Ross Sea Party
The Ross Sea Party was part of Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition from 1914 to 1917. The British polar explorer Shackleton's plan was to cross the Antarctic continent . Since it would not be possible for the expedition members to carry sufficient supplies with them, a second ship was to transport a support group to McMurdo Sound , the Ross Sea Party . Their task was to set up a series of depots over the Ross Ice Shelf along the previously established South Polar route over the Beardmore Glacier , which was achieved despite a few accidents and tensions between the expedition members. This success ultimately proved superfluous as Shackleton's main expedition failed to land and the Endurance was crushed in the ice of the Weddell Sea - the transcontinental march never took place. Compared to the public attention that Shackleton's heroically perceived failure received, the Ross Sea Party received little attention in history, which earned it the nickname "Shackleton's Forgotten Men" ("Shackleton's Forgotten Men").
team
- For a complete team list see here
Shackleton named Aeneas Mackintosh head of the Ross Sea Party after initially trying to convince the Admiralty to give him a naval crew. Like Shackleton, Mackintosh was a former P&O officer who had taken part in the Nimrod expedition until his mission was terminated by an accident that cost him his right eye. Another Nimrod veteran, Ernest Joyce , whose Antarctic experience began with Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery Expedition , was supposed to take care of the sleds and dogs. Joyce was a controversial figure, described as "an odd mix of deceit, extravagance, and empowerment," but he had impressed Shackleton with his work on the depot facility on previous expeditions. Ernest Wild , a Royal Navy seaman with twenty years of service, was accepted on the advice of his respected brother Frank Wild , who served as Shackleton's deputy on the Endurance .
Some of the settings were made relatively hastily, as some members in Australia had lost their trust in the expedition shortly before the departure of the Aurora for Antarctica due to the blatant lack of money. Joseph Stenhouse (1887–1941), a capable young officer with the British India Steam Navigation Company , was appointed Aurora's first officer at the last minute . One curiosity was Reverend Arnold Spencer-Smith , a Scottish Episcopal Church priest and former teacher, who was taken on board to replace another participant who had gone to World War I. Victor Hayward, a London finance clerk, was taken away as a general assistant despite his inexperience, apparently because he was willing to "do anything".
Although the Ross Sea Party had a specific assignment with the construction of the depots, a scientific team was traditionally carried along to carry out biological, meteorological and magnetological research. The lead scientist was Alexander Stevens, a Scottish geologist and former theology student. John Cope, a twenty-one year old Cambridge graduate, was the group's biologist; later he also became a ship's doctor. Two other scientists were hired in Australia, namely the chemist Keith Jack and the physicist Dick Richards. His nominal wage of one pound sterling a week was relatively low for the circumstances.
Delays in Australia
When Mackintosh and the core of the expedition arrived in Sydney in late October 1914 to prepare for their expedition, they were faced with unexpectedly chaotic circumstances that had been left behind by Shackleton. The condition of the Aurora did not allow a departure and required a far more expensive renovation than expected. Shackleton had apparently misunderstood the terms under which he had bought the ship, and Mackintosh found that a virtually complete renovation was necessary. In addition, Shackleton had reduced the funds available to Mackintosh from £ 2,000 to £ 1,000 and expected him to bridge the difference by raising funds and taking out a mortgage on the ship.
Patrons in Australia, terrified by the troubles Shackleton had left this crucial element of his plan in, raised enough money to keep the expedition going. However, several members of Mackintosh's group resigned after they had lost their trust in the company. Some of the last-minute substitutes found weren't exactly highly specialized: the radio operator Lionel Hooke, for example, was an eighteen-year-old apprentice electrician. Another addition was the athlete, adventurer and future fighter pilot Irvine Owen Gaze, a cousin of Spencer-Smith, who was taken along as another "general assistant".
Despite all the difficulties, so great progress was made that the Aurora was able to sail from Sydney to Hobart on December 15, 1914 , where it arrived on December 20 to pick up the last goods and oil. On December 24th, three weeks after the scheduled date, the Aurora finally sailed for Antarctica and arrived off Ross Island on January 16, 1915 , whereupon the men set up the coastal base at Cape Evans , where Scott's old headquarters was.
First season 1914/15
Weddell Sea Party :
First depot facility January – March 1915
Concerned that Shackleton might make the traverse that first summer, Mackintosh decided to immediately set up depots at Minna Bluff and at 80 ° S before winter came. These would provide Shackleton with the bare minimum for survival. The aurora's late arrival in Antarctica gave them little time to get used to the dogs and men and led to hasty decisions. Ernest Joyce, the man with the greatest Antarctic experience, favored a more cautious approach and called for a wait of at least a week. Joyce claimed that Shackleton gave him sole control of sleigh rides, a view that Mackintosh rejected and later dismissed as unfounded, but the matter remained a point of contention between the two men and hampered the group's unity.
After Mackintosh had prevailed, the first of three groups set out for the ice shelf on January 24, 1915, the others followed the next day. Soon there was new disagreement between Joyce and Mackintosh, this time about how far south to take the dogs. Joyce insisted that they take them no further than Minna Bluff so as not to burden them unnecessarily, but Mackintosh decided that because of the rush they would come to 80 ° S. Another setback was the complete inability to move goods with snowmobiles. Although the depots were ultimately placed on the bluff and at 80 ° S according to tradition, the operation as a whole was a failure. Not all goods had reached the depots, and all ten dogs had died on the way back. When all the teams met again at Hut Point on March 25, the men were exhausted and frostbitten, and confidence in Mackintosh had sunk sharply. The condition of the pack ice in the sound made the return trip to Cape Evans impossible, so that one was temporarily stuck and forced to make the best of the conditions and to rely on the seals for fresh meat and heating oil (replaced by flammable bubbles ). It was not until June 1st that you could continue to Cape Evans.
It was later revealed that Shackleton had mentioned in a letter he had sent from South Georgia to Ernest Perris of the Daily Chronicle from South Georgia on December 5, 1914 , that a crossing would not have been possible that season. Mackintosh should have been informed of this, but “the cable was never sent” (“the telegram was never sent”). The first season of the depot system and the efforts would not have been necessary.
The loss of the aurora
When Mackintosh set out for the ice shelf, Mackintosh left the Aurora under the command of Chief Officer Stenhouse, whose most pressing task was to find a safe anchorage that, in accordance with Shackleton's instructions to Mackintosh, not south of the Erebus glacier tongue between Hut Point and Cape Evans was allowed to lie down, presumably in order not to complicate its use as crew quarters and in order not to thwart Shackleton's plans to leave the Antarctic after his group arrived. This search was a long and dangerous process, and it took several weeks for the ship to be safely anchored off Cape Evans . After one final voyage to Hut Point on March 11th, where four early returnees were admitted , the Aurora was anchored off Cape Evans and allowed to freeze.
On the night of May 7th, a severe storm tore the Aurora out of its anchorage and carried it to sea with the ice. Unable to maneuver and with the rudder destroyed by ice pressure, the ship could not return to Cape Evans, and attempts to spark the coastal group failed. Trapped in the ice, the aurora drifted out to the Ross Sea and the Southern Ocean before being released on February 12 and finally reaching New Zealand on April 2, 1916.
improvisation
The loss of the ship was a severe blow to the entire expedition. Fortunately, the goods destined for Shackleton's depots had already been brought ashore. However, much of the equipment, food, equipment, and heating oil was still on board the Aurora , since it was intended as the men's quarters. Unaware of the ship's fate, the ten men depended on their initiative and ingenuity to survive. They assumed that not only their future but also that of Shackleton's men was in their hands.
Apparently, Mackintosh displayed leadership qualities in this critical situation that impressed his men, even the unloved Joyce. He summarized the situation openly: “We have to face the possibility that we may have to stay here, unsupported, for two years. We cannot expect rescue before then, and so we must conserve and economize on what we have, and we must seek and apply what substitutes we can gather ". ("We must reckon with the possibility that we will have to stay here without support for two years. We cannot expect salvation beforehand, so we have to save on what we have and keep it, and we have to find out how we can get more Gathering supplies. ”) The main support of the group was food and supplies left behind by Scott and Shackleton's previous expeditions. Clothing, shoes and equipment could be improvised, while seal meat and blubber were used as additional sources for food and heating oil. Joyce's Famous Tailoring Shop made dresses from a large linen tent that Scott had left behind. Even tobacco - the "Hut Point Mixture" - was made by Ernest Wild from sawdust, tea, coffee and some dried herbs. On the last day of August, Mackintosh summed up the work he had completed during the winter in his last entry in his diary and ended with: "Tomorrow we start for Hut Point" ("Tomorrow we start for Hut Point").
Second season 1915/16
Depot system
The work of the second summer was to be carried out in three phases: first, the transfer of all stored goods from Cape Evans to the Hut Point Peninsula; secondly, the transport of these goods from Hut Point to a warehouse at the Minna-cliff to strengthen and third, a trip south to the depot to 80 ° S, new to 81 °, 82 ° and 83 ° and at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier in 83 ° 45 ' S , 171 ° 0' O apply.
Nine men in groups of three would go on the sleigh rides. The first phase began on September 1, 1915 and was completed without difficulty. The second phase proved more problematic as the weather was poor, the surface of the ice shelf was difficult to navigate, and the differences between Mackintosh and Joyce over methods increased. This time Mackintosh favored the sole use of human strength, while Joyce wanted to use the four ready-to-use dogs. Mackintosh, whose authority was beginning to crumble, allowed Joyce to do what he wanted while he, Wild, and Spencer-Smith pulled the sleds themselves. Joyce's method turned out to be more effective in terms of goods transported and men's fitness. The base depot at Minna Cliff was completed on December 28th, but some men, especially Spencer-Smith and Mackintosh himself, were now significantly weaker from the combination of hard work and poor nutrition.
Shortly after the march to Beardmore Glacier began, the failure of a prime cooker forced three men to return to Cape Evans (Cope, Jack, and Gaze). The remaining six men (Mackintosh, Wild, Spencer-Smith, Joyce, Hayward, and Richards) continued south, but Spencer-Smith's condition continued to deteriorate and Mackintosh himself showed signs of scurvy . They fought their way forward until they could set up their depots and ate minimal supplies themselves but fed the dogs well.
As they neared the base of Beardmore Glacier, the location of their last depot, Spencer-Smith collapsed and could not go any further. The others left him in a small tent and drove the remaining kilometers to set up the last depot on January 26, 1916 . Ernest Wild left a letter to his brother Frank, because he was supposed to cross with Shackleton. They then turned back and took Spencer-Smith back on January 29th. He was now physically helpless and had to be put on the sled. Mackintosh soon had to lie down on the sled, too, and the leadership passed unanimously to Joyce.
All men now struggled with scurvy and snow blindness , but they made good progress until they were stopped by a snow storm on February 12, 16 kilometers from the Minna depot. They had to stay in the tent for ten days and their food became scarce. In their desperation, Joyce, Richards and Hayward fought their way through the blizzard to the depot, leaving the sick in Wild's hands. The return trip took a full week. After great personal distress, they returned to their comrades with food and fuel and the march was resumed, even though the scurvy continued to spread. After a short time, Hayward collapsed. The three men who were still on their feet were now too weak to pull three invalids, so on March 8th Mackintosh agreed to stay in the tent while the others with Spencer-Smith and Hayward tried to do so always reach camps at Hut Point nearly fifty kilometers away. The following day Spencer-Smith died, completely burned out from exhaustion and scurvy, and was buried in the ice. Joyce and Wild reached Hut Point with Hayward on March 11th and returned to get Mackintosh. On March 16, they were all back in the former cabin of the Discovery expedition .
From the beginning of the journey on September 1, 1915, to the return to Hut Point, a total of 198 days had passed, which, compared to the past, was by far the longest sleigh ride that had been undertaken on an expedition until then.
Death of Mackintosh and Haywards
The five survivors slowly regained their strength on a diet of seal meat. The ice was too thin to cross to Cape Evans and the monotony of the diet and the surroundings became tiresome. On May 8, Mackintosh announced that he and Hayward planned to take the risk and cross the ice to Cape Evans. Despite the energetic objections of their companions, they set out and soon disappeared in a blizzard. After the storm, the others went to look for them, but found only tracks that ran to the edge of the broken ice. Mackintosh and Hayward were never seen again. They were either broken by the thin ice or driven out to sea on an ice floe . Richards, Joyce, and Wild waited until July 15 before returning to Cape Evans, where they eventually met up with Stevens, Cope, Jack, and Gaze.
rescue
On May 31, 1916, the world was informed of Shackleton's whereabouts after two years of inactivity with the rest of the world. From the Falkland Islands he sent a telegram to his headquarters in London. After recapping his adventures after losing the Endurance, he outlined his plans to rescue the men trapped on Elephant Island . The southern winter made this difficult to achieve and it was early September before he could turn to saving the Ross Sea Party.
Meanwhile, however, his funds were completely exhausted. He also faced shame and distrust, which can be explained by the chaos surrounding the departure of the Aurora in 1914. The governments of Australia , New Zealand and the United Kingdom reluctantly agreed to fund an overhaul of the Aurora so it could go on a rescue expedition, but also requested that Shackleton not lead it. They insisted that John King Davis , who had turned down endurance command in 1914 and was a veteran of Douglas Mawson's expedition, be recruited. Shackleton was allowed to ride as an extra. On January 10, 1917, the ship reached Cape Evans; the survivors were surprised to see Shackleton - only now did they learn that their efforts had been superfluous. After another week of unsuccessful search for the bodies of Mackintosh and Haywards, the Aurora set off for New Zealand.
aftermath
The huts of the Discovery and Terra Nova expeditions are still in their original locations, protected by the Antarctic Heritage Trust and the New Zealand government. The deteriorating condition of the huts aroused interest and plans to keep them sparked controversy. An inscription put by Richards on the wall near his bunk in the cabin at Cape Evans still lists the names of the missing. Of the four dogs that survived the trip, Con was killed by the other dogs in a fight, Oscar, Gunner and Towser were housed at Wellington Zoo, where Oscar allegedly turned 25.
The Aurora survived its last return from the Ross Sea in less than a year. Shackleton had sold her for £ 10,000 and her new role was to transport coal between Australia and South America. It disappeared in the Pacific around January 2, 1918 and was either sunk in a storm or sunk by an enemy attacker during the First World War . Also on board was James Paton from the crew of the Ross Sea Party, who had been hired as a boatswain.
Ernest Wild also fell victim to the war. He died of a typhoid fever in Malta on March 10, 1918 while serving in the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean.
On July 4, 1923, Joyce and Richards were awarded the Albert Medal by George V for their courage and life-saving efforts during the second trip to the depot . Wild and Victor Hayward received the same honor posthumously.
John Cope led the British Imperial Antarctic Expedition from 1920 to 1922 , an underfunded, poorly planned operation with no substantial results.
Many of the survivors should have long and successful careers ahead of them. The young radio operator Lionel Hooke joined Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Ltd and was responsible for many technological innovations. He became operations manager in 1945 and president in 1962. In 1957 he had already been knighted for services to industry.
See also
literature
- Bickel, Leonard: Shackleton's Forgotten Men: The Untold Tragedy of the Endurance Epic Thunder's Mouth Press 2000, ISBN 1-56025-256-1 .
- McElrea, Richard: Polar Castaways: The Ross Sea Party Of Sir Ernest Shackleton, 1914-17 McGill-Queen's University Press 2004, ISBN 0-7735-2825-3 .
- Richards, RW: The Ross Sea Shore Party 1914-17 Reprint by The Erskine Press 2002, ISBN 1-85297-077-4 .
- Tyler-Lewis, Kelly: (2006) The Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party Viking Adult 2006, ISBN 0-670-03412-6 .
- Fisher, Margery & James : Shackleton (Biography) James Barrie Books 1957.
- Huntford, Roland : Shackleton (Biography) Hodder & Stoughton 1985, ISBN 0-340-25007-0 .
- Shackleton, Ernest: South Century Edition 1991, excl. Peter King, ISBN 0-7126-3927-6 .
Web links
- Think Again: An Open Letter to Those Who Love Our Polar Heritage ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- The endurance expedition 1914-1917
- Nova Online - Shackleton's Lost Men
- About using the radio
References and comments
- ↑ The route was from Shackleton himself 1908/09 on the Nimrod expedition and Scott 1911/12 on the Terra Nova Expedition been used
- ^ Huntford, p. 371
- ^ Ernest Shackleton: The Heart of the Antarctic , Heinemann 1911, pp. 52-53
- ^ Huntford, p. 194
- ↑ Tyler-Lewis, p. 32
- ↑ Huntford, pp. 412-13
- ↑ a b c Tyler-Lewis, p. 50
- ^ Tyler-Lewis, p. 41
- ↑ By Douglas Mawson , who had recently returned from his own Antarctic expedition
- ^ Tyler-Lewis, p. 45
- ^ Tyler-Lewis, p. 46
- ↑ Tyler-Lewis, pp. 267-268
- ↑ Scott had built a large accommodation hut on Cape Evans for his Terra Nova expedition from 1910 to 1913. A storage shed, 21 kilometers further south at Hut Point , had been built for his earlier Discovery expedition (1901–1904). Hut Point was used as a base for all subsequent expeditions.
- ↑ See The Daily Telegraph , March 25, 1916.
- ^ M&J Fisher, p. 400
- ↑ Bickel, p. 38
- ^ Tyler-Lewis, p. 260
- ^ Huntford, p. 412
- ↑ This was a normal experience on early Antarctic expeditions, such as the Nimrod Expedition 1907–1909 or Scott's Terra Nova Expedition 1910–1913
- ↑ After the discovery by Scott's Discovery Expedition, camps were already set up at Minna Bluff by Shackleton on the Nimrod Expedition and Scott on the Terra Nova Expedition
- ↑ Of 100 kg of food and heating oil that should be brought to 80 °, only 60 kg were actually stored - Tyler-Lewis, p. 92
- ↑ This was the day the Endurance left South Georgia for the Weddell Sea
- ↑ Tyler-Lewis, pp. 214-215
- ^ Huntford, p. 420
- ↑ John King Davis later said that the instructions should have been disregarded for the safety of the ship. Tyler-Lewis, p. 225
- ↑ Further south the ice would have broken up later
- ↑ See Shackleton: South , Map 20 for a history of the ship's drift
- ↑ Spencer-Smith, Stevens, Cope, and Richards were in the cabin at Cape Evans when the ship was lost. Mackintosh, Joyce, Wild, Hayward, Jack, and Gaze were at Hut Point and didn't return to Cape Evans until June 2nd
- ↑ Bickel, p. 79
- ↑ Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition was stationed at Cape Royds , 10 kilometers north of Cape Evans
- ↑ Bickel, pp. 80-81
- ↑ Bickel, p. 83
- ↑ Bickel, p. 92
- ↑ 6 dogs survived the winter, but two were pregnant and could not be used. The remaining four were named Oscar, Gunner, Towser, and Con
- ^ Tyler-Lewis, p. 159
- ↑ Stevens stayed at Cape Evans to take weather measurements and to supervise the ship. It played no role in the depot facility
- ^ Tyler-Lewis p. 249
- ↑ It was Mackintosh's third accident on the pack ice. In 1909 he got lost as a member of the Nimrod expedition for several days while he was en route from the Nimrod to Cape Royds (Beau Riffenburgh: Nimrod , Bloomsbury pb 2004, pp. 266-268), and at the beginning of the first summer the horse Sea Party, he was lost between Cape Evans and Hut Point
- ↑ Think Again: An Open Letter to Those Who Love Our Polar Heritage ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Bickel, p. 235 Random House pb edition
- ^ John Stewart: Antarctica - An Encyclopedia . Vol. 1, McFarland & Co., Jefferson and London 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-3590-6 , p. 222
- ↑ Tyler-Lewis, p. 273
