n
n
n Ofnall the stories of Polar exploration, that of Apsley Cherry-Garrard is one ofnthe most extraordinary. Cherry was at a cousin’s house in Scotland in Septembern1907, where he heard Captain Scott and Edward Wilson were planning a returnnexpedition to Antarctica. Young Cherry (aged twenty-four) volunteered for thenexpedition but was turned down, as he suffered from poor eyesight and did notnhave the relevant scientific experience. He applied again and promised tondonate £1,000 to the cash-strapped expedition, but was again turned down. Whennhe sent the money anyway, Scott was so impressed by the gesture he offerednCherry a place.
n
n
n
n
n
 |
| Apsley Cherry-Garrard |
n
n
n
nDr Edward ‘Bill’ Wilson was the Chief of the Scientific Staffnon the expedition, second in command to Scott, and he took the young Cherrynunder his wing. Contemporary evolutionary thought favoured recapitulationntheory, a belief that an embryo passes through the evolutionary stages of thenits species, and the Emperor Penguin was considered to be the most primitive ofnbirds; one of the aims of the expedition was to collect eggs fornexperimentation, to see if the embryo passed through a ‘reptile’ stage, thusngiving a link to bi-pedal dinosaurs. The Terra Nova left Cardiff on Junen15th 1910, and landed at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica in January 1911.
n
n
n
n
n
 |
| McMurdo Sound by Edward Wilson |
n
n
n
nIn the austral winter of that year, plans were made for ‘The Winter Journey’,nwith Wilson, Cherry and Henry Robertson ‘Birdie’ Bowers selected to travel tonthe rookeries of the Emperor Penguin and bring back some unhatched eggs. Theynpacked supplies weighing 790 pounds onto two nine-foot sledges, one togglednbehind the other, and on June 27th 1911, the three men left McMurdonSound for Cape Crozier, then the only known Emperor Penguin rookery. Wilson hadnmade a detailed study of the penguins and knew they hatched their eggs innSeptember, so he calculated they would be laying in July. In the pitch dark atnnoon, they began to drag the sledges across the ice, and on the first daynCherry accidentally grasped a rope with ungloved hands, frost-biting all tennfingers. It was –47o F but fell to minus seventy at night.
n
n
n
n
n
 |
| The Hut at Cape Evans |
n
n
n
nThe worstnpart, said Cherry, was the darkness, making it impossible to see, to navigate,nto find their kit on the sledges. Their clothes froze and it took two men tonbend them enough to get them on. Their sweat froze between their skin and theirnclothes, their balaclavas froze to their faces. On June 30th theyncould not pull both sledges and were forced to drag one, return back for thenother and then drag that one. They moved three and a half miles forwards, butnwalked ten and a half miles to do so. That night the temperature under thensledge was –69o F and –75o F on top of it, that is onenhundred and seven degrees of frost. The next day they continued the relay withnthe sledges, retracing their footsteps by candlelight. The fluid in thenblisters on Cherry’s frost-bitten fingers froze. Fresh snow slowed theirnprogress even more, down to a mile and a half a day, still relaying the sledgesnby candlelight in frozen fog and with the temperature in the minus seventies.
n
n
n
n
n
 |
| Bowers, Wilson and Cherry-Garrard |
n
n
n
nAs they approached Cape Crozier and Mount Terror, the ice began to crack andnthey were in danger of falling into crevasses; the Barrier, a vast ice cliffnover four hundred miles long and two hundred feet high, where the ice meets thenland, lay before them. And then a blizzard struck, forcing them to stay inntheir tiny tent for three days on end, followed by more of the same slowntrudge, edging their way to Mount Terror.
n
n
n
n
n
 |
| From New Zealand to the South Pole |
n
n
n
nOn July 15th, they arrivednat the Knoll, a great hill attached to Mount Terror, which runs down tonprecipitous sea cliffs, and at 800 feet they pitched camp there. They hadnarrived and set about building an igloo, with rock walls and one of the sledgesnas a roof beam, all covered by a tarpaulin sheet. When this was built, theynwent off with the empty sledge, two ice axes, alpine rope and skinning tools,nto look for the Emperors. They worked their way through the pressure ridges ofnice and deep crevasses, down toward the sea ice, hemmed in by ice cliffs andnthe great bulk of Cape Crozier, until, finally, they heard the penguins, theirncries echoing off the ice but at least a quarter of a mile away. They triednagain the next day, crawling through ice caves and scrambling down crevasses,nuntil they came to the rookery.
n
n
n
n
n
 |
| Emperors, Barrier and Sea-Ice by Edward Wilson |
n
n
n
nThe birds huddled together on the ice, withntheir eggs balanced on their feet to keep them from freezing, and so strong wasnthe brooding instinct, that some birds without eggs were trying to hatchnegg-shaped blocks of ice. There were only about one hundred Emperors, Cherrynthought that these may have been the first arrivals, and the party took fiveneggs, hanging them in mittens around their necks, and killed three adult birds,nas they needed the fat to burn in their stove.
n
n
n
n
n
 |
| The Emperor Rookery by Edward Wilson |
n
n
n
nThey started back to the igloonbut became lost, and Cherry fell, breaking the two eggs he was carrying. Theynfumbled and groped for what seemed like an eternity in the darkness until, morenby luck than anything, they found their tracks and followed them back to thenigloo; icy, sleepless and dog-tired, they crawled in.
n
n
n
n
n
 |
| Work in a Blizzard by Edward Wilson |
n
n
n
nA wind began to batternthe canvas, and with difficulty they lashed it to the rocks, as the gale aroundnthem grew and grew. Inside, they tried to get the blubber stove lit, but a blobnof the boiling fat spat into Wilson’s eye and blinded him. In agony, he groanednthroughout the night, and the blizzard outside got worse. A great gust of wind thundered into the tentnand carried it away, scattering gear across the snow, and in a howling gale,nthey tried to salvage what little they could. The igloo itself was hammered bynthe hurricane, the roof threatened to collapse, the snow blew in through cracksnand was soon eight inches deep.
n
n
n
n
n
 |
| The Winter Journey |
n
n
n
n
n
nThe solder on the blubber stove melted and itncollapsed, rendering it useless. They used some of the last of their fuel oilnto cook a final hot meal on the primus when, at last, the Willesden canvasntarpaulin was ripped apart, the thunderous wind tore it into tatters and it wasngone. They dived into their sleeping bags and lay face down as the walls of thenigloo collapsed in on them. When they could, they inched fingerfuls of snowninto their mouths and waited for it to melt, so they could drink. They hadnalready spent a month on the ice, in temperatures far below zero, with onlynbiscuit and pemmican to eat, and now with no tent, a broken stove and batterednbodies, 900 feet up a mountainside in the face of a polar blizzard, they facednwhat seemed like certain death.
n
n
n
nContinued tomorrow
