In Antarctica (iii) - Bert Clive Burnell Lincoln
Diary
from the SY Aurora, Australasian Antarctic Expedition
page 4 - Feb 3rd 1913 / Feb 14th 1913
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Bert Lincoln was an Able Bodied ordinary seaman on board the SY Aurora during a trip lasting just under three months from Hobart to Commonwealth Bay Antarctica and back again to relieve Mawson's expedition during its second summer, the middle of a three summer and two winter expedition. What follows is Bert's diary of the voyage.
It is typed as it is written. There is an occasional word or letters that I have not been able to interpret, at these points I have written a row of dashes ----- or wrapped question marks around the word where I have ?guessed?
Monday Feb 3rd 1913
We are still
beating about in Commonwealth Bay, the wind is from the same
direction only getting gradually stronger. It is now blowing
a terrible hurricane and the ship bulwarks on the outside are
covered about 10 inches thick with ice and from the boat skids,
top-gallant sail, davits and such things the icicles are hanging
like stalactites a foot long, the sailing around the forecastle
head which are made of 1 inch thick iron are now four inches
thick with ice, the rigging and backstays are bars of ice three
inches to five inches in thickness and the rigging lanyards
and every coil of rope are solid blocks of ice. The reel containing
the four miles of wire rope for trawling is covered with canvas
and that is covered again with a thick coating of ice so that
it looks like a small iceberg on deck, as the top of the reel
stands about six feet high. When our watch went on deck at 8
o'clock this morning one man had to grease and oil the steering
gear while I had to break the ice out of the scupper holes which
were all frozen up, as the maindeck had eight inches of water
washing around it that could not escape, I had to wade in the
water with a crowbar, and as soon as my seaboots went in the
water I felt the cold through although the boots did not leak
and when I cleared the scuppers and the water drained away I
stamped my feet and a coating of ice fell off my boots so you
can see how quick the water will freeze unless there is a big
quantity of it. We did nothing only stand by and keep the scuppers
free in our watches on deck today, and we notice that the mate
stays in his bunk more now instead of nosing around forward
on his watch below giving us unnecessary work to do, but in
our dog watch he was having plenty of lung exercise with his
whistle and the first time he wanted the end of a gasket tucked
in on the upper topsail yard and another time he wanted a door
shut that was slightly ajar. The gasket on the topsail yard
was not adrift but an end about eighteen inches long was left
after the gasket had been made fast some four weeks ago, and
this end had been hanging down ever since and he now wanted
it tucked in the turn round the yard, so a man had to
go up and do it in a wind that is enough to blow a man off the
yard and half way to the horizon., and the rigging slippery
and treacherous as it is covered so thick with ice. This chief
mate must want a term of imprisonment for manslaughter
I think judging from his orders when the weather is exceptionally
bad. The crew would say nothing and do say nothing to orders
for things to be done which are necessary to the good handling
of and good looks of the vessel or to the saving of gear from
damage even if the job is dangerous but they naturally grumble
and curse at the job that is absolutely unnecessary and is yet
saved for weeks till such time as it will be dangerous and then
a sailor is ordered by the mate to do it at an imminent risk
of being lost overboard, and we are now seven since we left
Hobart, and we don't want to go home with less men just to satisfy
the mates spite as that is all it really is. The mate is thoroughly
disliked by every man in the ship both officer and sailor aft
& forward on account of his dirty principles, but he had better
be careful as in this ship the serious complaints of the A.B.'s
are always paid heed to by the captain and rectified where possible,
and the men forward. sailors, fireman, donkeyman, sailmaker
and boatswain always stick to-gether now when a complaint is
to be made and the old man knows we stick together too as in
Hobart when things were unsatisfactory and one man who was grumbling
the most was going to be paid off we all demanded our discharges
making the old man's knees shake so much as to nearly collapse.
I am putting rather too much in my diary according to the amount
of paper I have so henceforth I must cut down a little and put
things short and sweet.
Tuesday Feb
4th 1913
The wind is still blowing strong,
in fact it is lifting the water up like smoke and when one gets
in an exposed place it is like getting a smack with a whitewashed
wall. We are doing nothing but take a wheel and keep the decks
and scuppers clear and occasionally brace the yards when the
ship can not bring his head up against it with the helm hard
down. When our watch went on deck at midday I relieved the wheel
and the helm was then hard down as the wind had forced her head
away and the steersman was trying to get her up again and he
warned me that she was jerking heavy on the wheel, and before
he got away I got a hoist in the air and very near went over
the wheel. After that I took good care she did not throw me.
When my relief came along I warned him and when she jerked heavy
he let the wheel go and it span round at the sort of rate of
knots and the old man went sour and ordered us
to rig a relieving tackle to take the jerk, after which it was
much safer at the wheel. When I was relieved from the wheel
I also warned everyone in the watch so they would know what
to expect when their turns came. But the old chap belonging
to Hobart who had third wheel suppose did not like a younger
man giving him a tip as he thinks he knows everything, for he
said "I'll be all right matey, she won't have me like that"
so of course I said no more, but the big Dane told him that
he had better be pretty careful all the same. When the old chap
went to the wheel the relieving tackle was on, so she did not
frisk nearly so hard but all the same he got a hoist in the
air and clean up over the wheel on to the opposite side, and
the "old man" (skipper) ran and held on to the wheel till he
recovered himself. Of course I laughed at him as he deserved.
We have not been able to steer very good as we could not
put our own faces to the wind as the fine spray, frozen would
put our eyes out, and we could not see a thing further than
a hundred yards away. everything was a blur, sea, sky, and smoky
spray. the rigging decks and everything was covered with a thick
coat of ice excepting the funnel. When each man came from the
wheel his clothes were covered with ice although he would be
warm enough as it was hard work.
Wednesday
Feb 5th 1913
This morning between midnight
and four o'clock the blizzard was at its height and the
ship had to steam to windward by tacks like a sailing vessel
would sail to windward and the wind would force her to leeward
so much that with the engines doing every ounce that was in
them she was only keeping her place. The firemen say that they
are burning over nine tons of coal a day on account of the speed
the engines are working whereas usually travelling at full speed
the firemen only use between four and five tons a day. The engineers
practically sleep with their eyes on their engines and the captain
looks as if he had been drunk for a month as he has had practically
no sleep for two days and nights. We have been using every possible
trick of seamanship to keep from being blown to leeward and
to the open sea.
Thursday Feb 6th 1913
The wind and sea is still high although early this morning
the wind died down a good lot and it began to look a bit more
cheerful and we were waiting for it to moderate still more when
we could pick up the motor launch from shore and the men who
are going home and get away for the Gaussberg party but instead
of moderating it blew the hardest we have had as the sun came.
Having a warm sun today caused the thick ice which is covering
everything to start thawing when the ship became in an awful
state with loose pieces of ice and slush and water and everything
being wet caused us to get soaked through and be in general
discomfort while large lumps of ice would keep dropping from
aloft, which would give one a sudden start as they whizzed past
ones head. We also had to work hard shovelling the slush and
soft ice overboard and sweeping the water through the scuppers.
The kick at the wheel is no joke during this weather and the
mate is the best officer to steer for. The second and third
mates are arguing with us all the time when we aer doing our
best as they think they know how much helm she wants better
than we do who are always steering, naturally they don't get
near such good steering during this weather as the mate does
in his. The mate can see you are doing your best and he leaves
it to you as he knows that you ought to know better than him
the amount of helm to give seeing that you spend about four
and a half to five hours at the wheel out of every 24 and the
officer never steers of course. Every man while at the wheel
gets innumerable sprays over him which freeze immediately so
that when he comes from the wheel he is white all over and has
to shake the ice off his clothes then dry them, but then the
water does not get a chance to soak in much so it means that
although the wheel is the heaviest work it is the driest job
on board.
The captain put the sailmaker in the other watch the other day so that they would have the same number as our watch which have now four men, who all take a wheel, but although "Sails" has been doing some pretty tall skiting about his Arctic and Antarctic voyages (he says he has been eight times to the Arctic and this is the fourth voyage to the Antarctic) he is not game to take a wheel , and some of the chaps keep calling out to him that "The captain says you have to go to the wheel" thus putting Sails in a blue funk. Sailmaker does not do much skiting now by a long way.
The Hobart man has been in one watch one week and the other
watch the next week, and this week it is his turn in our watch
and that is the reason that we had a man more than them till
"Sails" went in their watch, but as Sails does not take a wheel,
I suppose him and "old George" will change over on Sunday and
we will have "Sails" for an ornament for a week.
Friday Feb 7th 1913
The weather is very much the same but perhaps a trifle better.
There is a rumour going round that we are leaving here tomorrow
for Gaussberge, but I do not know whether it will prove true
or not although we will have to go soon whether we get the launch
and the party from shore or not as the people ashore here are
safe for provisions etc. for a couple of years, but at Gausberge
the people are only on an ice barrier and if that should break
up they are lost, while here, they are on land with rocks showing
all round about them. Today we were smashing ice off everything
and shovelling it over board, and during our watch eight o'clock
to midday I got wet through three times with sprays and dried
again working. The ice was thawing again and a piece fell on
the Dane's nose scratching it and causing it to bleed and he
went and put a piece of paper on it to keep the cold from getting
into the wound & when he came up again the boatswain growled
at him and bullyragged him & then attempted to hit him for stopping
working and they had a rough and tumble on the deck among the
ice and slush and water, and the Dane had the best of it,
easy so the mate came and stopped this. If the
boatswain is not very careful what he does he may not go home
from this trip as no-one likes him and he is getting a bit over
the mark with some of the chaps, and every man jack vows that
if the boatswain starts his trick with his fists, they won't
take a doing from him so if starts bouncing some of the smaller
chaps as he has a habit of doing it might end in his skull getting
fractured.
Late tonight we heard that the captain said he would wait
another twenty four hours if the weather continued bad and then
he would leave for Gausberg with or without the launch and the
returning party.
Saturday Feb 8th 1913
When our watch came on deck at four oclock this morning
we found there was a great improvement in the weather since
midnight and about 5.30 the mate set us to work to dig the ice
away from the no.1 winch ready for hoisting the launch aboard
should the weather moderate a little more.
By eight oclock this morning it had fallen almost calm and
the sea had gone down too. We had the eight to twelve watch
below and we turned in about nine o'clock after having breakfast.
The launch came off about 9.30 and returned once or twice to
bring off men and their belongings. and at 10.30 we were called
on deck again to help hoist the launch as the winches were still
frozen up and useless. We had the launch on the chocks and were
off to sea by eleven o'clock. The weather was dead calm by this
time. We had our ensign at the gaff as we steamed up the bay
to the open sea, and the men we left here were up on the hill
by the camp waving farewell to us. We had nice warm sunshine
all day and were busy breaking off ice from the rigging and
wherever it was overhead so that it should not fall on anyone
and hurt then. I had the wheel from seven till eight o'clock
in the evening and the ship steered good in the calm, in fact
she only needed one spoke of the wheel in either direction to
keep her perfectly steady. I was relieved from the wheel at
8 bells (eight o'clock) and went below. Our watch was just turning
in when a man of the watch on deck came and told us that the
operator had just received a message from the mainbase saying
"Mawson arrived Metz and Ninnis (Mawson's two companions)
dead" Mertz was a native of Switzerland and
Ninnis was an Englishman and a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards.
The message was faint but was continually repeated in the hope
of it reaching us which it did in spite of its being sent in
the daytime when wireless does not travel so good. On receiving
the message the ship was immediately put about and headed for
the base again. The ship was then heading from East to South
dodging among bergs and making for the coast and it started
snowing and as we got back towards the coast the wind rose and
the weather got worse.
Sunday Feb
9th 1913
The ship was near to the bay
at four o'clock this morning. weather is very cold and windy
and we are in doubt as to whether it will be calm enough to
allow us to launch the motor when we arrive off the base, although
the watch on deck from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. are getting the gear
ready which is necessary. The boat has to be shifted from chocks
on the forecastlehead and launched from these with the trawl
boom and wire. We expect to be here some days now as most likely
everything and everybody will be going to Australia now
that Mawson is back.
8.30 p.m. We arrived off the base about 1 p.m. but as the sea was rather rough we did not attempt to launch the motor boat but got the whole boat ready to launch instead. Whilst near the base all the afternoon we were speaking with them by signals and this evening at 6.30 p.m. as it was our watch on deck the mate called me aft and him and I hoisted our ensign at the gaff and dipped it three times to the people ashore and steamed off or the open sea. I heard the mate tell one of the men from ashore "that we know all the people who are left here in the Commonwealth Bay base (main base) are safe enough for twelvemonths or two years if necessary, but that Mr. Wild and his party at the second base at Gausberg are in a very precarious position and that we are going to Gausberg without delaying here waiting for fine weather to get them on board, before it is too late in the season". When we left here yesterday we saw a large ice-pack away on our starboard bow and beam and as there is more ice at this time of the year, to the westward we might get frozen in a pack if it is too heavy to smash through and be hundreds of miles away from the second base whilst they might be adrift on icebergs if the ice barrier where their camp is has broken up, or they may be dead by now.
There was a large ice-barrier close to this base when the
ship was here last year, which has all broken up and drifted
away before the ship arrived here this year. Whilst the weather
was so bad here wind was blowing at a velocity of from
50 miles up to 132 miles an hour and some very large
icebergs broke off the glacier and drifted out to sea. One night
three broke off.
Monday Feb 10th 1913
We have been steering N. by E. and N 1/2 E. since leaving
the base thus passing to the eastward of the ice pack which
we passed on Saturday when we steered N. by W. and then N. by
W. 3/4 W.
As soon as we were away from the base for a couple of hours the weather got calmer and this morning the sea only had little ripples on it. We pounded through several small patches of drift ice early this morning and at 6.30 there were many large bergs around us. I counted 37 of varying sizes within a radius of about six miles. Some of these bergs were only about a couple of hundred yards long whilst others were 6 and 7 miles in length. We have to keep look-out again now as we have three or four hours of darkness during the night and sometimes a fog and other times falls of snow. About 10 o'clock this morning we entered an ice pack. it was about two miles through at its narrowest part whereof course we went but it took us until one o'clock to break through. The engines were going full speed, and the old ship would give the ice a smack and if it was too solid she would bounce back with her masts shivering and the rigging clattering and then at it again and after a while a piece perhaps half an acre in size, would slowly glide aside with much grinding and smashing and allow her to creep a few yards ahead when the same performance would again take place. We had watch below from 10 to 12 (midday) and as soon she entered the pack it woke us up and we were very nearly hoisted from our bunks with the force of her impacts many a time. We have been put on a very low whack of water from yesterday. One bucketful per day for seven men from which all our cocoa and coffee has to be made, and what is left we can use to wash in. We had no tea at dinnertime today and very little at breakfast tea-time. The heavy ice-pack today was composed of fresh-water ice, but the captain of course does not want to delay it all on the way to Gausberg, as the party there may be lost through us delaying, even if they are not already gone out.
We have a good fair wind but we dare not use it while there is so much ice about, so we have not set any sails, but are only under steam.
We sight very many "right whales" also "fin-backs". "sulphur
bottoms" but time is too precious for us to stop to do any whaling.
While in the icepack we passed a great lot of seals sunning
themselves on the ice and we were clearing the remains of the
ice off our decks and rigging so we would occasionally throw
a piece of ice at them which landing close to them would cause
them great alarm. We passed within a few feet of a penguin and
her one chick the chick was more comical than his mother, to
look at and also about twice the size.
Tuesday Feb 11th 1913
Early this
morning the course was altered to W.N.W. as we are getting
pretty clear of the ice. At 8 o'clock p.m. there were only three
or four large bergs in sight. Later on in the morning the course
was altered to W. by N 1/2 N. This brought the wind on our port
bow and then being a cross sea on makes the ship roll a bit
while I was at the wheel in first dog-watch 7-8 the indicator
registered the heaviest roll that hour as 25 degrees from perpendicular.
The ship is getting light now so she heaves, pitches and rolls
more than she would in the same sea if she was deep loaded.
The weather is warm now as we are north of the Antarctic Circle
about one and a half days steaming. The temperature now is at
32° in the day and about 30° to-night. It is also getting
darker at nights. We have had to use binnacle lamps since leaving
Adelie Land and at night we had to light them as early as 9.30.
This is partly due to the ship being further north but also
to the fact that the sun is drawing to a close now and winter
is coming along. It is doubtful whether we will get back this
Autumn or get frozen in and have to wait till next summer to
get home.
Mr. Hannam the wireless operator got a faint and indistinct
message last night from the main base, which he understood to
be that the two companions of Mawson, viz Mertz and Ninnis lost
their lives falling down a crevasse, but he could not get all
the message, and he could not ask for it again as our wireless
gear only allows us to receive messages and
not to send any away from the ship which is a thing
I call ridiculous seeing that all that is wanted is one little
instrument besides those we have . But I suppose the captain
does not want news to be sent on ahead of him when going back
to Australia so that he can have all the "swank" to himself.
He is welcome to it. There are no great happenings
these last couple of days, and I think the officers are hard
put to it to invent work to make us keep busy. Why they don't
let us have a good spell before reaching Gaussberg I don't know
because when we are taking the party and their gear aboard,
if all is safe and well, we will have a pretty hard time of
it again. Perhaps they keep us working just to keep our muscles
and to keep us in good hard condition.
Wednesday Feb 12th 1913
Early
this morning in the 12 to 4 o'clock watch I steered the (Australian)
"Aurora" close past a large iceberg by the light of the "Aurora
Australis". We see the "Aurora Australis" occasionally but not
every night, although I expect we shall see it more frequently
as winter approaches nearer. The illumination this morning was
to the north of us reaching from N.W. to N.E. at its strongest
part. This is only about the fifth or sixth time I have seen
the Aurora Australis plainly since I have been in the ship although
I was in her all last winter cruising around Macquarrie & Auckland
Islands which are what is called Sub-Antarctica.
Thursday Feb 13th 1913
The weather still continues fine. the temperature averaging
30° with bright sunshine and the wind on the port bow and just
enough sea on to keep the ship gently heaving as if she is nodding
and bowing to something.
We are only 300 miles from the main-base at noon today so we still have 1000 miles to do to reach Gaussberg.
When we were travelling at our top speed we were using 8 or 9 tons of coal per day so we want to have enough left to take us to Australia, the captain ordered that they were not to use more than 5 tons per day so there is not so much speed as there is less steam now.
The fireman pitched a tale to the chief mate, that they did
not have enough time to trim their own coal so that one of the
sailors has now to go trimming for them while they sit in the
stokehold reading and amusing themselves, they have four hours
on duty and eight off, working only eight hours out of twenty-four
while our side work twelve out of twenty-four and then has to
do their work while they have a right good sort of time of it.
Passed the edge of an ice pack today.
Friday Feb 14th 1913
The wind
has been very light today but dead fair so we got the sails
ready and about five o'clock this afternoon when the wind freshened
a bit we set the upper and lower topsails and reefed the foresail,
the reef is so that the officers can see under the foot of the
sail, from the bridge. started doing about seven knots,
but tonight the wind having freshened still more, she is doing
about ten-knots and a big sea is climbing up. The wind is still
dead-fair.
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