15. Christmas in the Antarctic

On the first night they caught up with the advance party. Bad travelling conditions had seriously hampered their progress. For the next two weeks the parties travelled in relays, one overtaking the other, until the time came for the support party to return to base.

Added to Scott's misery of driving the dogs was the realization that the animals were not as strong as they ought to have been, probably as a result of bad food. This meant that the men had to lend a hand to assist the dogs, and now a team of three men seemed too small.

When they were eighty kilometres from the land at the inner edge of the Great Ice Barrier, they ran into snow so soft that men, dogs, and sledges became stuck fast.

These delays irritated Scott and made him impatient and sometimes bad-tempered, but he learned that he must control his feelings and his words.

There were other problems too. For all their practising, no one was able to manage his skis well. Their faces became blistered by the glare from the snow and they suffered from snow-blindness in spite of wearing wooden eye-masks. These were carved from wood to fit over the eyes and had slits in the shape of a cross which let in a minimum amount of light.

Food and oil became short, especially after one dog broke loose and ate a week's supply of seal meat. Now the three hungry men thought, spoke, and wrote about food. They dreamed of delicious dishes and had nightmares when they disappeared. Hunger made them suspicious of one another until Shackleton hit upon a bright idea that ensured fair shares.

After the food had been divided into three, one closed his eyes, while another pointed in turn to each portion and said, "Whose is that?" In this way, if there were any difference in the size of the meals, the one with his eyes closed would not know who would get it. This game of "shut-eye" was played before each meal.

Many of the dogs had to be killed because they became too weak to travel. Scott had to leave this unpleasant task to the other two. The men were weakened by hunger and exposure. Scott and Shackleton developed scurvy. Yet, despite all this, they were determined to battle on.

Christmas Day, 1902, proved to be the warmest since they started and they were able to travel more than thirteen kilometres, after breakfasting on biscuit and seal liver fried in bacon and pemmican fat, with strawberry jam to follow. The highlight came in the evening, when Shackleton pulled a Christmas pudding out of the toe of a spare sock, and a piece of artificial holly out of his bag. They heated the pudding in the cocoa which they had just boiled, and served it, steaming hot, from the cooker lid. For once they divided the food without playing "shut-eye".