June 20, 2012

June 1912

Scott
 
"Afterguard dinner mid-winter 1912", photo by Debenham, June 1912. From left, Cherry, Silas Wright, Atkinson, Nelson, and Gran. [1]

Atkinson's quiet leadership held together those waiting out the winter at Cape Evans. Lectures were given -- "but not as many as during the previous winter when they became rather excessive: and we included outside subjects," noted Cherry, who spoke once on rowing and later on Florence under the Medici -- a second edition of the expedition's South Polar Times was produced, and scientific experiments continued, and Oates's Indian mules occupied much of the men's time. [2]

"This winter is passing a lot better than I thought it would under the circumstances," Keohane wrote. "It is no doubt owing to our skelleywag board everybody is very keen on winning." [3]

"We usually wear our underclothing about a month," noted Williamson. "Now that we have run out of soap we shall be obliged to wear them much longer periods." [4]

But there was no escaping the sight of the empty bunks. "Cherry was his usual cheerful self," Silas remembered later, "but rather subdued by the loss of his two greatest friends." [5] Cherry himself wrote afterwards that it was at times "a ghastly experience." "The scenery has lost much of its beauty to us," wrote Deb, "the auroras are cheap and the cold rather colder." [6]


Notes:

[1] Scott Polar Research Institute.
[2] Apsley Cherry-Garrard, in The Worst Journey in the World, ch.14.
[3] Patrick Keohane, diary, 21 July 1912, quoted by Sara Wheeler in Cherry : a Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard (New York : Modern Library, 2003, c2001), p.139.
[4] Thomas Williamson, diary, 11 July 1912, quoted by Sara Wheeler in Cherry : a Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard (New York : Modern Library, 2003, c2001), p.139.
[5] Charles S. Wright, in Silas : the Antarctic Diaries and Memoir of Charles S. Wright (p.300), quoted by Sara Wheeler in Cherry : a Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard (New York : Modern Library, 2003, c2001), p.140.
[6] Frank Debenham, in The Quiet Land : the Antarctic Diaries of Frank Debenham (p.143), quoted by Sara Wheeler in Cherry : a Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard (New York : Modern Library, 2003, c2001), p.140.

June 16, 2012

Sunday, 16 June 1912

Amundsen

Amundsen holed up in one of his patron Don Pedro's estancias to write his book on the South Pole expedition. The Fram's departure for the Arctic was postponed due to lack of funds, and most of the crew made their own ways home by liner. Amundsen had not been able to afford to give them pocket money. "Broke and miserable," Bjaaland wrote at sea. "God knows when I shall have money as becomes a man." [1]


Notes:

[1] Olav Bjaaland, diary, 16 June, 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.553.