A journey was planned to Cape Crozier to be led by the Captain himself, but an accident to his knee while on ski prevented him from going, and Royds took command, with Skelton, Koettlitz, Barne, and eight men, divided into two teams, and each assisted by four dogs. Experience in sledge travelling was of course wholly wanting and had to be acquired. They started on March 4th.
Eight (Wild, Weller, Heald, Plumley, Quartley, Evans, Hare, and Vince) were sent back on the 9th under Lieut. Barne. On the 11th they left their tent and walked onward, thinking they were close to the ship. A blizzard came on and they found themselves on a steep slope, could see nothing, but tried to keep close together. Suddenly Hare disappeared, then Evans went. Barne and Quartley left the rest to search for Evans. Then they suddenly found themselves on the edge of a precipice. Vince shot past Wild, and went over the edge. With the greatest difficulty Wild, Weller, Heald, and Plumley climbed back, reached some rocks, and ultimately groped their way to the ship.
Armitage was at once despatched with a relief party and a sledge laden with warm clothing and medical comforts, and fortunately not in vain. They came upon Lieut. Barne with two men, and learnt that when Barne left the rest in search of Evans, he found himself flying down an icy slope at a furious pace until he was stopped by soft snow. Within a few feet of him was Evans, then Quartley came hurtling down. The soft snow saved all three, for they were on the brink of the precipice over which poor Vince had been hurled.
All hope of finding young Hare, a lad of 18 who had been shipped at Lyttelton, had been given up. But on March 13th, a solitary figure was seen staggering towards the ship. It was Hare, exhausted and famished, but free from frost bites. He had been buried in the snow for thirty-six hours without food. His preservation was little short of miraculous. Of Vince’s fate, however, there could be no doubt, though his body was never found. He was a fine young seaman, very popular, always obliging and cheerful. A cross, firmly fixed, was erected to his memory. Royds and his companions returned some days afterwards.
The explorers now entered upon a very severe Antarctic winter in 77° 52′ S. All the scientific observers were soon steadily at work, and occupations were found for officers and men alike. Every Tuesday, after dinner, there was a debate in the ward-room on a given subject. The South Polar Times came out periodically, edited by Shackleton, and most beautifully illustrated by Dr Wilson. Some of the men, as well as officers, contributed. The men acted the drama of the “Ticket-of-Leave Man” in the large hut, with Barne as stage manager.
Captain Scott, throughout the winter, was diligently studying the problems connected with sledge travelling. In many respects Arctic sledging conditions differ from those of the Antarctic regions. The cold in the spring and summer is very much more severe in the south, where the thermometer often falls below -60° Fahr. On the other hand the southern traveller escapes the misery of water on the floes, which renders travelling in an Arctic summer so very arduous. Another striking difference is that while the Arctic traveller usually travels over sea ice, often hindered by ranges of hummocks, the Antarctic explorer does most of his work over land ice. The land ice is the most formidable, not only from the deep furrows ploughed by the wind, but also from the dangerous chasms and crevasses. Scott was impressed with the necessity of attention to the minutest details in studying the art of Antarctic sledge travelling.
The sledges were built at Christiania. Their great fault was in being too narrow, causing them to capsize more readily, it being necessary to pile the load much higher. They had five pairs of uprights and cross bars. The width of the sledges was only 17 inches, the runners 3¾ inches wide; two sledges were 12 ft. long, six 11 ft., and three 7 ft.[207] The best width of runner-surface depends on the nature of the snow, and can only be decided after sufficient experience. The Danes have an excellent plan of attaching a ski-runner of walrus-hide in dealing with soft snow.
Scott conceived the idea, having to deal with fewer men, of dividing the sledging crews into units of three, each unit having its own tent and equipment complete. The great advantage of this plan is that, when advisable, a party can be split up into threes, or three can be detached from it. Each article was, therefore, designed for the requirements of three men. The tents were bell-shaped and made of the lightest green Willesden canvas, spread on five bamboo poles 7 ft. long and united at the top. They were thus 5 ft. 6 in. high, and 6 ft. in diameter on the floor, with a skirting edge on which to pile snow; their weight with the floor cloth was 30 lb. Scott considered the sleeping bags of the greatest importance. They were made on board of reindeer skin, some for one man, but most of them to contain three men, which is a great advantage as regards weight. The fur was inside, and there was a flap to be drawn over the occupants and made fast. Their weight was 40 lb. Seven of M’Clintock’s sleeping bags only weighed 42 lb. but there was also a wolf or buffalo robe weighing 40 lb.
Scott’s arrangements for diet while travelling were adopted after careful study and much thought. Experts place our ordinary food under three headings—the nitrogenous food supplied by meats, the fats, and the carbohydrates or farinaceous foods. Supposing all to be water-free, the allowance he adopted was 29 ounces per man, 25 being the allowance in the army on war footing. For polar travelling a much larger allowance is necessary. Water cannot be entirely excluded, though it is a dead and useless addition to the weights. Ordinary cooked meat contains 54 per cent. of moisture. This moisture in food was reduced to a minimum, yet it increased the 29 ounces of actual food to about 35 ounces[208]. Our ration in the Arctic Regions was 42 ounces per man per day. We could not do without 1 lb. of pemmican, and we also included lime-juice ½ ounce, tobacco ½ ounce, and 3¾ ounces (¾ of a gill) of rum. Fanaticism has deprived Antarctic travellers of the latter most comforting and useful part of the ration. On the whole the pemmican allowance might well have been increased, by omitting plasmon and cheese.
The manufacture of the best pemmican is a lost art. Scott obtained most of his from Beauvais of Copenhagen. It contained 20 per cent. of water, but that I sent out in the Morning made by the Bovril Company was better. But the substantial dish with the Discovery travelling parties was a mixture of pemmican, bacon, and other ingredients, forming a thick soup which they called “hoosh.”