Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
67
withdrawn, and in the end Shackleton assumed a £20,000 debt with repayment expected
from the proceeds of lectures and a book upon completion of the expedition.
Following the publication of the plans for “A New British Antarctic Expedition,”
which included wintering at Winter Quarters Bay, Scott wrote to Shackleton politely but
bluntly telling him not to use the Discovery hut. In fact, Scott had been quietly planning
his own next expedition to the same area. Shackleton was stunned, but coolly revamped
his carefully planned program, with a base as close to King Edward VII Land as possible,
from which two parties would sledge in the region and a third would traverse southward
across the Ross Ice Shelf to the pole.
The entire expedition was conceived in the most economical fashion. The best ship
that could be aVorded was a small forty-year-old Norwegian sealing vessel named Nim-
rod. The engines under full steam managed only six knots. The ship was delivered bat-
tered and reeking of seal oil on June 15, 1907. A speedy overhaul that included rerigging
had the Nimrod ready for her departure from England on August 7.
At that time the party included two members from the Discovery Expedition, Frank
Wild and Ernest Joyce, who assumed the responsibilities of the supplies, the general
stores, and the dogs. The scientific team included James Murray, biologist; Raymond
Priestley, geologist; Sir Philip Brocklehurst, assistant geologist also responsible for cur-
rent observations; Lieutenant J. B. Adams, meteorologist; and Drs. A. F. Mackay and
Eric Marshall, surgeons, with the latter also doubling as cartographer.
When the expedition arrived in Lyttleton, New Zealand, it received generous fi-
nancial support from both the New Zealand and the Australian governments. At that
time two Australians joined the party: Bertram Armytage for general work, and Douglas
Mawson, a young geologist. The final man to join the group was fifty-year-old Profes-
sor Edgeworth David, a geologist from Sydney University, who according to the original
plan would sail south and then return with the ship to Australia. David, however, was so
universally liked by the members of the expedition that Shackleton prevailed on him to
stay for the winter-over, thus significantly enhancing the scientific caliber of the venture.
Imagine the reaction of David's wife when she received the letter that the good professor
would not be making it home that winter.
To save coal and time, Nimrod was towed south by the Koonya, a 1,100-ton, steel-built
steamer jointly financed by the New Zealand government and Sir James Mills, chairman
of the Union Steamship Company. On New Year's Day 1908, a throng of thirty thousand
crowded the Lyttleton docks to see the explorers oV. Almost immediately the ships met
stormy seas that lasted for ten days, soaking the passengers on the overloaded Nimrod. On
January 15 the ships encountered their first ice floes. After a last exchange of mail, Koonya
cast oV and returned to Lyttleton, leaving Nimrod to her own resources.
As Nimrod pushed south, the ice remained in loose floes, not tightening into the
dense pack that previous expeditions had encountered. By the next morning, the ice floes
had given way to a vast company of tabular icebergs 80 to 150 feet high. Shackleton wrote,
All the morning we steamed in beautiful weather with a light northerly wind,
through the lanes and streets of a wonderful snowy Venice. Tongue and pen fail in
attempting to describe the magic of such a scene. As far as the eye could see from the
