Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
96
Figure 4.1. Minna Bluff,
the hooked landmark and
depot point for all parties
headed south from Ross
Island, extends thirty-five
miles toward the viewer
from Mount Discovery.
Beyond that the Royal
Society Range marks the
horizon.
shall's dysentery had worsened to the point that Shackleton decided to leave him with Ad-
ams and to push on with Wild for the ship. Lightened to only a compass, their sleeping
bags, and one day's ration of food, Shackleton and Wild sledged until 9:00 P.M. , when
they had a hoosh, then continued their march until 2:00 A.M. They stopped for an hour
and a half but were unable to sleep, so they continued trudging into the morning. By
11:00 A.M. the food was gone. At 2:30 P.M. they spotted open water four miles south of
Cape Armitage. Then a blizzard came down. While groping along with minimal visibil-
ity, they suddenly came up on the ice edge flexing rhythmically from the roll of the waves.
With the expectation of finding the search party at the Discovery hut, and fearful they
would not be able to reach land at Pram Point (the south side of Observation Hill) due to
the low visibility, Shackleton decided to leave the sledge and sleeping bags and to make
for Castle Rock, the landmark from which there would be a fairly straightforward descent
along the peninsula to Hut Point. When they reached the ridgeline, they looked down
into open water and no sign of the Nimrod (see Fig. 2.7), nor as they approached the Dis-
covery hut was there any sign of life as they had expected. A note said that the ship would
have waited by the Erebus Ice Tongue until February 26, but it was already the 28th. The
exhausted men found ample food, but without their sleeping bags they spent a miserable
night sitting wrapped together in a swath of roofing felt. In the morning as the sunlight
warmed them, they managed to tie a Union Jack to Vince's Cross at the end of Hut Point
and to set fire to the magnetic hut in hopes that these would attract the attention of the
Nimrod.
At that moment Nimrod was sailing south to drop the search party, and Wild spot-
ted her in a mirage. The men flashed the ship with the heliograph, and by 11:00 A.M. they
were on board, with great rejoicing by all hands. Immediately Shackleton ordered a res-
