Endurance by Frank Arthur Worsley

Author:Frank Arthur Worsley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2011-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER IX

The Rescue

THE excitement of winning through being over, we realised that we were red-eyed from want of sleep, and wet from our immersion in the waterfall. We were cold with that peculiarly penetrating chill which comes from physical exhaustion. But we did not trouble about these things. All we wanted was to see somebody, to hear the sound of a strange voice.

The first human beings outside of our own party whom we had seen for upwards of eighteen months were two lads, who bolted at the sight of us. We were grimy-faced and bearded, ragged and uncouth—perhaps rather more terrifying than primitive savages. Our old friend Captain Sorlle, who had entertained us two years previously when the Expedition had touched Stromness Bay, failed to recognise us as we stood on his doorstep. But after food, hot baths and clean clothes we became civilised beings once more. I don’t think I have ever appreciated anything so much as that hot bath: it was really wonderful and worth all that we had been through to get it. After the bath came the somewhat difficult operation of shaving. When we were through with it we hardly knew each other.

Naturally we had heard nothing of the War for over eighteen months, and we were greedy for the news that Sorlle poured into our ears. But we had been away too long to grasp all that had happened, and we were too distant for it to seem real. The one thing of paramount importance to us was the rescue of the men on Elephant Island.

That night, I started out on a whaler to bring in the three men whom we had left under the upturned boat at King Haakon Sound. I was content to leave the navigation to the Norwegian Captain, and the last sound that I heard as I fell asleep while we were steaming out of the harbour was the scream of a blizzard blowing down from the mountain range we had just crossed. It could blow as hard as it liked up there—now. Incidentally I learnt afterwards that we had crossed the island during the only interval of fine weather that occurred that winter. There was no doubt that Providence had been with us. There was indeed one curious thing about our crossing of South Georgia, a thing that has given me much food for thought, and which I have never been able to explain. Whenever I reviewed the incidents of that march I had the sub-conscious feeling that there were four of us, instead of three. Moreover, this impression was shared by both Shackleton and Crean.

Next morning I went ashore at King Haakon Sound, accompanied by two Norwegians from the whaler, and greeted the occupants of the upturned boat. They said they thought that one of their own party would come back for them. I said, “Well, I’m here, am I not?” They looked at me in amazement. They had been in my presence daily for two years, but failed to recognise me after a bath, a shave, and a change of clothing.

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