The Endurance_ Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition - Caroline Alexander [8]
“One can always have a bath afterwards, & I suppose it is good for one from a disciplinary point of view,” he conceded in his diary. Just how vital this discipline would prove to the well-being of the company as a whole not even Shackleton could have known.
The Endurance arrived at South Georgia on November 5, eleven days after leaving Buenos Aires, in a mist of snow squalls that obscured a jagged, precipitous coastline. The company were greeted warmly by the island's small population of Norwegian whalers, and were impressed by the level of amenity their hosts had managed to maintain at this most remote outpost of humanity. There were electric lights and hot water; and the home of the Grytviken station manager, Fridthjof Jacobsen, was not only heated but had geraniums blooming in its bow windows. These charms, however, could not conceal the noxious presence of the whaling industry: The island's natural harbors were full of greasy offal and the stench of decaying whale carcasses, and the waters of Grytviken were red.
Washing the floor
Left to right, Wordie, Cheetham, and Macklin. “I simply hate scrubbing. I am able to put aside pride of caste in most things but I must say that I think scrubbing floors is not fair work for people who have been brought up in refinement.” (Lees, diary)
Grytviken Whaling Station, seen from the Endurance
This was the ship's last port of call before heading south towards the Weddell Sea.
The whalers provided the expedition with coal and clothing, bought on credit, as well as valuable information. No men on earth knew better the seas Shackleton was poised to enter, and they confirmed the reports from Buenos Aires that ice conditions were unusually severe that year, with pack extending farther north than it had in anyone's recollection. Shackleton was advised to wait until later in the austral summer, and so the brief time he had planned to spend on South Georgia turned to a full month.
The month on South Georgia appears to have been passed agreeably with the men getting to know one another and each becoming familiar with his duties. Amid the magnificent subantarctic scenery and fauna—elephant seals, penguins, and other bird life—they could at last feel their adventure to the great white south was truly under way. The dog trainers took their charges to a nearby hillside and attempted to restrain them from gorging on whale offal and rooting through the old whalers' cemetery; the scientists wandered up into the hills looking at the abundant wildlife and “securing specimens.” Frank Hurley, aided by Captain Worsley and First Officer Lionel Greenstreet, lugged his forty pounds of camera equipment to the heights overlooking the Grytviken harbor and preserved the image of the Endurance riding at anchor, rendered insignificant by the stupendous encirclement of mountains. Lees, characteristically, sought to go off and climb challenging peaks on his own; Shackle-ton, characteristically, forbade him. The carpenter was busy constructing a covering for the extra deck space. The sailors remained with the ship.
Veslegard Hut, South Georgia, 28 November, 1914
Reginald James took this picture of Wordie, Hurley ( holding camera bag ), and Clark while on a camping trip during the monthlong sojourn on the island.
Several members of the expedition could count themselves old Antarctic hands. Alfred Cheetham, the third officer, had been south more times than any other man on board the Endurance except Frank Wild: first in 1902, as boatswain on the Morning, the relief ship sent to search out and supply Scott's Discovery; as third officer with Shackleton on the Nimrod; and with Scott again on the Terra Nova. Born in Liverpool, Cheetham was small and wiry, known for his cheery, willing manner; he was the chanty-man on both the Nimrod and the Endurance, and an old salt to the marrow of his bones. When asked to join the Nimrod crew, so the story goes, Cheetham had immediately agreed, then hastened off to tell the wife of his mate “Chippy” Bilsby, carpenter on the Morning, that her husband was going to