|
|
Back to Page
3
Intervening Years &
the
Voyage of
the
Quest
As
Shackleton returned to England, in May of 1917, the war
continued to rage on in Europe. At 42 years of age,
Shackleton was one year beyond conscription age. Even though
authorities were lowering acceptance standards, joining the
Army meant a medical exam; under no circumstances would he
allow Army doctors to listen to his heart. Meanwhile, more
than 30 members of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition, from both
the Weddell Sea and Ross Sea branches, were fighting with
the forces. McCarthy, who had survived the open-boat
journey, had already been killed at sea. Possibly fearing
rejection by the medical doctors, his attention turned
elsewhere.
By August 1917, Shackleton was
bombarding the War Office with offers to go to France to
serve on front-line transport. He tried the Foreign Office
for a mission to Italy. But all attempts resulted in
failure. He was drinking a little too much and his
appearance was of a man aged well beyond his years.
Shackleton was introduced to Sir Edward Carson, an
Anglo-Irishman who had just become Minister without
Portfolio in Lloyd George's War Cabinet. Carson,
dissatisfied with the conduct of the war in general and
propaganda in particular, dispatched Shackleton to South
America where propaganda was notably inept. Shackleton
sailed for Buenos Aires, via New York, on October 17, 1917.
German U-boats were sinking 300,000 tons of British shipping
every month but even they couldn't stop Shackleton
from his new mission. Immediately upon arrival in Buenos
Aires, Shackleton dove into his work. "Dispatch no more
propaganda literature to Argentine", Shackleton wrote back
to London. He had found twenty tons of outdated printed
matter collecting dust in warehouses around the city.
Shackleton decided to aim his efforts at persuading the
governments of Argentina and Chile to forsake neutrality and
enter the war on the side of the Allies. It was all to
little effect. In January 1918, Shackleton lost his patron
in London when Carson resigned over Home Rule. Shackleton
left Buenos Aires in the middle of March to return to
London, via Santiago, Panama and the United States. When he
arrived in London at the end of April, he was given the cold
shoulder. There simply was no place in the official
hierarchy for an amateur diplomat.
Shackleton
now became involved in an undercover enterprise. A company,
the Northern Exploration Company, was preparing an
expedition to Spitsbergen. Shackleton was asked to be the
leader. Ostensibly, the company was going to mine mineral
claims owned since 1910 by the company. Since 1910 the
Germans had a meteorological station at Ebeltofthaven in
West Spitsbergen, which was only withdrawn at the start of
the war. Spitsbergen was a delicate issue as it was
administered by Norway, a neutral country. With the backing
of the British Government, the Northern Exploration Company
could establish a British presence on the islands. To prove
it's commitment, the government provided the expedition with
an armed merchant ship, the Ella. Frank Wild, now
commissioned as a temporary lieutenant in northern Russia,
was selected by Shackleton as his assistant.
By the middle of August, Shackleton
was in northern Norway, at Tromsø, on his way to
Spitsbergen; it was the first time he had crossed the Arctic
Circle. It was in Tromsø that Shackleton suddenly
became ill. He "changed colour very badly", as McIlroy put
it. He suspected a heart attack. Shackleton refused to
undress so McIlroy could listen to his heart. This was the
first hint that Shackleton might be suffering from heart
disease. Shackleton had to turn back, arriving in London in
early September. Meanwhile, the leadership of the expedition
was placed under Frank Wild.
The
northern Russia campaign, said General Ironside, "was a side
show of the Great War". Soldiers could hardly be spared from
the front lines so troops were scraped from the bottom of
the barrel to be sent to Russia. At this point, no one was
going to worry about the condition of Shackleton's heart.
Early in October Shackleton sailed for Murmansk. As
Shackleton wrote, it was a "job after my own heart...winter
sledging with a fight at the end". As he crossed the Barents
Sea, he wrote to Janet Stancomb-Wills, "All is sheer beauty
and keen delight. The very first...snow-squalls bring home
to us the memories of our old South Lands. There is a
freshness in the air, a briskness in the breeze that renews
one's youth". "This day 3 years (ago) the 'Endurance' was
crushed in the ice," Shackleton wrote to his younger son
Edward, on October 26, "and we all were...sleeping on,
rather moving about on, the moving ice with no home to go
to. I have been to many places since then, now it is the
other end of the world". Shackleton had just landed at
Murmansk.
A fortnight later, on November 11, the
Armistace was signed. The war with Germany was over.
However, war in northern Russia was not yet at an end; the
Allied forces were now fighting the Bolsheviks instead. The
north Russia force had attracted various polar explorers:
Macklin, Worsley and Hussey from the Endurance
Expedition; Stenhouse, from the Aurora branch of the
Trans-Antarctic Expedition; Victor Campbell, the leader of
Scott's Northern Party; Dr. Edward Atkinson, from the Scott
camp and Dr. Eric Marshall from the Nimrod
Expedition. Shackleton's official job description was "Staff
officer in charge of Arctic equipment". In all actuality, he
was a glorified storekeeper. He had done most of his work in
London and the outfits he now provided were doubtful; his
own expeditions had been struggles against poorly designed
equipment and clothing. The American troops in the region
discarded the Shackleton clothing and boots and reverted to
their own. Shackleton was now kept at headquarters in
Murmansk with little to do.
Shackleton wrote to Emily, "I have not
been too fit lately. I am tired darling a bit and just want
a little rest away from the world and you". The strain of a
divided self was showing itself in Shackleton. "I am
strictly on the water wagon now", he wrote to Emily at the
end of January, 1919. He got thoroughly drunk on Christmas
Day and, in his own words, "after a thought I have cut it
right out it does me no good and I can tell my imagination
is vivid enough without alcohol it makes me extravagant in
ideas and I lose balance...I did not upset my superiors
everyone was awash only it seems to take different people
different ways. If I had not some strength of will I would
make a first class drunkard". Shackletons' affairs were in a
poor state; money was in short supply. Emily was fending for
herself while Cecily was at Roedean and Ray, the eldest boy,
was at Harrow. Shackleton hoped to cover the school fees
from selling shares of his stock in the Northern Exploration
Company, but the transaction never happened.
By the end of March, 1919, Shackleton
was back in London and demobilized after five months in the
field. He was regarded well enough by The Times that
an interview was requested. In that interview, Shackleton
stated that nearly half a million people "threw in their lot
with us...against the Bolshevist menace. It is thus not
merely a question of saving our own troops, but a moral
obligation to civilization...No domestic or political
consideration should be allowed to interfere with steps
being taken immediately to prevent anything in the nature of
a reverse to our arms in these regions...In Murmansk, as
elsewhere, the peasant is not a Bolshevist...but without
armed support he is helpless...do not let us be too
late...the British people do not yet realize what Bolshevism
means...it is...becoming far worse than German
militarism".
The Quest
Expedition
Shackleton
was now reduced to lecturing on the Endurance
Expedition. From December 1919 until May 1920 he appeared
two times a day at the Philharmonic Hall in Great Portland
Street. It was extremely boring to him and, besides, little
money was raised as he often lectured to half-empty houses.
The legend of Scott and his heroic but tragic march to the
Pole was more the spirit of the times. At the Hall,
Shackleton gave live commentary on Frank Hurley's silent
film of the expedition. Images twice each day were presented
on the screen, Shackleton having to live again and again
through the death of all his dreams. Shackleton was repelled
by the thought of working on the book of the expedition but,
at the end of 1919, it appeared as South. The text
was originally dictated to Saunders in New Zealand and
Australia in early 1917. Shackleton had not touched the work
and lacked the money to pay Saunders. The chronometers
brought back by the Ross Sea Party were sold and the
proceeds given to Saunders. Leonard Hussey did the final
editing, without payment.
The critics, in general, praised
South. Apsley Cherry-Garrard, who had been with Scott
and was now promoting his own work, The Worst Journey in
the World, praised the work. In his review of
South Cherry-Garrard wrote of a comparison between
Shackleton and Scott (two losers, in his opinion, with
Amundsen the clear winner), "Do not let it be said that
Shackleton has failed...No man fails who sets an example of
high courage, of unbroken resolution, of unshrinking
endurance. Explorers run each other down like the deuce. As
I read with a critical eye Shackleton's account of the loss
of the Endurance I get the feeling that he...is a
good man to get you out of a tight place. There is an
impression, of the right thing being done without fuss or
panic. I know why it is that every man who has served under
Shackleton swears by him. I believe Shackleton has never
lost a man: he must have had some doubts as to whether he
would save one then. But he did, he saved them every one.
Nothing is harder to a leader than to wait. The unknown is
always terrible, and it is so much easier to go right ahead
and get it over one way or the other than to sit and think
about it. But Shackleton waited...and waited, it seems quite
philosophically...Through it all one seems to see Shackleton
sticking out his jaw and saying to himself that he is not
going to be beaten by any conditions which were ever
created. Shackleton had always given an impression of great
grip--I should watch with joy the education of a shirker who
served under the Boss.
A picture haunts my mind--of three
boats, crammed with frost-bitten, wet, and dreadfully
thirsty men who have had no proper sleep for many days and
nights. Some of them are comatose, some of them are on the
threshold of delirium, or worse. Darkness is coming on, the
sea is heavy, it is decided to lie off the cliffs and
glaciers of Elephant Island and try and find a landing with
the light...Many would have tried to get a little rest in
preparation for the coming struggle. But Shackleton is
afraid the boat made fast to his own may break adrift...All
night long he sits with his hand on the painter, which grows
heavier and heavier with ice as the unseen seas surge by,
and as the rope tightens and droops under his hand his
thoughts are busy with future plans". South sold well
but Shackleton earned nothing from it. None of the money
borrowed for the Endurance Expedition had been repaid
and most of his benefactors had written off their loans. One
exception was Sir Robert Lucas-Tooths' heirs; his executors
required Shackleton to repay the loan and since his only
asset was the book rights, in settlement he assigned all
rights to them.
Shackleton was drinking heavily again. He was also smoking
and eating too much. He was putting on weight and was
constantly hit with colds and fevers, and what he called
"indigestion", which meant severe pains across his shoulder
blades. As for money, he still had none. In the spring of
1920 he began expressing a desire to see the polar regions
just one more time. In August 1920, taking Emily's advice,
Shackleton wrote to Teddy Evans, now Captain E.R.G.R. Evans,
DSO. Shackleton wrote, "I know you have always been a good
friend to me; that there is not a spark of jealousy or
backbiting about you, that both publicly and privately you
have always boosted my work and myself, and stood by me so
that I count you a real friend. This is no balderdash or
gush on my part". Since taking part in Scott's second
expedition, Evans had bitterly disliked Scott. He had
befriended Shackleton, and in a rebuttal of Scott's constant
belittling of Shackletons' achievements he wrote, "Those of
Captain Scott's followers who made...the ascent of the
Beardmore Glacier, were amazed at Shackleton's fine
performance...His descriptions were so easy and so careful
that every landmark was recognised...We easily saw from the
copies of his diary, which we carried along, where we might
look for coal and other interesting geological
specimens...on the plateau we met with just the conditions
he had described...we used his splendid charts, and
generally benefited by his praiseworthy pioneer work.
Indeed, Shackleton and his companions set up a standard that
was extremely difficult to live up to, and impossible to
better".
"Now",
Shackleton wrote, "my eyes are turned from the South to the
North, and I want to lead one more Expedition. This will be
the last...to the North Pole...Amundsen, I know from the
Siberian side is planning to reach the North Pole. Why
should I not get there before him?" Financing was once again
an issue. Shackleton visited Canada and obtained the
co-operation and financial backing from several prominent
Canadians along with a promise of aid from the Canadian
government. Shackleton now proceeded to gather a core group
of experienced men and a hundred sledge dogs. While busy in
preparing for the expedition, the Canadian government
suddenly withdrew their support. At this critical point, an
old school friend, John Quiller Rowett, came to the rescue.
Rowett was an independently wealthy man, a man of many
interests in scientific affairs. He was particularly
instrumental in the founding of the Rowett Institute for
Agricultural Research in Aberdeen. Rowett agreed at first to
only finance part of the expedition but in the end agreed to
pay for almost everything himself. Shackleton, once more,
promised repayment out of future lectures, films and a book.
But it was now too late for the Arctic
that year so the Northern Expedition was cancelled.
Shackleton could not bare to wait any longer so he swung his
attention from the north to the south. He would use the
Antarctic summer to go south instead and, fortunately,
Rowett generously agreed. Since little time was left, the
dogs were cancelled as not being needed and the program
turned to concentrate on observation and scientific data
rather than the making of a prolonged land
journey.
 The
route was to be St. Peter and St. Paul's Rocks on the
Equator, South Trinidad Island, Tristan da Cunha and the
nearby islands of Inaccessible, Nightingale and Middle
Island, Gough Island and then on to Cape Town which was to
be the home base for operations in the ice. From here, the
route would lead eastward to Marion Island, Crozet Island,
Heard Island and then through the ice generally westwards to
emerge at South Georgia.. From here, they would head back to
Cape Town to resupply and refit the ship for the return
journey via New Zealand, Raratonga, Tuanaki Island,
Dougherty Island, the Birdwood Bank and home via the
Atlantic.
The goal was to circumnavigate the
Antarctic continent, looking for "lost" or uncertain
sub-Antarctic islands. He wanted to look for Captain Kidd's
treasure on South Trinidad in the Atlantic and for a certain
pearl lagoon in the South Seas. Also, he wanted to
determine, "once and for all, the history and methods of the
Pacific natives in their navigation across the Pacific
spaces hundreds of years before Columbus crossed the
Atlantic". The vessel in which they sailed was in pitiful
shape and uncomfortable. Shackleton purchased her in Norway
at the beginning of the year. She was a wooden sealer of 125
tons originally called the Foca I. At Emily's
request, she was renamed the Quest. A baby "Airo"
seaplane, the first plane to be used in polar exploration,
was carried aboard.
The
Quest was refitted at Hays Wharf and on September 17,
1921, from St. Katharine's Dock, under Tower Bridge,
Shackleton finally sailed. The Quest had been
intended for the Arctic expedition and was not suited for a
long, trans-oceanic journey. She lumbered heavily in the
trade winds, her engines too weak. Out at sea her boiler was
found to be cracked. She needed repairs at every port of
call. Against all this, Shackleton seemed to fight as he had
always fought. Shackleton wrote to Janet Stancomb-Wills from
Rio de Janeiro, "The years are mounting up. I am mad to get
away. If I knew you less well I would not write like this
but I want to open up...we...go into the ice into the life
that is mine and I do pray that we will make good, it will
be my last time I want to write your good name high on the
map and however erratic I may seem always remember this,
that I go to work secure in the trust of a few who know me
and you my friend not least among them".
The expedition seemed to have a
beginning but, conversely, no end. The expedition geologist,
Vibert Douglas, "hoped to find some mineral deposit that
would get him out of his financial straits". The cameraman,
an Australian named George (later Sir Hubert) Wilkins,
believed this voyage was "to be a long, but not entirely
selfish joy ride...a last expedition (Shackleton) was
determined to have". Dr. Macklin wrote, "There is something
different in him this trip as compared with the last which I
do not understand". It was late December and they were being
tossed about in the South Atlantic on their way to South
Georgia. On board Quest, Shackleton was constantly
ill. His broad face was pale and pinched. At Rio de Janeiro,
Shackleton had a massive heart attack but, as usual, refused
to be examined. Macklin knew he was suffering from heart
disease.
All the physical problems which
Shackleton had tried so hard to hide were now falling into a
pattern. It went back at least three years to the suspected
heart attack during the Spitsbergen expedition; at the time
Macklin simply thought it angina. Shackleton was noticeably
drinking more. He drank champagne in the morning, possibly
to ease the pain. Against Macklins' orders, Shackleton
insisted on staying on the bridge four nights in a row
during a storm. More than anything else, Shackleton's mental
changes troubled Macklin. He had no plans, and the only
certainty was that South Georgia was to be their first port
of call after leaving Rio. A great deal of the time was
spent listening to Hussey strumming his banjo, the same
banjo he had on Elephant Island. "The Boss", Macklin wrote
on December 31, 1921, "says...quite frankly that he does not
know what he will do after S. Georgia. I do not understand
his enigmatical attitude". Another of the men on board,
James Dell, was suddenly confided in by Shackleton. Dell,
his old messdeck friend from Discovery, held similar
views of Scott. After all the years, Shackleton still burned
with resentment at the way Scott had made him publicly give
up rights to McMurdo Sound, and thus forced him to break his
promise when he sailed there on the Nimrod after all.
That was the albatross around his neck.
Finally,
on January 4, 1922, the Quest came within view of
South Georgia. "Like a pair of excitable kids", said
Worsley, he and Shackleton "were rushing around showing
everyone where we first came over the mountains on our 1916
tramp across S.G. from King Haakon (Bay) to Stromness Bay
after our boat journey from Elephant Id. Finally the 'Boss'
called me when I was on the bridge to come & show some
of the others a point he wasn't quite sure of, but I
couldn't leave here at the time & came down later, but
the dear old 'Boss' was quite prepared for me to let the
ship wander along on her own". The Quest anchored
outside the whaling station of Grytviken; it had been eight
years since Shackleton had sailed up the same fjord in
Endurance on his way to the Weddell Sea.
Surprisingly, many of the same old faces were there.
Fridthjof Jacobsen was still station manager. He came out in
a boat and took Shackleton ashore. Macklin was not surprised
when in the early hours he was called to Shackleton, and
found him in the midst of another heart attack. Macklin, as
many times before, told him he would have to change his
style of life. Macklin said that Shackleton replied, "You're
always wanting me to give up things, what is it I ought to
give up?" A few minutes later, in the wee hours of January
5, 1922, Shackleton was dead.
Shackleton's
body was to be sent back to England for burial. With it went
Hussey, who had no heart for the expedition now that his
leader was dead. When Emily heard what had happened, she
decided that her husband should be buried on South Georgia.
His spirit had no place in England...if he had a home on
earth, it must be among the mystic crags and glaciers of the
island in the Southern Ocean which had meant so much to him.
So from Montevideo, Hussey turned around and brought the
body back to South Georgia. There, on March 5, he was laid
to rest in the Norwegian cemetery, along with the whalers
amongst whom he had felt at home.
|
|
