From Ice Floes to Battlefields Page 6

  By early June Pennell had confirmed that the surveying team would be working around French Pass, a notoriously fast-flowing neck in the Cook Strait, between Wellington and Nelson. Since the late 1880s a dolphin known as Pelorus Jack had guided sailors through the pass; he had not been seen for months and there were fears that he might have died.

  During the winter the Terra Nova would remain at Lyttelton undergoing repairs, while crew members Parsons, Balson and McKenzie guarded her and repaired storm-damaged sales. The marine authorities would provide two motor launches for Pennell and his team, which included Rennick, Bruce, Williams, Mather, carpenter Davies, engineer Brissenden, stoker Burton, Leese, Forde and three other seamen.

  Pennell and the surveying party soon settled into Alexander Stuart’s boarding house at Elmslie Bay, the remote, small settlement which served the French Pass area. Life there was generally quiet but on Saturdays French Pass fishermen and other locals gathered on the wharf to take delivery from Nelson of copious quantities of beer and rum, which they then shared out with friends. Pennell made it clear to everyone that alcohol was forbidden on the surveying launches or in their boarding house.21

  While he was at Elmslie Bay, Pennell received a telegram from the expedition’s honorary treasurer, Sir Edgar Speyer.22 His message was brief: ‘Evans promoted Commander returning with Drake time to take ship South in December’. Pennell struggled to marshal his thoughts:

  [Evans] is singularly fortunate in getting his promotion[,] I never believed it possible. If he is really coming out it would seem that I am getting my congé.23 To stop in the ship after being suspended [as captain] would make an awkward position as I shall have been in command for nearly two years; on the other hand to leave the ship before the relief is accomplished would be very disappointing. I still hope the telegram was a mistake & that Evans will stick to his original intention of leaving me alone.

  Apart from the personal slight, Pennell felt that Evans did not regard scientific trawling (which used up coal) as being worthwhile; Pennell, on the other hand, was keen to do as much as possible on the Terra Nova’s final return voyage to Antarctica, given that Lillie was there ‘to make the most of whatever is got’. But he decided that there was ‘no use creating trouble in the expedition’ and that, although the telegram had depressed him, he should accept this development ‘loyally & cheerfully’. Pennell’s final lingering hopes that the telegram might be ‘a mistake’ were dashed by a second message from Speyer, but he decided that ‘the pill must be swallowed with grace’.24

  But in the middle of August something happened which put things into perspective – it was hard to know exactly what had happened, but Pennell tried to set it out clearly in his journal:25

  We have had the great misfortune to lose Brissenden by drowning.

  On Saturday [17 August 1912] we were out at work as usual till 5.0. After tea he was mending his jersey in the dining room & went to the store to get some wool to go on with his work. Here he met with the Kassebaums (local fishermen) who were all more or less (mostly more) drunk & lent one of them a friendly hand. That is as far as we can get.

  On Sunday morning his roommates saw that he had not slept in his bed and made a search themselves but thought it quite possible that he had been drinking & so were not really anxious.

  Rennick & I were in D’Urville Island [near French Pass] all day Sunday & on our return the fact of his being missing was reported, but as the Nikau [the local steamer] had been on Saturday night & it was always possible he might have taken an involuntary passage on her we were still not really anxious. Early on Monday morning, at daybreak & low water, the body was seen under the pier head.

  The day after Brissenden’s body was found Coroner Evans and Dr Johnston came from Nelson to conduct an autopsy and inquest. Pennell, Bruce, several members of the Terra Nova crew and local witnesses were summoned to give evidence in the Elmslie Bay schoolroom. William Williams and Bill Burton, who were close friends and long-time shipmates of Brissenden, had been excused due to their distress at their friend’s death.

  During his testimony Pennell described Brissenden as ‘a most reliable and steady man’. He was 34 years old, a married man with two children, a temperance man who had never been brought before Pennell or reported as being drunk. He could swim, appeared ‘perfectly healthy’ and did not, to Pennell’s knowledge, suffer from fits.

  The Coroner, after listening to testimonies and reports for over nine hours, concluded that:

  The said Robert Brissenden was drowned at the French Pass, New Zealand, on Saturday the 17th August 1912 while in an unconscious condition either from a fall or a blow but there is no evidence to show how he was injured, or how he got into the water. He was himself sober.

  Following the inquest Pennell arranged for a visiting Methodist minister to come to Elmslie Bay to take the funeral service. Locals placed fresh flowers over the coffin, which Williams, Burton and other shipmates of Brissenden carried to the Elmslie Bay burial ground, high on a hill above the sea.

  Pennell remained perplexed as to what exactly had happened to Brissenden. Evidence given at the inquest had convinced him that ‘Kassebaums & party were hilariously drunk’; on the other hand the very thorough post-mortem had shown no sign of Brissenden’s having been hit with ‘a bottle or other missile’ and marks on his body could have occurred in the water or from falling down the pier steps. Pennell suspected, however, that George Kassebaum ‘if less drunk – or possibly if he wanted to – could throw some more light on the matter’. Even if there had not been ‘foul play’, Pennell wondered if Brissenden might have been given ‘a drunken shove when not expecting it’.

  Pennell sent a copy of the coroner’s report to the Admiralty and ordered a marble cross from a local monumental sculptor to place over Brissenden’s grave. He tried to comfort Bill Burton as best he could and encourage the young man to ‘step up’ and accept the role of engineer previously occupied by his best friend. Pennell sent a message to Lyttelton, where another of Brissenden’s close friends, Edward McKenzie, was on the Terra Nova; the ship’s flag was lowered to half mast. When the news reached the expedition’s London office, it was arranged that Kathleen Scott (who happened to be staying in Kent, where Brissenden lived) would break the news to Brissenden’s wife.26

  By the end of September, despite poor weather, the surveying work was complete; they had surveyed 24 square miles and taken over 10,000 soundings, which Rennick would plot on new charts of the French Pass area to be issued to ships as soon as possible.

  In late October there was more good news for mariners who regularly negotiated French Pass – Pelorus Jack, the famous dolphin, had been seen guiding a ship in the area.27

  Notes

  1. MS433, 10 March 1912; this is the last entry in this journal until 18 May in Lyttelton.

  2. MS107, 20 March 1912.

  3. MS107, 24 March 1912.

  4. MS107, 29 March 1912.

  5. Pennell to Emily Bowers, 30 March 1912 (SPRI/MS1505/7/2/13) and to Lois Evans, 1 April 1912 (quoted in Hawera & Normanby Star, 29 March 1913).

  6. MS107, 1 and 3 April 1912 (the last entries until 1 November 1912).

  7. Ponting, The Great White South, p. 262.

  8. Information on Central News Agency (‘CNA’), B.J. Hodson and CNA colleagues from Simonis, The Street of Ink, and newspapers.

  9. Taylor, p. 434.

  10. Unused rail passes, including those for members of South Pole party and other members of the landing party still in the south, are held by the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

  11. The Times, 1 April 1912.

  12. The Press, 6 April 1912.

  13. Information on the homeward voyages of expedition members is from MS433, 3 April 1912, and published ships’ passenger lists (www.ancestry.co.uk) and newspaper reports.

  14. Dennistoun, The Peaks and Passes of J.R.D., p. 11.

  15. Evans, South with Scott, chapter 11, p. 162.

  16. The Press, 23 April 1912.

&
nbsp; 17. Hawera & Normanby Star, 26 April 1912.

  18. MS433, 18 May 1912.

  19. Dennistoun, The Peaks and Passes of J.R.D., p. 11.

  20. Bruce to Lillian Knowles, 11 June 1912 (DSS1–7, Glamorgan Archive, Cardiff); The Press, 5 June 1912.

  21. Events at French Pass and Elmslie Bay are covered in MS433 (entries 16 June to 21 September 1912) and in MS107 (in one entry, 1 November 1912).

  22. MS433, 12 July 1912. Speyer, a wealthy businessman, philanthropist and Privy Councillor, had supported both of Scott’s expeditions; his career is covered in Lenton (2013) Banker, Traitor, Scapegoat, Spy? The Troublesome Case of Sir Edgar Speyer, London: Haus Publishing.

  23. French for holiday, congé is Pennell’s euphemism for being dismissed.

  24. MS433, 4 August 1912.

  25. Brissenden’s death and the inquest are described in: MS433, 21 August 1912; the coroner’s report, COR1912/856 (kindly supplied by Archives New Zealand); an account by William Burton (copy kindly supplied by his grandson Robin Burton); local newspaper reports.

  26. Young, A Great Task of Happiness, p. 141.

  27. Timaru Herald, 31 October 1912.

  4

  Final Journeys

  On 30 October 1912 Teddy and Hilda Evans and Francis Drake arrived back in Christchurch. Evans was, as far as Pennell could see ‘practically well again’ but his heart was still weak.

  Pennell had recently returned from Peel Forest, where he enjoyed climbing local mountains with Jim Dennistoun, playing tennis, riding around the farm station and learning more about foresting techniques.1 With Evans back, he was keen to find out how they were going to deal with the situation regarding command of the Terra Nova.2 Pennell suggested that one solution would be for Evans to be ‘Commander of the Expedition’ for the duration of the voyage, leaving Pennell in his current role as ship’s captain. The only alternative was, as far as Pennell could see, for Evan to take command of the ship and discharge Pennell completely. But Evans, whose new rank of commander had been conferred on him by the king, had the final word on the subject:3

  I am now in the position of Navigator. The position is of course a very awkward one, one might almost say humiliating, even, but will have to be made to work and as he is a man of considerable tact and we are good friends should not be hard.

  Pennell concluded his Terra Nova captain’s journal with a long entry summarising the winter’s work and acknowledging the service, over two years, of his afterguard and crew.4 He formally handed the ship over to Evans and returned to Peel Forest. Over the next few weeks Pennell went to see Kismet with Jim Dennistoun’s father and visited Hugh Acland and his wife (‘one of the sweetest women I have met’), who had rearranged one of their rooms so Pennell, Atkinson and Lillie could stay in Christchurch whenever they wanted. During one visit, Pennell and Atkinson ‘had the great honour of being asked to be godfathers to the Aclands’ expected baby’, which, all being well, was due to be born in July.5

  There was also happy news from Henry Rennick, who was now engaged to ‘Miss Paterson’ of Dunedin; although this was supposed to be a secret, Isobel Paterson was now living in Christchurch – which made Pennell suspect that Rennick would be paying noticeably less attention to his plotting duties until the Terra Nova set sail. Meanwhile, Lillie had returned from his months of whale-watching and fossil-hunting and Alf Cheetham was back from visiting his family in Hull.

  Amundsen, who had been on Cheetham’s homebound ship until South America, was now in Britain, where he had been lecturing to members of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. The latter had welcomed him warmly, but RGS members had been more reserved, as many still felt that Amundsen’s sudden switch from North to South Poles and his use of dogs had unfairly disadvantaged Scott. Amundsen went on to lecture elsewhere in Britain (including Cardiff and Cheltenham) and in France and Italy.6 He then planned to travel to the United States where he would give more lectures before rejoining the Fram in San Francisco in mid-1914 and heading north into Arctic waters.

  On 14 December 1912 the Terra Nova left Lyttelton wharf, waved away by Kinsey, Hilda Evans, Oriana Wilson, other friends and well-wishers and a crowd of onlookers.7 Evans and Pennell had carefully stowed bundles of letters for those still on the ice, as well as champagne and a range of delicacies with which to celebrate the return of the South Pole and Northern parties.

  On the first evening out of Lyttelton they found a stowaway aboard, a local ‘rabbiter’ who seemed uncertain as to why he wanted to sail south; they turned around, but the captain of a passing sailing barque kindly agreed to take the man aboard and land him. There were no mules or dogs aboard this time but Rennick had, in the hope of enjoying fresh eggs, brought with him three hens. Meanwhile Cheetham was laying ‘a break-back trap and meat with a little aniseed on it’ to deal with the few rats remaining on the ship.

  On this voyage the Terra Nova was following the easterly route which James Ross had taken on his 1842 voyage to the sea which bore his name.8 Pennell was glad to see that Evans now seemed keen to have a ‘good scientific record’ and was giving Rennick and Lillie the time they needed to take new soundings and trawl new waters respectively. Evans also seemed ‘madly keen’ to make sure that Pennell and Rennick were promoted after the expedition, but Pennell was happy to take his chance. During the voyage Pennell could spend as much time as he wanted in the crow’s nest, as Teddy Evans’ weak heart prevented him from clambering aloft. With only navigator’s duties to keep him busy, Pennell was able to spent hours watching out for seabirds for the zoological log he was keeping. On 22 December, Pennell’s 30th birthday, Evans produced ‘a little parcel from home’ containing neck-ties from his mother and handkerchiefs, which Pennell thought was ‘a very pleasant surprise … on the high seas’.9

  Christmas Day fell on a Wednesday and was, in Pennell’s view, ‘rather a failure’.10 On recent voyages he and Rennick had organised a rest day, with minimal duties for everyone, which had allowed everyone to join in ‘a little service & Xmas hymns’. Evans had decided instead to order ‘Sunday routines’ which had meant the day not feeling particularly special. But on Boxing Day they saw their first iceberg.

  For a few days they managed to skirt the pack but by New Year’s Eve they were at a complete standstill. They celebrated the coming of 1913 with ‘a very jolly evening’, during which they had a ‘sing-song’ and were able (due to being stationary) to play the new gramophone records they had bought in Christchurch.11

  As they inched their way through the pack, the antics of two Adélie penguins provided some light relief:12

  Two examining a tin, thrown overboard to the ice yesterday, were screamingly funny. Each was very jealous of the other & very anxious to see the tin & each one’s antics in trying to drive away his companion … [were] ridiculous beyond words. Wonderfully peaceful it is here without the hubbub and disturbance of our over specialised civilisation.

  By 18 January 1913 the Terra Nova was through the pack and anchored a short distance off Cape Evans. Much to Pennell’s relief, Campbell was visible from a distance; he was, like Teddy Evans, armed with a megaphone. Evans asked, across the distance, whether everyone was well. Campbell shouted back that the South Pole party had reached the Pole in January 1912 but had died on the way back to Cape Evans.

  In the hush which followed, the bunting in the Terra Nova wardroom was taken down and the champagne, cigars and chocolates which had been laid out for immediate consumption were stowed away again.

  Everyone then set to loading the ship and by the following day the Terra Nova was ready to leave Cape Evans for Hut Point, where Atkinson and others who had wintered at Cape Evans had one last thing to do.13 They dragged a heavy wooden cross up to the top of Observation Hill and drove it into the ground. Carpenter Frankie Davies had already carefully chipped out the names of the members of the South Pole party and a text from Tennyson’s Ulysses chosen by Cherry-Garrard: ‘To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield’.1
4 After Atkinson came down the hill, he checked the hut was secure and well-stocked for any future travellers.

  The Terra Nova left Hut Point on 21 January and embarked on a circuit of McMurdo Sound, punctuated by stops for scientists to pick up heavy specimens they had deposited over the past two seasons. Pennell finally had time to commit to paper what he understood to have happened since early 1912:15

  Seaman Evans died at the foot of the Beardmore and his illness was the real reason of their loss, though even this would not have had this effect if the weather had been normal, but the season was very early and very severe.16

  Oates got badly frostbitten and one night left the others as being their only means of safety; the other three got to within 11 miles of 1 Ton Depot where there was a month’s supply of food. Here a nine days blizzard raged and killed them.17

  Cherry & Demitri, who had left with the dogs when we left Hut Point finally last year, were unable to get beyond 1 Ton Camp owing to the appalling weather and on their return to Hut Point Cherry’s heart gave out from overstrain though now, thank God, he is alright again.

  Jane [Atkinson] & Keohane went out man-hauling but could not get beyond Corner Camp and were fortunate in getting back … there being now no hope at all of the Southern Party [Jane] tried to work up towards Campbell in case he was coming down the coast. They (J, Silas, Keohane & Williamson) had a very bad time but struggled to Butter Point, after which there was no clear ice and they had to return.

  Jane has had a very bad winter, but has risen to the occasion and kept his party in spirits under the most trying circumstances …

  As soon as possible this season [Atkinson and a party] went out with the mules & found Scott, Wilson & Bowers.18 The two latter were peacefully asleep and had died a quiet death, the Owner [Scott] had had more of a struggle.