Sledging component of the 1911–14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition
The Far Eastern Party was a sledging component of the 1911–1914 Australasian Antarctic expedition, which investigated the previously unexplored coastal regions of Antarctica west of Cape Adare. Led by Douglas Mawson, the party aimed to explore the area far to the east of their main base in Adélie Land, pushing about towards Victoria Land. Accompanying Mawson were Belgrave Edward Ninnis, a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers, and Swiss ski expert Xavier Mertz; the party used sledge dogs to increase their speed across the ice. Initially they made good progress, crossing two huge glaciers on their route south-east.
On 14 December 1912, with the party more than from the safety of the main base at Cape Denison, Ninnis and the sledge he was walking beside broke through the snow lid of a crevasse and were lost. Their supplies now severely compromised, Mawson and Mertz turned back west, gradually shooting the remaining sledge dogs for food to supplement their scarce rations. As they crossed the first glacier on their return journey Mertz became sick, making progress difficult. After almost a week of making very little headway Mertz died, leaving Mawson to carry on alone.
For almost a month he pulled his sledge across the Antarctic, crossing the second glacier, despite an illness that increasingly weakened him. Mawson reached the comparative safety of Aladdin's Cave—a food depot from the main base—on 1 February 1913, only to be trapped there for a week while a blizzard raged outside. As a result, he missed the ship back to Australia; the had sailed on 8 February, just hours before his return to Cape Denison, after waiting for more than three weeks. With a relief party, Mawson remained at Cape Denison until the "Aurora" returned the following summer in December 1913.
The causes of Mertz's death and Mawson's related illness remain uncertain; a 1969 study suggested hypervitaminosis A, presumably caused by the men eating the livers of their Greenland huskies, which are now known to be unusually high in vitamin A. While this is considered the most likely theory, dissenting opinions suggest prolonged cold exposure or psychological stresses. Explorer and mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary described Mawson's month-long journey as "probably the greatest story of lone survival in Polar exploration".
Background.
The Australasian Antarctic expedition, commanded by Douglas Mawson, explored part of East Antarctica between 1911 and 1914. The expedition's main base was established in January 1912, at Cape Denison in Commonwealth Bay, Adélie Land. This was much farther west than originally intended; dense pack ice had prevented the expedition ship from landing closer to Cape Adare, the original eastern limit. Only after the "Aurora"—heading west—had rounded the ice tongue of the Mertz Glacier, was a landing made.
Battling katabatic winds that swept down from the Antarctic Plateau, the shore party erected their hut and began preparations for the following summer's sledging expeditions. The men readied clothing, sledges, tents and rations, conducted limited survey parties, and deployed several caches of supplies. The most notable of these depots was Aladdin's Cave, excavated from the ice on the slope to the south of the main hut.
On 27 October 1912, Mawson outlined the summer sledging program. Of the seven sledging parties that would depart from Cape Denison, three would head east. The Eastern Coastal Party, led by the geologist Cecil Madigan, was charged with exploring beyond the Mertz Glacier tongue; they would initially be supported by the Near Eastern Party led by Frank Leslie Stillwell, which would then turn to mapping the area between Cape Denison and the glacier.
The final party, led by Mawson, would push rapidly inland to the south of the Coastal Party towards Victoria Land, an area he had explored during Ernest Shackleton's "Nimrod" Expedition in 1908–1909. He hoped to travel about east, collecting geological data and specimens, mapping the coast, and claiming territory for the crown.
Assisting him on this Far Eastern Party was Belgrave Edward Ninnis, a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers, and the Swiss ski expert Xavier Mertz. They were in charge of the expedition's Greenland huskies, who would be crucial if the party was to cover the distance at the speed Mawson intended. Ninnis and Mertz had spent the winter preparing the dogs for the journey, sewing harnesses and teaching them to run in teams with the sledges. Each of the parties was required to return to Cape Denison by 15 January 1913, to allow time for the "Aurora" to collect them and escape Antarctic waters unencumbered by the winter sea ice.
Journey eastwards.
Blizzards prevented the parties from leaving Cape Denison until 10 November 1912, four days after the scheduled start date. In his diary, Mertz recorded the clearing weather as "definitely a good omen". Mawson wrote a short letter to his fiancée, Paquita Delprat: "The weather is fine this morning though the wind still blows. We shall get away in an hour's time. I have two good companions, Dr Mertz and Lieut. Ninnis. It is unlikely that any harm will happen to us, but should I not return to you in Australia, please know that I truly loved you. I must be closing now as the others are waiting."
Allowing Madigan and Stillwell's parties a head-start, Mawson, Ninnis, Mertz and the seventeen dogs left Cape Denison early in the afternoon, reaching Aladdin's Cave four hours later. Stopping for the night, they took on extra supplies and rearranged the sledges. The first team of dogs would haul a train of two sledges, which collectively carried half the weight of the party's supplies. The remaining supplies were put on the third sledge, towed by the second dog team.
Heading south the following day to avoid crevasses to the east, they travelled about before poor weather forced them to stop and camp. Strong winds confined them to the tent until 13 November, and they were able to travel just a short distance before the weather picked up again. For three more days they remained in their tent, unable even to light the stove. When the weather cleared on 16 November, Madigan and Stillwell's parties joined them. The three parties travelled together for much of the following day, before Mawson's party separated and pushed on ahead in the late afternoon.
Mertz and Ninnis Glaciers.
Heading south-east towards the Mertz Glacier, with Mertz skiing ahead and Mawson and Ninnis driving the dogs, the party covered on 18 November. This was despite encountering sastrugi—ridges in the ice caused by wind—as high as , that caused the dogs to slip and the sledges to roll. During the day they passed two peaks, which Mawson named Madigan Nunatak and Aurora Peak, after the leader of the Eastern Coastal Party and the expedition's ship. The following day they began the steep descent to the Mertz Glacier. After the sledges several times overtook the dogs, the huskies were allowed to run free down the slope.
Following a particularly steep descent the following day, half of Mawson's team of dogs—reattached to his sledges—were almost lost when they fell into a crevasse. They were hauled out, but Mawson decided to camp when one of the dogs, Ginger Bitch, gave birth to the first in a litter of 14 pups.
Over the next several days, the party continued across the glacier. They developed a method of crossing the many crevasses; the forerunner, on skis, would cross the snow covering the hole—the lid—and once across the first of the two dog teams would follow. Only after the first dog team was across would the second follow, "otherwise", wrote Mawson, "the dogs in the rear would make a course direct for wherever the front dogs happened to be, cutting across corners and probably dragging their sledge sideways into a crevasse". But despite their precautions Ninnis fell down and was rescued from three crevasses, once when they found they had pitched their tent on its lip.
After Mawson slipped into a crevasse, they began to tie themselves to their sledges as a precaution. Ninnis developed photokeratitis (snow-blindness), which Mawson treated with zinc sulfate and cocaine hydrochloride. They were also losing dogs; one broke his leg and was shot, another fell ill, and a third was lost down a crevasse. On 24 November, the party reached the eastern side of the glacier and ascended to the plateau.
On level ground again, they began to make quick progress. They awoke on the morning of 27 November to find another glacier (later known as the Ninnis Glacier) far larger than the first. As with the first glacier, they had to unhitch the dogs from the sledges and slowly make the treacherous descent. Once at the bottom of the glacier they spent four days crossing fields of crevasses, battling strong winds and poor light that made navigation difficult.
In the harsh conditions, the dogs began to grow restless; one of them, Shackleton, tore open the men's food bag and devoured a pack of butter, crucial for their nourishment to supplement the hoosh. On 30 November, the party reached the eastern limit of the glacier and began the ascent to the plateau beyond, only to find themselves confronted at the top by sastrugi so sharp-edged the dogs were useless. Worse still, temperatures rose to , melting the snow and making pulling difficult; the party switched to travelling at night to avoid the worst of the conditions.
From atop the ridge on the eastern side of the Ninnis Glacier, Mawson began to doubt the accuracy of the reports of land to the east by Charles Wilkes during the 1838–1842 United States Exploring Expedition. By Wilkes' reckoning, Mawson recorded in his diary, "We now appear to be off the real continent edge." Concerned about overlap with Madigan's party to the north, he turned his party south. They made good progress initially, but beginning on 6 December a blizzard confined them to their tent for three days. On 9 December, they set off again, but Ninnis was struggling. He had developed neuralgia on the left side of his face and a whitlow on one of his fingers. The latter was making sleep difficult for him, and, on 13 December, Mawson lanced the finger.
Death of Ninnis.
On the evening of 13 December Mawson and Mertz rearranged the sledges. The rear-most sledge, which had carried the most weight, was well-worn, and they decided to abandon it. The remaining supplies were re-distributed between the remaining two sledges. Most of the important supplies—the tent and most of the food—were stored on the new rear sledge; if they were to lose a sledge down a crevasse, they reasoned, it would be the front, less-vital sledge. As the rear sledge was heavier, the strongest of remaining dogs were assigned to pull it. At the camp they left a small amount of supplies, including the abandoned sledge and a tent cover, without the floor or poles.
By noon the next day they had covered from the Cape Denison hut. Mertz was ahead on skis, breaking trail. Mawson sat on the first sledge; Ninnis walked beside the second. In his diary that night, Mertz recounted: "Around 1 pm, I crossed a crevasse, similar to the hundred previous ones we had passed during the last weeks. I cried out "crevasse!", moved at right angle, and went forward. Around five minutes later, I looked behind. Mawson was following, looking at his sledge in front of him. I couldn't see Ninnis, so I stopped to have a better look. Mawson turned round to know the reason I was looking behind me. He immediately jumped out of his sledge, and rushed back. When he nodded his head, I followed him, driving back his sledge."
Ninnis, his sledge and dog team had fallen through a crevasse wide with straight, ice walls. On a ledge deep in the hole, Mawson and Mertz could see the bodies of two dogs—one still alive, but seriously injured—and the remains of Ninnis' sledge. There was no sign of their companion. They measured the distance to the ledge as , too far for their ropes to reach. "Dog ceased to moan shortly", wrote Mawson in his diary that night. "We called and sounded for three hours, then went a few miles to a hill and took position observations. Came back, called &amp; sounded for an hour. Read the burial service."
Return.
Along with the heavy-weather tent, most of their own food and all of the dogs' food, they had lost the pickaxe, the shovel, and Mertz's waterproof overpants and helmet. On Mawson's sledge they had