Polar castaways
A makeshift camp, known as 'Ocean Camp', was set up on the drifting sea ice near the sinking ship. The lifeboats, sledges and as many supplies as could be gathered were salvaged from the ship before it eventually sank. They later established 'Patience Camp' further west.
"It is beyond conception, even to us, that we are dwelling on a colossal ice raft, with but five feet of ice separating us from 2,000 fathoms of ocean, and drifting along under the caprices of wind and tides, to heaven knows where" (Frank Hurley diary, 7 November 1915, MLMSS 389/2).
Then, as the ice began to crack and break up beneath them, Shackleton gave the order to launch the three lifeboats on 9 April 1916. The men made their way in open boats toward Elephant Island in the north-west, braving wild and freezing seas in search of land. They had been trapped in ice for fifteen months, but their real ordeal had only really just begun.
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'Diary No 2', Jan - Sept 1916, by Frank Hurley. Manuscript. MLMSS 389/2 item 5
Transcript, Frank Hurley diary, 13-15 April 1916
MLMSS 389/2 Item 5
13 Thursday April 1916
I am mildly superstitious of numbers for this day had well nigh made an end to us all. During the morning the three boats were running under sail with a fair SE wind, which developed into a half gale by noon with a treacherous cross sea. The heavily laden boats were driven before it & were forced into the open sea which they weathered remarkably well. As night drew on with increasing seas, Sir E. decided to “heave to”. A sea anchor was hastily constructed with the Dudley Docker’s oars, to which she was moored, the Caird’s painter being attached to her stern, the Caird taking a line from the Wills.
Throughout the night the boats were continually shipping seas which broke over & froze onto them. The ice had to be chipped away hourly. The Wills being in an especially bad way, ice forming on her focstle head & keeping her down at the bows. Owing also to the cross seas & currents, the boats would not be true to their moorings & were constantly bringing up on each other, having to be staved off with boat hooks.
To add to our trials our ejection into the open sea had been so rapid that we had been unable to take any ice on board & all were in sore need of water. Our wet condition, the agonising cold &; the need of sleep, made life well nigh unbearable, furthermore, we were without any definite bearings as to our position. Never was dawn more anxiously awaited, never did night seem so long. Never do I wish to endure such a night. Some tried to sleep Sir E & self snuggling together for warmth.
Sleep was however more distant than [indecipherable] on the stern sheets for the cold wet penetrated to ones backbone &; all shivered as with ague.
14 April 1916 Friday
Welcome dawn! & with it something even more welcome a glimpse of land! Clarence &; Elephant Islands immediately ahead some 30 miles. What a contrast to the Terrors of the night. Calm & peaceful the sun rose from out the ocean with the promised land ahead, tipping the peaks of Clarence Island, till it resembled a vast gilt pyramid peering through the pink mists of dawn.
As Elephant appeared closest, it was decided to make all speed for its shores. With a light fresh breeze the three boats made fair progress, but at noon the breeze calming we took to rowing. How anxiously we watched the land gradually loom clearer & the details of the snowy peaks assume finite detail.
At 3 pm we were but 10 miles from land when it was observed that row as strenuously as we could we were making no headway. This disheartening circumstance was caused by a strong tidal current. A WSW wind springing up enable us to hoist sail, & with the Stancombe Wills in tow, to “heave to” under full sail. Everyone was parched with thirst, when it was remembered we had some frozen seal meat on board. This was cut into small pieces &; eaten raw which allayed our thirst considerably.
As evening drew on the wind increased to a gale raising a big cross sea & taxing to the limit the exhausted capacities of the party. Seas raked the boats & icy sprays hurled by the wind struck ones face like a whip. The carpenter through exhaustion fell asleep at the tiller allowing a big sea to come onboard & Wild after an unbroken spell of 24 hours took his place. I was given an 8 hour spell at the sheet & thanks to the freezing sprays was kept awake. Several times we lost sight of the Wills which we were towing, thinking she had foundered when she would suddenly emerge from the blackness of the sea on a white crest as we would glide into a deep gulf.
I enjoyed the fascination of this wild scene, exulting in our mastery over this savage elemental display. With dawn’s first light land was observed the loom of the land immediately ahead &; a subsidence in the gale.
During the night we lost sight of the Dudley Docker.
15th April 1916
Saturday
We coasted leisurely along in the lee of indistinct peaks & glacier, phantomlike in the dim misty light of dawn, until the light was sufficiently advanced for safe navigation. Much gratification was caused by running into some glacier brash ice, a quantity of which was hauled on board & eaten with avidity to quench or burning thirsts.
The presented a barrier of sheer cliff & glacier faces Wild & savage beyond description. At Cape Valentine however, a small sheltered beach was observed, which being exploited was found a capable landing.
Whilst the Caird & Wills were so engaged The Dudley Docker hove in view she having been driven into an adjacent bay during the night; miraculously escaping foundering. Landing was conducted expeditiously – without accident. The boats being hauled above high water on the shingly beach. Conceive our joy on setting foot on solid earth after 170 days of life on a drifting ice floe. Each day filled with anxiety patience & watching & and being driven whither? – to an obscure destination by the vicissitudes of Winds &; Seas. It is sublime to feel solid earth under ones feet after having trod but heaving decks & transient ice for nearly eighteen months &; feel that on what one is walking is reality – not subject to drifting & gaping Caprices that maroon &; drop one into the sea.
On landing, a number of seals basking on the beach were immediately stripped of blubber &; a long draught of trumilk [true milk] prepared. Our phenomenal escape was drunk in hot steaming milk that set our frozen nerves tingling.
The landing was effected but just in the eve of time, for so many of the party were emaciated by exhaustion fatigue & exposure, that they could not have survived another 12 hours.
