for nearly half a mile.

The ice was becoming sludgy, and in some places the ponies' feet went through. Ponting, too, got a ducking, out on his own with a small sledge loaded with his cameras and cinematograph, but luckily for him and his equipment both, the weak area he had inadvertently stepped into was small enough that he managed to pull himself out.

Work on the hut continued apace, and the framework was being covered with its double-layer of insulation. "I am wondering," Scott added to himself, "how we shall stable the ponies in the winter."


Sources:

[1] National Library of New Zealand.
[2] R.F. Scott, diary, 7 January, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.

Friday, 6 January 1911

Amundsen

Ice in the Ross Sea. [1]

In one of the fasted passages to that date, the Fram came out into the open Ross Sea three and a half days after entering the ice pack. Thanks to her diesel motor, this was the first motor passage of the pack.

With characteristic respect for his predecessors, Amundsen wrote later of Sir James Ross, the first to reach the sea and ice shelf that now bear his name, "Few people of the present day are capable of rightly appreciating this heroic deed; this brilliant proof of human courage and energy. With two ponderous craft -- regular 'tubs' according to our ideas -- these men sailed right into the heart of the pack, which all previous polar explorers had regarded as certain death. It is not merely difficult to grasp this; it is simply impossible -- to us, who with a motion of the hand can set the screw going, and wriggle out of the first difficulty we encounter. These men were heroes -- heroes in the highest sense of the word." [2]

More immediately, he noted in his diary, "The swell is heavy and everything is familiar.... We are forging ahead under full sail and with the engine running as well, and doing 6-7 knots. If we carry on like this, the remaining 500 miles will soon be but a memory. We are all longing to start our work down there." [3]


Notes:

[1] Wikimedia Commons.
[2] Roald Amundsen, The South Pole, ch.1.
[3] Roald Amundsen, diary, [6 January, 1911?], quoted by Roland Huntford in The Amundsen Photographs (London : Hodder & Stoughton, c1987), p.72-73.

Thursday, 5 January 1911

Scott

"An iceberg and grotto. Photograph taken by Herbert George Ponting on 5 January 1911, during the British Antarctic ('Terra Nova') Expedition (1910-1913)." [1]

Priestley was unimpressed at the difference "between the way the work was carried out and the way when we were landing stores at Cape Royds.... [There are] too many officers superintending and the men never know when and where to go for orders.... [An] Expedition to make a complete success should be entirely away from any Navy ideas.... [In] this one particular give me Shackleton's expedition over and over again." [2]

Faced with the necessity of marking the route between ship and hut, empty paraffin tins were pressed into service.


Amundsen

"The Midnight Sun was visible for the first time today," wrote Amundsen. "It was a wonderful sight on this beautiful evening. It is almost calm; just a breath of wind from the S.E.... Who can describe the wonderful feeling of wellbeing that has enveloped us here in the calm waters among the ice, with plenty of fresh water -- or rather fresh ice -- and fine, fresh meat, after 4 months' unending, intolerable pitching and tossing? I believe that hardly anyone who has not experienced this, can properly understand to what degree we appreciate the change." [3]


Notes:

[1] National Library of New Zealand. The figures are Taylor and Wright; posing for Ponting quickly became known by the new verb "to pont".
[2] Raymond Priestley, letter from Cape Adare, undated, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.333.
[3] Roald Amundsen, diary, 5 January, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in The Amundsen Photographs (London : Hodder & Stoughton, c1987), p.72.

Wednesday, 4 January 1911

Scott

Blocked by ice from landing at McMurdo Sound, Scott chose instead a small promontory about six miles south of Cape Royds, which had in the Discovery days been called The Skuary; he renamed it Cape Evans "in honour of our excellent second in command".

After making fast with ice anchors, Scott, Wilson, and Lt. Evans walked across to the Cape. "A glance at the land showed, as we expected, ideal spots for our wintering station," he wrote. "We chose a spot for the hut on a beach facing N.W. and well protected by numerous small hills behind. This spot seems to have all the local advantages ... for a winter station, and we realised that at length our luck had turned." [1]

The dogs were still a source of great interest, both, one imagines, for their value to the expedition and simply as entertainment.

"Poor brutes," Scott went on, "how they must have enjoyed their first roll, and how glad they must be to have freedom to scratch themselves! It is evident all have suffered from skin irritation -- one can imagine the horror of suffering from such an ill for weeks without being able to get at the part that itched. I note that now they are picketed together they administer kindly offices to each other; one sees them gnawing away at each other's flanks in most amicable and obliging manner.

"Meares and the dogs were out early, and have been running to and fro most of the day with light loads. The great trouble with them has been due to the fatuous conduct of the penguins. Groups of these have been constantly leaping on to our floe. From the moment of landing on their feet their whole attitude expressed devouring curiosity and a pig-headed disregard for their own safety. They waddle forward, poking their heads to and fro in their usually absurd way, in spite of a string of howling dogs straining to get at them. 'Hulloa,' they seem to say, 'here's a game -- what do all you ridiculous things want?' And they come a few steps nearer. The dogs make a rush as far as their leashes or harness allow. The penguins are not daunted in the least, but their ruffs go up and they squawk with semblance of anger, for all the world as though they were rebuking a rude stranger -- their attitude might be imagined to convey 'Oh, that's the sort of animal you are; well, you've come to the wrong place -- we aren't going to be bluffed and bounced by you,' and then the final fatal steps forward are taken and they come within reach. There is a spring, a squawk, a horrid red patch on the snow, and the incident is closed."


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, diary, 4 January, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.

Tuesday, 3 January 1911

Scott

Cape Crozier precipices, photographed by Ponting on 3 January, 1911. [1]

"6 P.M. -- No good!! Alas! Cape Crozier with all its attractions is denied us," lamented Scott. [2] They had come to the Great Barrier five miles east of the Cape, but heavy swells prevented their landing a boat, and there was no access to the beach for unloading their equipment. "It would have taken weeks to land the ordinary stores, and heaven knows how we could have got the ponies and the motor sledges ashore." [3]

Cherry wrote later, "We could see the great pressure waves which had proved such an obstacle to travellers from the Discovery to the Emperor penguin rookery. The Knoll was clear, but the summit of Mount Terror was in the clouds. As for the Barrier we seemed to have known it all our lives, it was so exactly like what we had imagined it to be, and seen in the pictures and photographs." [4]


Amundsen

Fram in the ice-pack, 1910. [5]

The Fram entered the pack ice at 175° 35'E longitude.

"The ice through which we have gone lies in streams with broad, open leads in between [with] a few eroded icebergs," Amundsen wrote in his diary. "An occasional seal has been seen here and there. In those cases, we stop and take it.... It had been a red letter day for all of us. For dinner we had steak -- the finest and tenderest meat.... The dogs have done just as well. For dinner they had each their huge piece of meat, about 2 kilos, together with a large piece of skin with blubber. To begin with, they did not really grasp the change from stockfish to fresh seal meat -- but it did not take them long.... I estimate that the ... heaviest seal we caught weighs about 500 kilos. Not many of those fellows will be needed to feed the dogs during the winter." [6]


Notes:

[1] Scott Polar Research Institute.
[2] R.F. Scott, diary, 3 January, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.
[3] R.F. Scott, diary [date not given], quoted by David Crane in Scott of the Antarctic (New York : Knopf, c2005), p.401-402.
[4] Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World, ch.4.
[5] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[6] Roald Amundsen, diary, 3 January, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in The Amundsen Photographs (London : Hodder & Stoughton, c1987), p.72.

Monday, 2 January 1911

Amundsen

The Fram crossed the Antarctic Circle, and found the water free of ice further south than anyone before had done. Amundsen's close study of the published records had led him to the conclusion that there was a passage at the point where the pack was slackest and narrowest, and that at that time of the year this point was probably a few degrees west of the 180th Meridian. Other than noting these conclusions, though, he let Beck take charge of their course.

"We have now found the sea free of ice further South than anyone else," Amundsen wrote in his diary. "But -- we will meet it in the end." [1]


Notes:

[1] Roald Amundsen, diary, 2 January, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in The Amundsen Photographs (London : Hodder & Stoughton, c1987), p.72.

Sunday, 1 January 1911

Amundsen

Drift ice seen from the Fram, in an undated photo. [1]

At three in the morning, the officer of the watch sighted the first iceberg, with still more to come throughout the day.


Notes:

[1] Nasjonalbiblioteket. The glass plate has suffered heavy damage.