The Voyage of the Discovery by R. F. Scott

Author:R. F. Scott [Scott, R. F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Limited
Published: 2012-04-01T23:00:00+00:00

It is not an exaggeration to say that we dreaded these nights, yet it is worthy of record that none passed without a jest; the more cheerless and uncomfortable the conditions became, the more lighthearted grew the men.

I have mentioned only some of their ills. Besides cramp, cold feet, and general discomfort, many were attacked by rheumatism; later, snow-blindness intervened. Another great source of trouble was indigestion and heartburn. I, with several others, had never known this ailment under ordinary conditions, but during the earlier sledging days it attacked us most fiercely. Also, of course, frostbites were common, with painfully blistered faces and hands; feet were likewise blistered on the long, fatiguing marches.

To all these ills were our sailors regularly and constantly exposed on their sledge journeys, and not only did they hate to forego their share, but never an evil fell on them but they made so light of it that one would have thought they were engaged in the most humorous occupation imaginable. Their conversation either on the journey or after their return could have conveyed only one impression – that the whole thing was a glorified picnic. It was not that the jokes were of a high order. The acknowledged humorists were in the minority, and even they were reduced to the feeblest witticisms: the striking thing was their capacity for finding amusement, not only in the dull and prosaic, but in the physically miserable. There are few people, I take it, who will not appreciate the saving qualities of this sense of humour, or who have not at some time experienced the advantage of meeting misfortune with a smile; there are few, therefore, who will not realise that one would have to search far for a better sledge-companion than the British bluejacket.

If refreshing sleep comes at all on a spring sledge journey it will be in the early morning hours, when the sleeping-bag has thawed down on its occupants, and they, though damp, can get better protection from its folds; it is now, therefore, that we doze for brief intervals and wake in fitful starts. The leader, who alone possesses a watch, is conscious of his responsibility for rousing the party, and wonders vaguely in his waking moments what the time may be. To look at his watch is a thing only to be done when all other evidence as to the passage of time has been duly considered, for it means that his present attitude has to be disturbed; he must struggle with his garments to produce the watch, and, worse still, he must slightly open the sleeping-bag so that the grey outer light may fall on its face. Therefore before he moves he recalls the incidents of the night and sums up in imagination the intervals of time which have elapsed between them; he arrives at the conclusion that another half-hour may well pass before he disturbs himself.

Then the deed has to be done, and he shuffles the watch-face up to the light.

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