ON ELEPHANT ISLAND.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 245, 26 January 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

ON ELEPHANT ISLAND.

FRANK WILD'S THRILLING STORY.

GREAT HARDSHIPS AND HEROIC RESCUES.

Eleven members of the Shackleton Antarctic Expedition, which sailed two years ago from South Georgia for the Weddell Sea in the Endurance, have arrived in London (says the Daily Chronicle of November 9). Their names are as follows: Mr Frank Wild (second in command), Mr J. Wordie (geologist), Mr L._ Hussey (meteorologist), Mr R. Clark (biologist), Mr R. James (magnetician), Mr G. Marston (artist), Major T. Orde Lees (motor engineer and storekeeper), Drs A. Macklin and J. Mcllroy (surgeons), Mr T. Crean (third officer), and W. Stephenson (fireman). They travelled from Buenos Ayres in the Highland Laddie, belonging to the Nelson line, which generously save them passages. All the party, in 3p'to of the extraordinary lnrdships they have "ncountered in 'tlr> hist '\vc yoar-. arj in the. best of health, and they are looking eagerly forward to taking taeii i art >n '.lie war.

Tiie remaining members of the Weddell Sea party are coming from Sir Ernest Sliackleton is now on bis Sir Ernes tSliackleton is now on bis way to New Zealand to join the Aurora, which will sail at the end of the year to rescue Captain Mackintosh and liis nine companions, who were marooned in the neighbourhood of the Ross Harrier when the Aurora broke away in a blizzard twenty months ago. SHACKLETON AS NI'RSE. "Compared with my previous Antarctic experiences," said Mr Wild to a. Daily Chronicle representative, " this was by far the hardest, all things considered. There was constant anxiety and fresh problems presented themselves every day. Tli" last, week in the small boats before we reached Elephant Island was the

climax. Sir Ernest and myself had no sleep at all, and bat for the way in which Sir Ernest nursed some of the men—yes, literally nursed them —we should never have brought them through..

"Elephant Island is about the nnst inhospitable place 011 the face of the earth, though we were pretty glajt to reach it when we did, Tor many of the party were on the verge of collapse. From the physically , fittest of them were chosen the six men who accompanied Sir Ernest in the open boat on her daring voyage of 750 miles to South Georgia. "It was only by a hair's breadth that she escaped being smashed up when she was launched, as there was a nasty sea running in shore. Crean saved her by fending her off with an oar just at the right moment, and fortunately the wind was off the land, and blew her out once she was afloat. "FINEST THING EVER DONE." "The trip to South Georgia is, in my opinion, the finest thing ever done. I didn't know until later how it had been. They were soaking wet the whole of the 16 or 17 days; they had very litle water, and when they landed on South Georgia they could hardly move. And after that Sir Ernest, with Crean and Worsley, made a 36-hours' march over untrodden glaciers and mountain ridges, 5000 ft high, to the whaling station. "From the calculations I made I expected an attempt to rescue us towards the end of May, but the ice conditions were so bad that there was no hope of it succeeding. Then I figured out that the cb.ef would try to get a wooden ship and return later. In my diary I find that I fixed August 25 as the approximate date. The actual day Sir Ernest took us off was the 30th. Of course, we had no idea that this was his fourth attempt. And it was the luckiest thing in the world that the Yelcho came when she did. Two days earlier she would not have got anywhere near us, and two days later would probably have been as bad, for the ice never cleared off for more than two or three days at a time.

"It had been arranged that a gun should be fired from the ship when she got near the island. Many times when the glaciers were 'calving,' and chunks fell off with a report like a gun, we thought that it was the real thing, and after a time we got to distrust these signals. As a matter of fact, we saw the Yelcho before we heard any gun. It was an occasion one will not easily forget.

"LUNCH OH!" AND "SHIP OH I"

"We were just assembling for lunch to the call of 'Lunch 0!' and I was serving out the soup, which was particularly good that day, consisting of boiled seals' backbone, limpets, and seaweed,' when there was another hail from Marston of 'Ship O!' Some of the men thought it was 'Lunch O!' over again, but when there was another yell from Marston lunch had no further attractions. The ship was about a mile and a half away, and steaming past us. A smoke signal was the agreed sign from the shore and, catching up somebody's coat that was lying about, I stuck a pick into a tin of kerosene kept for the purpose, poured it over the coat, and set it alight. It flared instead of smoking; but that didn't matter, for the chief had already recognised the spot where he Had left us, and the Yelcho was turning in.

"Nobody but he could have picker! it out, for there was eight feet of snow before the hut, though we had shifted about 30 tons of the stuff that morning, and any sign of life on the island must have been invisible from the sea. The chief, with Crean and some of the Chilian sailors, was soon alongside in a boat. A pretty heavy sea was running, but we didn't waste much time in getting aboard, and in less than an hour we were steaming north."

Speakinf the disaster to the Endurance, which was badly nipped in the ice of the Weddell Sea as early as August, 1915, and sank nearly four months later, Mr Wild said: "She was a good ship, and she was just slowly mangled. I have been in shipwrecks several times, and ships have gone down under me, but this was unlike any other experience. You could hear and feel her being driven in. The thing gave you actual physical pain. One could do nothing to save her; there was a steady, relentless crushing, and finally the ice went clean through her from side to side.

"When matters became hopeless with her everything that was essential to save was collected on the upper deck. We had all the pumps going, but that only postponed the end. She just started to settle, and as soon as her bows got under and the water put out the fires, the chief ordered us all on the ice. She did not go down for three weeks after that.

STORES FROM THE WRECK. "After making an attempt to get to the north with the dog teams, we returned and camped near the wreck. We got everything useful out of her, timber and so forth, that was accessible. Unfortunately the important stores which had not previously been brought away were in a room on the lower deck with three feet of water and ice above them. It seemed impossible to get at them. But the chief had a brilliant idea. He got an engine-room slice and filed it down to a chisel point. With this tool with a good deal of labour we contrived to cut out a chunk of the deck about 2ft by 3ft. Some of the cases floated up, and others were speared and brought to the surface. Wc got about TOO cases in this way, and without them I doubt whether we should have got through. We lived on them for six mouths, together with what seal and penguin we could catch, and saved our sledging rations during that time. "One of the rottenest jobs I ever had," said Mr Wild, "was the shooting of the dogs. It had tn be done to save tliein from a worse, death, but it was very painful to many of u:;, for during all these months on tlic ship and on the ice they had become pets. A dog called 'Soldier' was my own particular favourite. He was originally known as the worst •log of the family, and for that reason was handed over to me. I didn't kill him with kindness, but we became very excellent friends, and lie was so docile and obedient that he would answer my call a quarter of a. mile away, even if he happened at tli otime to be chasing a penguin. j PHOTOS AM) FILMS. "Although we met with such dis-

asters the expedition has had very considerable scientific results. Hurley, the photographer, has secured the most wonderful Antarctic pictures that have ever been obtained. In all I should think we have between seven and eight thousand feet of cinematograph films and hundreds of still pictures. The crushing of the Endurance in the ice, the abandoning of the ship, her foundering, and camp scenes on the ice floes of the Weddell Sea, and our life on Elepfiaut Island, will live on the screen.

"I should think that this is the first occasion on which a cinematograph film has ever been taken of a ship going down. Even when Sir Ernest rescued us, and our interest in this kind of work had vanished, Hurley stuck it to the end, and he got the final scenes when we were taken off."

Mr Wild is so familiar with the everyday perils of the Antarctic that he is apt to make light of encounters with killer whales and sea leopards, some of the most unpleasant fauna of these regions. But he recalls one occasion when a sea leopard chased Major Orde Lees over the floes. In the water the beast would get you "one time," but on the ice it is fortunately not so rapid in its movements. However the major, who was unarmed, had rather a nasty time until lie accepted the invitation of Mr Wild, who was on another floe, to retreat in his direction, and the sea leopard, coming within range of his rifle, was despatched. It measured 12ft 6in in length, and weighed about a ton. FOOD PROBLEM.

Seals were scarce on Elephant Island, and until the ice melted in August, and limpets and seaweed were available, penguins supplied the staple food. But even these were not easy to catch on the spit, 15" yards or so in length, on which the party were marooned. "However," said Mr .Wild, "we found a way. One end of the spn rose to a height of about 100 ft, aoid while some of us acted as beaters and drove the birds to the edge of the cliff, others waited below to club them as they fell. By this dodge we got a very fair amount of fresh meat when the weather was favourable. At the time of our rescue we had only three or four days' supply in hand; but I daresay we should have got more before that was exhausted. We were, however, down to our last bovril ration, which was the only form of hot beverage we had, and which I had issued once a day. Twice weekly we had it as a meal without water." t