Cardiff to Cape Evans

100 years ago today Captain Scott’s expedition was building the hut for their winter quarters and unloading stores from the Terra Nova.

They’d had a terrible journey out sinc leaving New Zealand, nearly sinking during a heavy storm which almost overwhelmed their overladen ship. The pumps were blocked with coal dust and oil and they had to bale out with buckets. The ponies suffered terribly and some died due to the conditions. Finally they reached the pack but then spent weeks trying to find a way through it using up too much of their precious coal reserves. When they managed to break through to the Antarctic continent they found they could not set up camp at Cape Crozier as planned and had to move on to cape Evans (as they christened it) which was not ideally situated as it meant they would have to rely on a frozen bay some of the time to be able to move about.

Well this is where they are ‘now’.

Edward Wilson of the Antarctic

BLAST! I wrote this months ago and only now lealised I never published it!! Well better late than never..

Edward Adrian Wilson of the Antarctic, also known as Uncle Bill to the expedition members was one of Robert Falcon Scott’s best friends. He accompanied Scott on his first expedition to the South Pole in the Discovery and was one of the team of three along with Shackleton, to reach Scotts “Farthest South”.

Wilson was the Chief science officer on the expedition and is probably know as a naturalist so it was a shock to me to read his diary which begins  a few weeks before the Terra Nova set sail. Wilson went to the Shetlands to learn how to catch whales, the plan being to take whaling gear on the Terra Nova with which to kill whales for study! His diary includes quite graphic descriptions of the hunt and death of whales. Luckily(?) there was no room on the ship for the heavy equipment so they never did hunt whales.

During the Antarctic winter of 1911 Wilson experienced one of the most harrowing episodes of polar explorartion when he lead a team to try to retrieve Emperor Penguin eggs from the rookery at Cape Crozier. Wilson, accompanied by Apsley Cherry Garrard (Cherry) and “Birdie” Bowers endured temperatures as low as -77 degrees Fahrenheit (about -60 c), in a tent! The tent actually blew away at one point leaving them sheltering in sleeping bags sheltered by a dry stone wall. They were luck enough to find the tent and get back to safety in the end. One of the best exploration book ever written came from this episode, Cherry’s “The Worst Journey in the World”.

The rest of the expedition of course is history, mistakes, accidents, bad luck, messages not being passed on and, yes some mis-management which culminated in the death of scott, Birdie, Evans, Oates and of course Wilson himself. Reading his diary, there are some poigniant moments when he talks about his loved ones and returning home etc when you realise that he is NOT going to return home and these are his last moments with his wife. If you read my tweets on twitter (unclebillwilson) you will see what he said/wrote exactly 100 years to the day.

Stoking on the Terra Nova

Edward Wilson kept a comprehensive journal of the voyage to Antarctica and one theme which came up time and again was stoking. He wrote the following description for saturday 9th July..

All the others in the wardroom are now taking turns at stoking. Two hours at a time is considered enough, however, for everyone now. Evans has proved the strongest of all, and has carried through a complete four hours watch by himself and without help. Rennick came up after an hour and nearly fainted on the upper deck, but went down again and finished his two hours’ watch with Birdie Bowers. The heat increases every day now in the stokehold, every day two or three degrees, and it is really trying work there. One has enormously heavy tools to use, prickers and devil rakes, about 12 feet of solid iron to reach the back of the furnaces with. One has to throw coal into each of the three furnaces every ten to fifteen minutes, and this in the front of a heat and glare that scorches one’s eyes and makes them burn. One has then to spread the fire in the furnace and keep each one bright over the bars which run back 7 or 8ft and are about 3 to 4ft across the front. The fire has to be glowing about 6 inches deep allover this. Then one has to break up the clinker with a ‘devil’, an iron rake with three teeth which one can barely lift off the ground after two or three hours in the heat. While one is shovelling in coal one gets stung by what are called ‘stokehold flies’, which make one jump for the moment. They are drops of hot oil off the engines working over one, which catch one on the back of the neck as one stoops to shovel coal into the furnaces. Between the shovelling, which takes 7 or 8 minutes in every quarter of an hour, one has to get the coal out of the side bunkers, breaking up the large lumps with a sledge hammer, and measuring it all into a three foot bucket of solid iron. This has to be dragged across to each furnace in turn -and the floor is of hot iron plates- then one has to rake out the ashes and from time to time send them up in a hoist after wetting them with water from a hose as they are often red hot. If between all these odd duties one finds a minute to lean against or sit back upon a stationary part of the engines, it either scalds or burns one. Everything is too hot to touch and one works in so little clothing, except for thick soled boots and thick leather gloves. I think that three hours of this at 4 a.m. on a cup of cocoa only was the hardest work I have ever put myself to. One has to get accustomed to the sweating in trimming coal for the bunkers are all of iron and almost as hot as the engine- room. Perhaps the most trying part of stoking is the noise which is continuous and so excessive that Olle has to shout to one’s mate at the work, and as the noise is all a clanging and clatter of iron and metal and a roar from the furnace and from the working of the engines all around and above one, it is somewhat trying.

..sounds like hard work to me!

Dunkirk La Panne

One of my Uncles, Donald Roberts, served in the army before and during WWII. He was stationed among other places in Khartoum and North Africa where he was a dispatch rider. Whilst there he was promoted and demoted a couple of times though I never found out what for! He was captured at Tobruk and sent as a prisoner to Italy and I think Germany. He used to tell me tales about his exploits when I was a child and these memories have always stayed with me influencing my life and interests quite strongly. I remember him telling me about being a POW in Italy and how, when the allies were on their way the Italian guards all left. Some of the POWs decided to walk out to meet the allies whilst others, including my Uncle, decided to stay put and await the allies at the camp. Unfortunately a group of Germans arrived first, rounded them up and took them away to another camp as I said I think, in Germany.

Sadly Donald died some years ago and I always wish he had written down the tales he told, however there was one tale he wrote, about his experiences at Dunkirk, for a relative’s school project. I typed it up and have kept it ever since. As it is the 70th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation now I thought I would like to add Donalds story to my blog so, in Donalds own words..

First I suppose I should tell that my job in the army was in the supply column and it was our job to keep the front line troops supplied with food and ammunition and petrol and anything else they needed even letters and packets from home.

Anyway, your history book tell you all about the German invasion of the low countries and how they hit Belgium and France with the, up till then still unknown word “Blitzkrieg” meaning “lightning war”.

However, unfortunately they drove us back and back until one evening we were ordered to destroy our vehicles and set out on a long march to the coast.

The march lasted all night and dawn found us in the sandhills above a long beach on which were thousands of our soldiers, many of them in long columns wading out to sea where small boats were ferrying them out to bigger boats for the cross channel trip to England.

You have probably seen pictures of these columns of men, but that wasn’t really Dunkirk – that was at a small seaside resort called la panne, a few miles North East of the port of Dunkirk.

We were very tired and dirty and hungry and as there was no chance of joining the long queues that day we dug holes in the sandhills to try and get some protection from the bombs, crawled into them and went to sleep.

Later that day we were sorted out into small groups and marched back several miles into the interior where we were supposed to act as a rearguard while the evacuation went on. We had had no food for the previous 24 hours but were given emergency rations – that is a large block of concentrated chocolate. You can either eat this in small sections or scrape a few flakes into a mug and pour boiling water on fro a hot drink. Either lovely way it is very sustaining – but nothing like roast beef and Yorkshire pudding!!

Well later that evening found us in a position overlooking a small river or it could have been a canal – with a small narrow metal bridge which we were to guard and stop any Germans crossing.

We stayed there nearly three days and nights and the only people that came across the bridge were British troops trying to get home and a few French and Belgian soldiers.

On the second day we were withdrawn and told to make our way to Dunkirk.

Perhaps you can imagine how we felt, dirty, very tired and very hungry and our spirits were very low as we didn’t think there was much chance of getting back to England.

I think there was about 6 or 8 of us in our group at this time and as we came into Dunkirk we decided to enter a few houses to see if we could find something to eat. There were no civilians about, all the houses were empty and abandoned. Imagine our delight when in one house the kitchen cupboard was filled with biscuits and jam, tea and sugar. We soon had a fire going and made a good hot strong cup of tea while we ate the biscuits and jam!!

Later we wandered down towards the docks still hoping we could find a way home. As we were passing some abandoned army lorries I happened to look inside the drivers cab of one of the trucks and noticed a small parcel wrapped in brown paper and neatly tied up with string. Can you imagine my delight when I opened the parcel and found a set of freshly laundered underwear!

Believe me, I stripped down to my bare skin and put on the clean vest, underpants, socks and shirt then put my old uniform back on. I felt wonderful! I had been in my clothes for more than two weeks!

The weather during all this time had been lovely, warm, sunny days with blue skies, very good for German bombers to come over and bomb us but far better for us than if it had been raining.

Well I don’t know what day or date it was, the days seemed to run into one another and it didn’t really matter whether it was Tuesday or Saturday!

I don’t know if it was the day I found the underclothes or the next day, when towards the evening I wandered down by the foot of the mole that formed part of the harbour wall when I encountered a naval officer and a sailor with a portable wireless set. The officer was trying to get some sort of order out of two or three hundred soldiers who were wandering about, myself included! He explained that after it had got dark a ship was going to try and dock at the end of the mole to take us off. But we still had problems. By this time the German army was so close that their artillery could shell us and the shells were falling all over the place, and what was worse, some of the shells had hit the mole leaving big holes that were going to be difficult to cross. However the resourcefulness of the British soldiers came to the rescue once again! Close by was a timber merchants yard with hundreds of planks of all sizes, so we formed ourselves into groups of about 20 and we went, each group in turn, into the yard and selected a plank each, sometimes two men would carry a big plank. Each group of 20, when it became dark, would attempt to run the gauntlet along the mole, dodging the shells and placing the planks across the shell holes so that the following men could cross.

Well it got dark, and about midnight the sailors radio came to life and the naval officer told us there was a ship on the end of the mole, I remember him saying to the first groups of about 20, “Right lads, away you go. Pick up your wounded and leave your dead and good luck!”

Away they went into the darkness and the shell bursts, then about five minutes later another group would go. At long last it was our turn, and we eventually made it to the end where we all scrambled on to the navy ship. The sailors pushed and pulled us in the darkness so that they could pack as many as possible onto the ship. I found myself and about five or six others in a little tiny cabin with wall seats round three sides and a table in the middle and a small bulkhead light. Soon after a sailor with his arm in a sling (he had been wounded when the ship had been dive-bombed) came in with a big jug of steaming cocoa and a tray of salmon sandwiches. We discovered we were in the Petty officers mess of HMS Winchelsea, a destroyer that was making a heroic seventh trip from Dover to Dunkirk and back!! We ate the sandwiches like the starving men we were and the cocoa really warmed us. I don’t think many other soldiers on board got anything to eat or drink, we were just lucky to be put into the P.O.s mess! The ship was by now out in the channel on the way home, but we were all fast asleep!

When our sailor friend woke us it was daylight and we were berthed in Dover. We shook hands and thanked him and wished each other good luck.

When we came off the dock we were immediately in the railway station with a train on either side of us and we could please ourselves which train we got on. I thought I’d be clever and went along and asked each train driver where he was going. No joy. Both said they were only taking their train as far as Redhill, one train was as good as the other, so we piled in and very soon were asleep again. We soon woke up when a lot of ladies from the WRVS arrived with tea and sandwiches. They also had plain postcards which they passed around to us saying to just put the address on where we wanted to send it. So that was how my mother and father learned I was safely back home. It was June the second or third, I’m not sure.

Well Rhian that’s the story of just one of the thousands of soldiers that were lucky enough to get away from Dunkirk. Hope it’s of interest to you and perhaps you will be able to use some of it in your project.

P.S. I have wondered many, many times since then, and I wonder now; did that naval officer and the sailor with the radio get away?

Scott of the Antarctic on Twitter

A good few months ago someone told me about Henry the Eighth on Twitter, I think it was 500 years since he acceded to the throne or something. Well an official from Hampton Court Palace (Correct me if I am wrong) had created a twitter account and was acting as Henry, writing tweets as Henry himself might have done. Well I found this quite ineteresting (there is also a Charles Darwin one) and it made me think; it is almost exactly 100 years since Robert Falcon Scott launched his last, fatal expedition to the South Pole, why not set myself up as as Robert Scott (RobertFScott) and write tweets as he might have done on the same day, a century later. So that is what I have done. I’ve written a few already but the Terra Nova (The expedition ship) did not set sail until June 1910 and I don’t have access to journals or any other information to know what was happening on a daily or even weekly basis until then.

Since I created the RobertFScott twitter account I bought a copy of the Journal of Edward Adrian Wilson, one of Scott’s closest friends, and Chief Scientific Officer on the expedition. Uncle Bill, as he was known, was one of the most popular members of the expedition, accompanied Scott to the pole and, of course, also died with Scott on the return journey. There are many poignant entries in his diary and so I decided to also set up a twitter account in HIS name, UncleBillWilson.

Since creating the Scott twitter account someone at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) set up an account in the same name which I think is brilliant as they have access to far more material than I do. The only thing I find odd is that they are writing it a year early. Perhaps they did this to try to get in before someone else did (like me!) but they could have done that and held off for a year. I find it interesting though and once I start tweeting in earnest in June I will start following them.

A potted history of the expedition

On the 15th June 1910 The Terra Nova set sail from Cardiff for the South Pole. Edward Wilson was on board but Scott himself followed on later and joined the crew in South Africa. They sailed on to New Zealand where everyone finally got together for the voyage South. The ship leaked badly and, during a terrible storm they very nearly sank but for superhuman efforts on behalf of the crew.

When they finally reached the Antarctic they set up their base at Cape Evans in McMurdo Sound, had various disasters including losing one of their motor sledges which broke through the ice and sank, having a very difficult depot laying journey which had to be cut short by several miles and losing a number of their ponies (The ponies died, they didn’t just forget where they left them!). They also discovered that, contary to his stated aims, the Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, had arrived in Antarctica with the sole aim of being first to reach the South Pole.

They then settled in for the Antarctic winter. One notable event was a midwinter trip, in temperatures as low as -76 degrees fahrenheit (about -60 centigrade), to an Emperor Penguin rookery led by Edward Wilson

Route taken to Cape Crozier to collect Emperor Penguins eggs, July 1911

. This is recounted in Apsley Cherry Garard’s book, The Worst Journey in the World, a must read for anyone interested in exploration.

The expedition set off when summer arrived and carried out an extraordinary mission of discovery and scientific exploration on the way to the Pole. The five members of the group which reached the pole were, let’s say ‘disappointed’ to find that Amundsen had beaten them there and then began the struggle homewards. Evans died on the Beardmore Glacier, Oates ‘stepped Outside’ the tent and was never seen again before Scott, Wilson and Bowers finally succomed to starvation, exposure and frostbite, 11 miles from a huge cache of food and supplies. Scott had always intended to leave this cache MORE than 11 miles nearer to the pole, ie they WOULD have reached it but for circumstances and events which occured the season before such as, the loss of ponies and a motor sledge, bad weather etc.

People still argue today as to whether it was bad luck or bad planning etc which caused the disaster but I don’t want to argue about that here. You can read the books and make up your own minds, and of course, you can read my tweets!

Summer holiday 2009

Having two kids makes planning your holidays essential. gone are the days when you said the your wife, “let’s go somewhere exotic, we’ll book a cheap flight and have a couple of weeks next to the axis of evil”. No. Right now it’s “can we find somewhere we can afford, no more than a couple of child friendly hours up the motorway, all on one floor so the sprogs can’t throw themselves down a flight of stairs on the first day, which will entertain them and us?”

So we went to Warton.

Not much there to be honest but it was nice enough and the bungalow was ideal. Twenty minutes from the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and Forest of Bowland we could choose between mountains, lakes and beach to cover all tastes (there was even shopping of a sort).

Saturday 11th July

Colwyn bay to Warton. A good easy journey, arrived at the accomodation by 3.00 all well so set off to see what Morecambe was like. Terrible beach which was a surprise but it was warm and the KFC was great, Sainsburies sold Yorkshire Curd tarts and wine so all was fine. Good start to the hol.

Sunday 12th July

Kirby Lonsdale, Devils Bridge and shops. Bit overcast but not bad. Set off to the Forest of Bowland via Ingleton and Higher Bentham. Past the Great stone of Fourstones, where we saw a hare, and on to Dunsop Bridge, the centre of Britain, 100 thousandth BT phone box, loads of Ducks nice ice cream and a fight to get Sam back to the car.

Monday 13th July

Grasmere and Easdale, really lovely walk but Sam got too tired and cranky by the end, still he bought an airoplane so was quite happy. Drove on via Thirlmere to Castlerigg Stone Circle then via the Honister pass to Buttermere and Crummock water then home. A lot of driving that afternoon in torrential rain at the end.

Tuesday 14th July

Thought we would explore closer to home so drove over to Arnside, but again the beach was disppointing and Sam wasn’t happy. Went on to Sizergh castle which was very nice and the sun shone for a while in the gardens. Stopped off at the farm shop on the way home and bought T’owd tup Dent brewery beer. Very nice.

Wednesday 15th July

A good walk up to Aira force near Ullswater, quite spectacular then spent the afternoon on the shore. Really nice and chilled, no the weather was good again. Quick visit to Copt Howe in Langdale then home. Explored Warton Crag in the evening and Sam was a little hero. Not a good place for youngsters!

Thursday 16th July

Off to the Dales. Headed to Hawes and walked to Cotter force which is lovely then via the Green Dragon in Hardraw to Hardraw Force, equally spectacular. Sam played in Hawes before we drove over the moors to Buttertubs, scary holes in the ground! then via Thwaite, Angram & Keld over Askrigg Common and back home.

Friday 17th July

How is it Friday already? Sam had a great time at a play centre not far from Warton before we set off to Coniston. A very wet day but that was ok as the rest of the week had been good. Took the ferry across Windermere then visited Blackwell, a really lovely Arts & Crafts house near the lake. Finally off to Mount Joy farm near Underbarrow to find a couple of Andy Goldsworthy’s sheepfolds in the rain. Tricky to find but worth it.

Saturday 18th July

Left Warton for Newcastle via Hadrians wall and Brampton, more torrential rain when we got out of the car but very nice the rest of the journey!! Got to Newcastle with time to visit St Mary’s lighthouse. Terrible weather at first but before we gave up it turned in to a beautiful early evening. Fantastic.

Sunday 19th July

Alnwick. The castle is brilliant, weather was excellent only real rain was when inside Barter Books. Great couple of hours at Bamborough Beach then fish & chips at Seahouses. What a great day!

Monday 20th July

Nice easy start to the day then Hancocks museum in Newcastle and Fenwicks

Tuesday 21st July

Cragside in the rain, very nice place, not my taste but well worth the visit, and Sam loved the play area. He’s very happy now we are with Aunty Gilly!

Wednesday 22nd July

Sadly time to move on again though great to see the relatives in Carnoustie. Terrible weather on the way up.

Thursday 23rd July

Back home via Ullswater and Windermere

Noctilucent clouds

Last night it was such a clear sky, and the air so still at about 10.30 I thought I would go and see if I could see these clouds I have heard so much about. Reading the Met office site however it looks like I was there too early! I couldn’t see much from the back garden so drove down to the promenade for a better look and couldn’t believe it, there was almost no room to park because there were so many people fishing! I don’t blame them though it was lovely. The sea was like oil it was so calm and the sky beautiful.

This time of year is the best, and evenings like that are special, I don’t blame the fishermen (and women) it must be great on a night like this. No sign of Noctilucent clouds though!

Robert Falcon Scott on Twitter

I saw a tweet from Henry the Eighth today and it made me think. It is 100 years since Scott was preparing his last expedition to the South Pole so why not create a twitter account as if I was Scott himself? I plan to add something each day exactly as scott might have done. I have copies of his books so should be able to add exerpts from his diaries exactly 100 years to the day after he would have written them.
I intend no offense to anyone, Scott is a big hero of mine and has been since I was a child and first saw John Mills portray him in the film “Scott of the Antarctic”.
Let’s see if I can do him justice.

Rock Pebbles

Rock Pebbles

Originally uploaded by ir0ny

The best piece of land art I have done so far I think and certainly the most popular.

Really only trying this to see what happens to my blog.

Youtube – Good or evil?

Having always shied away from youtube thinking of it as the haunt of nerds, computer geeks, teenagers and other losers I was at first amused, then pleasantly surprised and finally well impressed when I started using it (does that mean I have become one of the above? ). Scowling and growling at students missusing college facilities as I discovered them furtively engrossed in an eclectic mix of different videos on Youtube I was one day enlightened as to the educational possibilities of the medium. The possibilities are endless though in particular I can see the applicability for sport students or indeed any physical centred field of study. I, however, have largely limited my experience to searching for tunes (and videos) I have not heard for years usually with great success. Hopefully you’d all be shocked if you saw the ones I have added to my favourites! (and no Zoe, not THAT type of video!). Having said that I have also found several excellent video tutorials demonstrating the use of anything from e.g. photoshop to golf swing tips.

Far from being another waste of time, Youtube seems to have the potential to be an invaluable additional tool for tutors. Perhaps my only reservations are about quality of advice and copyright.

Definitely good!