Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
4
Penetrating the Interior
Discoveries in the Central Transantarctic
Mountains
On February 25, 1909, the day that Shackleton had given instructions to begin
preparations for a search party, he and his three sledge mates, Wild, Adams, and Marshall,
were camped fifteen miles north of Minna BluV. The men had barely survived a seventeen
hundred-mile march on starvation rations when, two days earlier, they had tenuously
reached the BluV and its well-stocked depot (Fig. 4.1). In addition to an abundance of
the usual sledging rations, biscuit, pemmican, cocoa, and tea, the cache contained eggs
and freshly cooked mutton from the Nimrod, as well as gifts, including “Carlsbad plums,
cakes, plum puddings, gingerbread, and crystallized fruit.” The men sated themselves,
crawled into their sleeping bags with little stashes of goodies, and awoke to a breakfast
“consisting of eggs, dried milk, porridge and pemmican, with plenty of biscuits.” They
marched through the day, stopping once for lunch, and camped at 8:00 P.M.
When Shackleton rousted the second tent on the morning of the 25th, he found
Marshall cramped so badly from dysentery that he could not stand. Although food was
no longer an issue for their survival, there was urgency in reaching Nimrod, since once a
search party was stationed at Hut Point, the ship had been given leave to depart for New
Zealand provided McMurdo Sound had begun to freeze over. Before any decision could
be made, a blizzard came down and pinned the party in their tents.
At 1:00 A.M. on the 26th the storm broke. Marshall was able to walk, but not to pull,
as the men headed out three hours later. Fortified by stops for lunch, tea, and two hooshes
at 7:00 and 11:00 P.M. , the party covered twenty-five miles before turning in at 1:00 A.M.
on February 27. Three hours later they were up again and marched until 4:00 P.M. Mar-
