The James Caird set off on the 24th of April,
the very last day before the pack closed in again on a day of relative calm. The
crew was Shackleton,
Worsley, Crean, McNeish, McCarthy
and Vincent, the anticipated journey time was a month. It was to become one of
the most astonishing small boat journeys of all time
The James Caird made progress at the rate of around 60-70
miles per day though the sea conditions were rough. The sea constantly came in
and made everything including the sleeping bags wet, it was difficult to find
any warmth at all. There were four sleeping bags made of reindeer hide which
shed their hairs in the constant dampness, making them less effective and
clogging the pump used to empty the sea water that spilled over into the boat.
The boat was relatively unladed and so boulders and other
ballast had been placed aboard in order to trim her, these had to be constantly
moved around. The weather worsened and they encountered fierce storms, As the
temperature dropped, ice formed on the outside of the boat from frozen sea
spray, up to 15 inches deep on the deck. This made the boat much heavier and
affected the trim - more moving around of the boulders - the men also tried as
far as they could to chip away the accumulated ice with any tools that they
could improvise, though the situation worsened. They began to throw items
overboard in order to save weight, the spare oars went as did two sleeping bags
that by now were soaked through and hard and heavy with ice.
At other times they had to bale out water for dear life, the
only solace during this journey were hot meals every four hours by the light of a
primus stove.
They had been drifting for some time under light sail held
back by the sea anchor due to the sea state (a sea anchor is a sort of large
canvas bag that acted to slow the boat and prevent it from being tossed around
quite so violently during stormy seas). The sea anchor however was lost as the
boat fell into a large trough between waves and the men then had to beat the
canvas sails free of ice and set them again properly in order to keep on course.
Frostbite was beginning to affect exposed fingers and hands in
the cold and constant wet. Navigation was also a problem due to the continually
overcast weather. On the seventh day at sea however a break in the cloud came
and Worsley was able to take a reading from the sun, six days since the
last observation, he calculated that they had traveled around 380 miles and were
almost half-way to South Georgia. The short period of sunshine meant that the
men were able to spread their clothing and other gear over the boat deck and the
mast to dry out. The ice became less dense and they occasionally were
accompanied by wildlife, porpoises and tiny storm petrels.
On may 5th, the eleventh day out at sea,
the sea became much rougher, Shackleton was at the tiller:
"I
called to the other men that the sky was clearing, and then a moment later I
realized that what I had seen was not a rift in the clouds but the white crest
of an enormous wave.
During twenty-six years' experience of the ocean in all its
moods I had not encountered a wave so gigantic.
It was a mighty upheaval of the
ocean, a thing quite apart from the big white-capped seas that had been our
tireless enemies for many days. I shouted 'For God's sake, hold on! It's got
us.' Then came a moment of suspense that seemed drawn out into hours. White
surged the foam of the breaking sea around us. We felt our boat lifted and flung
forward like a cork in breaking surf. We were in a seething chaos of tortured
water; but somehow the boat lived through it, half full of water, sagging to the
dead weight and shuddering under the blow. We baled with the energy of men
fighting for life, flinging the water over the sides with every receptacle that
came to our hands, and after ten minutes of uncertainty we felt the boat renew
her life beneath us"
|
On May 7th Worsley again was able to take a
navigational reading and reckoned that they were not more than a hundred miles from the northwest
corner of South Georgia, another two days with the wind with them and they
should have the island within sight. On the morning of the 8th of May, they
began seeing kelp floating in the sea, then some sea birds, just after noon they
caught a glimpse of South Georgia, only fourteen days after leaving Elephant
Island and about half as long as they thought the journey would take.
Landing was to be a less than straightforward
affair, reefs (shallow rocks just below the sea surface) stretched all along the
region of the coast where they were and great waves broke over them. The rocky
coast in many places descended steeply into the sea. Despite being so close and
running out of fresh water to drink, they had no choice but to wait for the next
morning to break before attempting to land on the shore.
The morning brought a shift in the
wind and a terrible storm arose, the James Caird was tossed around in the
sea and when light broke, they were out of sight of land once again. They made
their way back to South Georgia just after noon, but again, it was a coast of huge
breakers and sheer cliffs that greeted them. The day wore on and there seemed no
hope, later though in the evening, the wind shifted direction and began to die
down. By the morning of the 10th of May, there was very little wind and they
were able to look for a landing place. Reefs and breaking waves dogged their
every attempt. They found a likely bay to land, but were blown out to sea again
by a change in the wind. In approaching darkness they eventually were able to
enter a small cove fronted by a reef, they had to take in the oars to pass
through, but at long last, carried by the swell, the James Caird was able to
land on a South Georgia beach at King Haakon Bay.
They had got through thanks to
Shackleton's leadership and the incredible navigational skills of New Zealander
Frank Worsley. Worsley had only been able to take sightings of the sun four
times, on April 26th and May 3rd, 4th and 7th, all the rest had been dead
reckoning.
Had they failed to land, the boat
would have been swept onwards to be lost in the mid Atlantic, and no rescue
party would have set out for the men on Elephant Island.
Next
page, Arrival at South Georgia
Historical photographs on this page by
permission of National Library of Australia
