Aeneas Mackintosh

The Ross Sea party in Australia. Mackintosh is seated in the middle row, third from left. Ernest Joyce is standing, extreme left, back row. Arnold Spencer-Smith is the tall figure, centre back row

Shackleton's expedition contained two separate components. The main party would establish a base in the Weddell Sea, from which a group of six led by Shackleton was to march across the continent, via the South Pole. A supporting Ross Sea party, based on the opposite side of the continent in McMurdo Sound, would lay supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier, to assist the transcontinental party on the final stage of its journey. Mackintosh was originally to have been a member of Shackleton's transcontinental party,[19] but difficulties arose over the appointment of a commander for the Ross Sea party. Eric Marshall, the surgeon from the Nimrod expedition, turned the assignment down, as did John King Davis;[20][21] Shackleton's efforts to obtain from the Admiralty a naval crew for this part of the enterprise were rejected.[22] The post of Ross Sea party leader was finally offered to, and accepted by, Mackintosh.[20] His ship would be the Aurora, lately used by Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition and presently lying in Australia. Shackleton considered the Ross Sea party's assignment routine, and saw no special difficulties in its execution.[23]

Mackintosh arrived in Australia in October 1914 to take up his duties, and was immediately faced with major difficulties. Without warning or notification, Shackleton had cut the Ross Sea party's allocated funds in half, from £2,000 to £1,000. Mackintosh was instructed to make up the difference by soliciting free gifts,[24] and to mortgage the expedition's ship to raise further money. It then emerged that the purchase of Aurora had not been legally completed, which delayed Mackintosh's attempts to mortgage it.[25] Also, Aurora was unfit for Antarctic work without an extensive overhaul, which required co-operation from an exasperated Australian Government.[24] The task of dealing with these difficulties within a very restricted timescale caused Mackintosh great anxiety, and the various muddles created a negative image of the expedition in the eyes of the Australian public.[26] Some members of the party resigned, others were dismissed; recruiting a full complement of crew and scientific staff involved some last-minute appointments which left the party noticeably short of Antarctic experience.[27]

Shackleton had given Mackintosh the impression that he would if possible attempt his crossing during the coming 1914–1915 Antarctic season. Before departing for the Weddell Sea, he changed his mind about the feasibility of this timescale. Mackintosh was not informed of this change of plan; this misunderstanding led to the underprepared and near-chaotic depot-laying journeys of January–March 1915.[28] Shackleton's instructions were confusing. He had told Mackintosh that it was supremely important to have the depots laid, but he also informed Mackintosh he would be carrying sufficient provisions to cross the continent unaided. It appears that Shackleton wanted Mackintosh to believe that he was not absolutely dependent on the depots. A little known fact is that Shackleton also instructed Mackintosh to leave a fully equipped emergency lifeboat at McMurdo Sound, if Shackleton did not come across from the Weddell Sea. The emergency lifeboat specifications he gave Mackintosh in 1914 closely match those he implemented in 1916 on his famous James Caird journey.[29]

Aurora finally left Hobart, Tasmania, on 24 December 1914. The only stop en route to Antarctica was at Macquarie Island, 950 miles from Hobart. A meteorological station had been established there during the expedition of the Australian Douglas Mawson a year or two earlier, and they were to land stores for the staff. This was the last chance for the men to send messages home. Mackintosh sent a letter to his wife telling her that his men were a ‘real good lot of fellows’ and it was a ‘treat’ to be with them.[30] On 16 January 1915, the shore party landed at McMurdo Sound, where Mackintosh established a base camp at Captain Robert Falcon Scott's old headquarters at Cape Evans.[31] Believing that Shackleton might have already begun his march from the Weddell Sea, he was determined to begin depot-laying at once. Joyce, the expedition's most seasoned Antarctic traveller—he had been with Scott's Discovery Expedition in 1901–1904, and with the Nimrod expedition—protested that the party needed time for acclimatisation and training, but was overruled.[32] Joyce was shocked by the rebuff; he had expected that Mackintosh would defer to him on sledging matters: "If I had Shacks here I would make him see my way of arguing", he wrote in his diary.[33]

The depot-laying journey which followed began with a series of mishaps. A blizzard delayed their start,[34] a motor sledge broke down after a few miles,[35] and Mackintosh and his group lost their way on the sea ice between Cape Evans and Hut Point.[34] Conditions on the Barrier were harsh for the untrained and inexperienced men. Many of the stores taken on to the Barrier were dumped on the ice to reduce loads and did not reach the depots.[36] After Mackintosh insisted, over Joyce's urgent protests, on taking the dogs all the way to 80°S, all died on the journey.[37] A Joyce diary note at this time reveals his displeasure with Mackintosh. "I don’t know how I refrain from giving Mack a bit of my mind, will have to keep that in until we get back. We will have enough to think about before we get to Hut Point."[38] The men, frostbitten and exhausted, returned to the old Discovery expedition hut at Hut Point on 24 March, but were cut off from the ship and from their Cape Evans base by unsafe sea ice and had to wait, idle, for nearly three months.[39]

After this experience, confidence in Mackintosh's leadership was low, and bickering rife.[40] This statement is questionable. During the months of June, July and August at Cape Evans Mackintosh noted: "All is working smoothly here, and everyone is taking the situation very philosophically."[41] In relation to Mackintosh's plans one of the men wrote in June: "Spent most of the morning discussing the sledging problem ... and it’s a pretty big problem too, tho’ I think the O.M. [Old Man – Mackintosh] has a good solution already worked out."[42] Another of the men remembered that the ten men appeared to work well together, with no animosities. Relationships were "astonishingly good".[43]

SY Aurora, anchored to the Antarctic ice

When Mackintosh and the depot-laying party finally reached Cape Evans in early June, they learned that Aurora, with 18 men on board and carrying most of the shore party's supplies and equipment, had broken loose from its winter mooring during a gale. The day after Mackintosh's arrival he gave an outline of the situation to the other men. He explained the 'necessity for economy in the use of fuel, light, and stores, in view of the possibility' that they may have to stay there for two years. He wrote a diary note that they "are not going to commence work for the sledging operations until we know more definitely the fate of the ‘Aurora’. I dare not think any disaster has occurred."[44] However, ice conditions in McMurdo Sound made it impossible for the ship to return; the shore party of ten was effectively marooned, with drastically depleted resources.[45][46]

Luckily, most of the stores required for the depots had been landed. Mackintosh therefore resolved that the following season's work would be carried out to the full: depots would be laid across the Great ice Barrier all the way to the Beardmore Glacier. The party would seek to make up its lack of supplies and equipment by salvaging the stores left by earlier expeditions, particularly from Captain Scott's recent sojourn at Cape Evans. The entire party pledged its support to this effort, though it would require, wrote Mackintosh, a record-breaking feat of polar travel to accomplish it.[47] However, the long months of preparation were difficult for Mackintosh. The only officer in the party, he found it hard to form close relationships with his companions. His position became increasingly isolated, and subject to the frequent vocal criticisms of Joyce in particular.[48]

On 26 August 1915, Mackintosh wrote:

"We had hoped to get out and see the sun rise but the sky was too overcast so we shall not have that pleasure. Anyway it is good to feel the sun is about us now. I trust before he dips again for this long spell without him, that we have experienced, we shall be in the dear Homeland. The light made us all blink, as well as to feel excitement of spirit. Personally I felt like as if I had been released from being a prisoner—or imagined what one would feel like, who had been one. I stood outside & looked at the lovely wonderful scenery all around."[49]

These are the last diary notes of Mackintosh. He started a new diary five days later, which has never been found. On 1 September 1915, nine men in teams of three began the task of hauling approximately 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of stores from the Cape Evans base on to the Barrier—the scientist Alexander Stevens remained at base camp, alone. This operation was the first stage in the process of laying down depots at intervals of one-degree latitude 60 nautical miles (110 km; 69 mi), down to Mount Hope at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier. A large forward base was then established at the Bluff depot, just north of 79°, from which the final journeys to Mount Hope would be launched early in 1916. During these early stages, Mackintosh clashed repeatedly with Joyce over methods. In a showdown on 28 November, confronted with incontrovertible evidence of the greater effectiveness of Joyce's methods over his own, Mackintosh was forced to back down and accept a revised plan drafted by Joyce and Richards. Joyce's private comment was "I never in my experience came across such an idiot in charge of men."[50]

Spencer-Smith and Mackintosh being hauled on the sledge

The main march southward from the Bluff depot began on 1 January 1916. Within a few days, one team of three was forced to return to base, following the failure of their Primus stove. The other six carried on: Mackintosh, Joyce, Ernest Wild, Dick Richards, Arnold Spencer-Smith and Victor Hayward. The 80° depot laid the previous season was reinforced, and new depots were built at 81° and 82°. As the party moved on towards the vicinity of Mount Hope, both Mackintosh and Spencer-Smith, the expedition's photographer, were hobbling. Shortly after the 83° mark was passed, Spencer-Smith collapsed and was left in a tent while the others struggled on the remaining few miles. Mackintosh rejected the suggestion that he should remain with the invalid, insisting that it was his duty to ensure that every depot was laid.[51] On 26 January, Mount Hope was attained and the final depot put in place.[52]

On the homeward march, Spencer-Smith had to be drawn on the sledge. Mackintosh's condition was deteriorating rapidly; unable to pull, he staggered along, crippled by the growing effects of scurvy.[53] As his condition worsened, Mackintosh was forced at intervals to join Spencer-Smith as a passenger on the sledge. Even the fitter members of the group were handicapped by frostbite, snow-blindness and scurvy, as the journey became a desperate struggle for survival. Mackintosh feared for their lives. On 28 February he wrote a long note and his words have an eerie similarity to some of Scott's last letters, and in particular to a note Scott wrote titled ‘Message to the Public’, as he lay dying in his tent in March 1912. Part of Mackintosh's note said:

"I have this record in the event of anything happening to this party. Today we have finished the last of our food. A blizzard has been blowing 11 days. But I leave it on record all have done their duty nobly & well. This is all I can say & if it is God’s will that we should here give up we do so in the true British fashion my own tradition holds us in power to do."[54]

On 8 March, Mackintosh volunteered to remain in the tent while the others tried to get Spencer-Smith to the relative safety of Hut Point. Spencer-Smith died the next day.[55] Richards, Wild and Joyce struggled on to Hut Point with the now stricken Hayward, before returning to rescue Mackintosh. By 18 March, all five survivors were recuperating at Hut Point, having completed what Shackleton's biographers Marjory and James Fisher describe as "one of the most remarkable, and apparently impossible, feats of endurance in the history of polar travel."[56]

McMurdo Sound, frozen over. Mackintosh and Hayward set out on 8 May 1916 from Hut Point (A), intending to walk to Cape Evans (B). They disappeared in the area marked C.

With the help of fresh seal meat which halted the ravages of scurvy, the survivors slowly recovered at Hut Point. The unstable condition of the sea ice in McMurdo Sound prevented them from completing the journey to the Cape Evans base.[57] Conditions at Hut Point were gloomy and depressing, with an unrelieved diet and no normal comforts;[58] Mackintosh in particular found the squalor of the hut intolerable, and dreaded the possibility that, caught at Hut Point, they might miss the return of the ship.[59] On 8 May 1916, after carrying out reconnaissance on the state of the sea ice, Mackintosh announced that he and Hayward were prepared to risk the walk to Cape Evans.[60] Although Richards, Joyce and Wild were not in favour there was not much they could do about his decision. Mackintosh was still in charge of the party and short of forcibly restraining him they could only urge him not to go. Richards revealed in an interview years later that Hayward might not have been as keen as Mackintosh. Richards thought Hayward looked dubious but possibly he did not wish to ‘lose face’.[61]

Against the urgent advice of their comrades, the two men set off, carrying only light supplies.[62] Shortly after they had moved out of sight of Hut Point, a severe blizzard developed which lasted for two days. When it had subsided, Joyce and Richards followed the still visible footmarks on the ice up to a large crack, where the tracks stopped.[63] Neither Mackintosh nor Hayward arrived at Cape Evans and no trace of either was ever found, despite extensive searches carried out by Joyce after he, Richards and Wild finally managed to reach Cape Evans in June.[64] After Aurora finally returned to Cape Evans in January 1917, there were further searches, equally fruitless.[65] All the indications were that Mackintosh and Hayward had either fallen through the ice, or that the ice on which they had been walking had been blown out to sea during the blizzard.[62]

Mackintosh is commemorated by a memorial on his mother Annie's grave in the churchyard of St John the Evangelist's Church in Burgess Hill, West Sussex. Two of his brothers who died in Thailand and Southern Rhodesia respectively are also commemorated there.[66]

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