Scott's Last Expedition/Volume 2/Spring

On September 9, 1911, the depôt party, consisting of Lieutenant Evans, Gran, and Forde, left Cape Evans to dig out the depôts at Safety Camp and Corner Camp. As later on the dog teams were to take out quantities of stores to Corner Camp it was deemed advisable to visit this spot, and if necessary put new flags to mark it, and build up the cairn.

The party started at 8 a.m. on ski, in beautifully fine, clear weather. We saw remarkable earth shadows on the clouds over Erebus.

Nelson came with us to Glacier Tongue, and while we had four men we travelled at 3 miles per hour; directly he left our speed decreased materially.

There is no doubt a four-man team has enormous advantages over one of three. The increase in permanent weights is very slight, consisting only of a sleeping-bag and a small personal bag; the only disadvantage is the difference in the time taken to cook meals. When marching against time the three-man unit saves nearly half an hour a day.

We passed Meares driving home from Hut Point, but ​he was half a mile inshore and didn't come out on account of the dogs, who are very hard to control if they get near another sledge team.

There was no object in camping for lunch on the sea ice, and we pushed on to Hut Point for lunch. The distance by sledgemeter was 13 miles 300 yards (statute 15 miles 264 yards). We found Meares had left everything at Hut Point in splendid order, and we soon had the blubber stove going and a meal cooked. At 5.15, it being quite fine, we repacked sledge and marched 4 miles out towards Safety Camp. We stopped about 9 p.m., had supper, and turned into our bags.

Our camp was on the sea ice, and we noticed an extraordinary change in the temperature after rounding Cape Armitage; the thermometer at Hut Point showed −21° and on camping it was −42°, with a sharp biting breeze coming away from the Barrier. Minimum temp. −45°.

On the following day we started off in a light easterly wind, temperature −36·5°, and hauled our sledge to Safety Camp, which is distant from Cape Evans 22 miles 452 yards (statute). We dug out the depôt, tallied stores, and then put up a wind recorder of Simpson's.

It was interesting to see how Safety Camp had drifted up during the winter. It took many hours to dig it out, and although this depôt contained, amongst other things, 73 bales of fodder, each of 107 lbs. weight, the snow had completely covered it.

After lunch we took 6 tins of paraffin from here and marched 8 miles 641 yards between 5.30 and 8.30 p.m. At 9 p.m. the thermometer showed 45·2° below zero.

​Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/437 ​The temperature fell a good deal during the night and we could scarcely sleep. Gran, using an eiderdown bag inside his sleeping-bag, was warmer than the other two of us, but later on our journey the eiderdown bag was like a board and he had very little if any advantage from it.

On September 11, at 7 a.m., the temperature was −58·2°, the minimum for the night being −62·3°.

At 9 a.m. we started off, and marched 5½ miles by sledgemeter (statute 6 miles 530 yards).

We built cairns at every night and lunch camp, and small 'top-hats' whenever we had a halt. Corner Camp is very difficult to find, as landmarks are so often obscured by cloud and drift in this vicinity. One of our objects was to mark the track clearly.

We stopped for lunch at 2; the land was entirely obscured by mist, although the sky was clear overhead. Thermometer at −43°.

The surface in the forenoon though variable was fairly good; we marched another 5¾ miles by our sledgemeter during the afternoon and camped at 8.30, the weather gradually becoming worse, wind from W.S.W., with low drift. By the time our tent was pitched a fair blizzard was on us. Temperature −34·5°.

By 10 p.m. the tent was well drifted up, weather squally, but all snug inside. We had with us the new pattern double tent, which is a horrible thing—it shortens the space down so, and is the most trying thing to spread in a breeze. To quote my diary: 'There is a sharp difference of opinion as to the value ​of this invention. Naturally the maker, Petty Officer Evans, is very proud of it, but the other seamen hate it. However, we shall give it a good test now, likewise the ski-shoes, which I like immensely if they are the right size; if too big they are trodden down and spoilt very soon, but if too small one's toes get frost-bitten where the shoes pinch.'

Tuesday, September 12, 1911.—Blizzard continued till 8 a.m., when wind decreased to force 5; it however still continued to drift until 10 a.m., when wind dropped to force 3, weather overcast and snowing. Temperature −19°; the minimum for the night being −40°. The wind increased to force 6 with drift at 11 a.m., but by 2 p.m. it was fine enough to make a start, which we did in a biting cold wind. We built a good cairn here, but it was cold work.

We marched this day till 8.30 p.m., when it was very nearly dark and very misty. Surface bad after the blizzard; we covered 7 miles 783 yards (statute). Temperature on camping −46°.

September 13, 1911.—The diary continues: Having shivered in my bag all night, at 5 o'clock I told the others to get up, both of them being awake. We cooked a meal and prepared to scout for Corner Camp. On going out to take the meteorological observations found min. temp. −73·3°. Present temp. −58°. I don't think anyone was surprised, as it was very cold during the night. I got a glimpse of Observation Hill and the sun, and I found the bearing of the former was N. 70 W. instead of N. 68 W., so we struck S.S.W. for a short distance and then saw the ​flagstaff of Corner Camp. On arriving at the depôt found the whole cairn buried thus:

so dug out all the forenoon and eventually got all stores out and tallied. We left one tin of biscuits here, two bags of treacle, six bags of butter, and six tins of paraffin. We put all biscuit tins and sacks of oats on end on the top of the cairn we built. The complete tally of stores is:

The cairn is now like this:

We left at 5 p.m. and started to march to Hut Point—non-stop run—as I wished to get my gear ​nicely dried at C. Evans before going out with Meares on the 20th. We had no wish to remain at Corner Camp, as all the time we were digging it was drifting a little and blowing about 5, temperature −32°—about all we could 'stick.' After striking camp we marched till 10.30 p.m., doing 9·5 miles by sledgemeter. When 4 miles from Corner Camp the wind dropped to a calm. At 10.30 had pemmican and tea, then at midnight started off, and steering by stars kept on a W.N.W. course till about 5 a.m. (September 14), when we had a light breakfast of tea and biscuit. Off again before 6, and continued marching until we came to the edge of the Barrier about 12.45. We did not stop at Safety Camp, but marched straight to Hut Point, arriving at 3 p.m. At the hut we had a meal of tea and chapatties which Forde made. We ate steadily till about 5.30, and then discussed marching to C. Evans. Had we started we might have got in by 3 a.m., but not before; but we had marched all through one night, and besides digging out Corner Camp we had marched 30 miles 40 yds. by sledgemeter, equal to 34·6 stat. miles, which on top of a day's work was good enough for me. We therefore prepared the hut for the night. Turned in about 7 and soon fell asleep. Gran woke Forde and myself about 10 p.m. with cocoa and porridge, both of which were splendid. We then slept till 9 a.m. on the 15th.

September 15, 1912.—Turned out at 9 a.m., cooked a fine breakfast, and then washed all the cooking gear, cleared out the hut, got on our marching gear, and at 2 p.m. started off for C. Evans. We had an easy march ​Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/443 ​on the sea ice and arrived back at 9.25 p.m. Found that the sledge party Capt. Scott is taking W. had left that morning, and that I was not going on my second trip to Corner Camp as the dogs will not start for another month. I found by comparison that my watch had lost two seconds since I left nearly a week ago. Turned in about 11.30 p.m., and was soon snoring.

Marching average:

Time out of hut, 6½ days. Allow off for two diggings and blizzard 3½ days, equals 5 days' marching.