The Worst Journey in the World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard (online e reader .txt) 📗

Catholic than ever, and die on a barricade across the filthy slum he starves in, for universal liberty and equality. The Statue Bosh! Don Juan What you call bosh is the only thing men dare die for. Later on, Liberty will not be Catholic enough: men will die for human perfection, to which they will sacrifice all their liberty gladly. Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman V The Pole and After The Polar Party. Depots. Scott One Ton [79° 9′]. Wilson Upper Barrier or Mount Hooper [80° 2′]. Bowers Middle Barrier [81° 5′]. Oates Lower Barrier [82° 7′]. Seaman Evans Shambles Camp [N. of Gateway]. Lower Glacier [S. of Gateway]. Middle Glacier [Cloudmaker]. Upper Glacier [Mt. Darwin]. Three Degree [86° 6′]. 1½ Degree [88° 9′]. Last Depot [89° 2′].

Scott returned from the Discovery Expedition impressed by the value of youth in polar work; but the five who went forward from 87° 2′ were all grown men, chosen from a body which was largely recruited on a basis of youth. Four of them were men who were accustomed to take responsibility and to lead others. Four of them had wide sledging experience and were accustomed to cold temperatures. They were none of them likely to get flurried in emergency, to panic under any circumstances, or to wear themselves out by loss of nervous control. Scott and Wilson were the most highly strung of the party: I believe that the anxiety which Scott suffered served as a stimulus against mental monotony rather than as a drain upon his energy. Scott was 43, Wilson 39, Evans 37, Oates 32, and Bowers 28 years old. Bowers was exceptionally old for his age.

In the event of one man crocking a five-man party may be better able to cope with the situation, but with this doubtful exception Scott had nothing to gain and a good deal to lose by taking an extra man to the Pole. That he did so means, I think, that he considered his position a very good one at this time. He was anxious to take as many men with him as possible. I have an impression that he wanted the army represented as well as the navy. Be that as it may, he took five men: he decided to take the extra man at the last moment, and in doing so he added one more link to a chain. But he was content; and four days after the Last Return Party left them, as he lay out a blizzard, quite warm in his sleeping-bag though the midday temperature was −20°, he wrote a long diary praising his companions very highly indeed “so our five people are perhaps as happily selected as it is possible to imagine.”294 He speaks of Seaman Evans as being a giant worker with a really remarkable headpiece. There is no mention of the party feeling the cold, though they were now at the greatest height of their journey; the food satisfied them thoroughly. There is no shadow of trouble here: only Evans has got a nasty cut on his hand!

There were more disadvantages in this five-man party than you might think. There was 5½ weeks’ food for four men: five men would eat this in about four weeks. In addition to the extra risk of breakdown, there was a certain amount of discomfort involved, for everything was arranged for four men as I have already explained; the tent was a four-man tent, and an inner lining had been lashed to the bamboos making it smaller still: when stretched out for the night the sleeping-bags of the two outside men must have been partly off the floor-cloth, and probably on the snow: their bags must have been touching the inner tent and collecting the rime which was formed there: cooking for five took about half an hour longer in the day than cooking for four⁠—half an hour off your sleep, or half an hour off your march? I do not believe that five men on the lid of a crevasse are as safe as four. Wilson writes that the stow of the sledge with five sleeping-bags was pretty high: this makes it top-heavy and liable to capsize in rough country.

But what would have paralysed anybody except Bowers was the fact that they had only four pairs of ski between the five of them. To slog along on foot, in soft snow, in the middle of four men pulling rhythmically on ski, must have been tiring and even painful; and Birdie’s legs were very short. No steady swing for him, and little chance of getting his mind off the job in hand. Scott could never have meant to take on five men when he told his supporting team to leave their ski behind, only four days before he reorganized.

“May I be there!” wrote Wilson of the men chosen to travel the icecap to the Pole. “About this time next year may I be there or thereabouts! With so many young bloods in the heyday of youth and strength beyond my own I feel there will be a most difficult task in making choice towards the end.” “I should like to have Bill to hold my hand when we get to the Pole,” said Scott.

Wilson was there and his diary is that of an artist, watching the clouds and mountains, of a scientist observing ice and rock and snow, of a doctor, and above all of a man with good judgment. You will understand that the thing which really interested him in this journey was the acquisition of knowledge. It is a restrained, and for the most part a simple, record of facts. There is seldom any comment, and when there is you feel that, for this very reason, it carries more weight. Just about this time: “December 24. Very promising, thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon march”: “Christmas Day, and a real good and happy one with a very long march”: “January 1, 1912. We had only 6 hours’ sleep last night by a mistake, but I had mine solid in one piece, actually waking