Shackleton's Heroes (39 page)

All their endeavours were in vain; but without doubt the six men of the Mount Hope Party were heroic.

In
South
Shackleton wrote that the
Aurora
would land six men at McMurdo Sound and ‘lay down depots on the route of the Transcontinental party'. He knew that the men of the Mount Hope Party would be crossing over ‘well-travelled ground' and he expected them to encounter some ‘difficulties and dangers' but he could not have anticipated what eventuated.
17

In Shackleton's words: ‘The result was that in making this journey the greatest qualities of endurance, self-sacrifice, and patience were called for.'
18

The trek of the Mount Hope Party was the last great adventure in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

No one attempted to emulate Shackleton's planned crossing of the Antarctic continent until forty-two years after the deaths of Spencer-Smith, Mackintosh and Hayward. In 1957, a private expedition, supported by various Commonwealth governments, set off to cross the Antarctic continent overland. This expedition was planned along similar lines to Shackleton's 1914–17 expedition. The main party, led by British explorer Dr Vivian Fuchs, left Shackleton Base, on the Weddell Sea side, and they had a support party led by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary based in McMurdo Sound. Like Mackintosh's 1916 men, Hillary's team were responsible for laying a line of supply depots towards the South Pole, for Fuchs to use on the final leg of his journey.

Fuchs's party arrived at McMurdo Sound on 2 March 1958, travelling with and on a number of motorised vehicles. They took ninety-nine days to cross from the Weddell Sea to McMurdo Sound – a distance of 2,160 miles.

A wooden cross on the hill behind the Cape Evans hut was erected to commemorate the loss of Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Hayward, but there are Antarctic landmarks dedicated to five of the six men of the Mount Hope Party:

Mount Mackintosh is an Antarctic mountain, at 74° 20´S 162° 15´E, and is the northern-most peak in the Prince Albert Mountains range, within the Trans-Antarctic Mountains.

Mount Joyce is a prominent, dome-shaped mountain, 6,000 feet high, standing on the south side of David Glacier, 8 geographical miles north-west of Mount Howard in the Prince Albert Mountains of Victoria Land.

Joyce Lake lies along the northern side of Taylor Glacier in Pearse  Valley, Victoria Land.

Cape Spencer-Smith is a cape on White Island at 78° 00´S 167° 27´E.

Mount Hayward is a mountain, also on White Island, at 78° 06´S 167° 21´E.

Richards Inlet (83° 20´S 168° 30´E) is a large ice-filled inlet at the mouth of Lennox-King Glacier, opening to the Ross Ice Shelf just south-east of Lewis Ridge.

Apart from the Albert Medals, later replaced with George Crosses, awarded to Joyce, Richards, Wild and Hayward, these are the landmarks that recognise the efforts of the Mount Hope Party which laid the depots required by Shackleton.

Depots that were never needed.

T
O ENTER AND
then experience the solitude and subdued light of Captain R. F. Scott's 1910–13 expedition hut at Cape Evans is a unique personal experience that few have enjoyed. To have also been a friend of one of the later occupants, Dick Richards GC Polar Medal, last survivor of the subsequent occupants, the Ross Sea Shore Party 1914–17 led by Lieutenant A. L. A. Mackintosh, was a further privilege. Perhaps the culmination of a life-long interest concerned with Antarctica's brief human history.

In recent years several books and chapters in books, along with a few papers in journals, have been published on the Ross Sea Party Expedition during World War One. This expedition had the allotted task given by Sir Ernest Shackleton, of placing essential depots of food and fuel for his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914–17.

The writings by various authors, including myself, conveyed overviews and reassessments of the expedition, including that of the drift of the
Aurora
in the Ross Sea and Southern Ocean during 1915–16. The Ross Sea Party expedition, however, continues to be largely unknown. Only a few authors have located and used original manuscripts in private ownership or public institutions to assist in conveying this history. More will perhaps surface in years to come.

The men cast ashore on Ross Island in 1915 made do with either cast-off or improvised clothing, second-hand equipment along with food around six years old, all salvaged from that abandoned by the earlier expeditions to Ross Island, of Scott and Shackleton. They also put up with a diet mostly deficient in essential components for life, including the necessary calorific value required for good health. It was not until the end of the
depot-laying
and return to the hut erected at Hut Point for Scott's first expedition 1901–04 that fresh seal meat provided the necessary sustenance to relieve swollen and blackened gums and joints which slowly faded.

In the end the task by only six men was achieved, although during the eventual struggle to the safety of a fifteen-year-old wooden hut in a hostile environment, sadly cost the lives of three men. The Reverend Arnold Spencer-Smith died a few miles from safety and Mackintosh, leader of the expedition, along with dog handler Victor Hayward, although reaching Hut Point and regaining strength, were then lost in their desperate struggle for the better environment of the hut at Cape Evans.

The six men had sledged into history over the great expanse of the Ross Ice Shelf, the area of France, for 170 days and had covered 1,330 miles (2,465 km). One must not however forget supporting party members Irvine Gaze, Alexander Stevens, Keith Jack and John Cope, in the early stages.

During my work, including that for Canterbury Museum, Antarctic Heritage Trust and more recently Heritage Expeditions, I have often stood outside
Discovery
hut and gazed over the sea ice in the direction of Cape Evans. I have tried to imagine in the late austral summer, the bleak setting as Mackintosh and Hayward slowly faded in the limited light on 7 May 1916.

One can only imagine the sadness, pain and perhaps anger, felt by Richards, Ernest Joyce and Ernest Wild who, having done their best to save the men, then saw them lost forever. This new account by Wilson McOrist is compiled solely from original manuscript material. It has focused on the epic struggle of a small group of six men, which included Dick Richards, who in the face of adversity and incredible odds, set out to achieve their goal. They were not to know that Shackleton was in serious trouble on the other side of the continent, that he would lose his ship, and fail to achieve his goal of the first crossing of Antarctica, a dream not realised until four decades later.

Wilson's book is also of significance as for the first time the sledging accomplishment of the men who ensured the final depot was laid for Shackleton beside Mount Hope is told through their written accounts. One can feel very close to each of them. The words of these young men convey hardship and suffering, along with times of sadness and perhaps contentment, in a way that now brings this aspect of the expedition to life.

This book is a lasting tribute to the men of the Ross Sea Shore Party, their great courage and also the four dogs; Oscar, Gunner, Con and Towser who completed the almost impossible task, along with those who helped make this possible. Wilson McOrist has done them a service. In 1916 the
Aurora
, refitted at Port Chalmers, New Zealand, returned to McMurdo Sound and in January 1917 rescued the seven survivors. Many went on to serve in World War One.

David L. Harrowfield

Oamaru

New Zealand

In England, Shackleton recruits Mackintosh, Joyce, Spencer-Smith, Wild and Hayward