Physicist on the Endurance. Kept diaries which he presumably turned over to Shackleton as he was contracted to do.
MS 1537/3/2/1/; D
January 9th [1916] leaf. 18-19: Bhudda [Miller?] busy reading translation of Illiad which has come with us this far. I have just begun “Anna Karenin”.
We have a little library, several people having brought along books, 5 vols. of Encyclopaedia Britannica brought officially, Carlyle’s French Revolution, Guy Mannering, Illiad, Robert Ellesmere, Anna Karenin, The English Language, Keats and Browning.
I hope most if not all of these will be taken with us when we take to boats. Hurley walked round tent three times in his stocking feet in the snow to make wind change.
Feb. 4th [leaf 32]: A lazy day in tent reading. Read most of “World’s End’ by Amelie Reeves. Like it very much.
Feb. 22. [leaf 40] Reading article on Projective Geometry in Encyclopaedia Britannia to keep my mind oiled a bit.
Feb, 27 [leaf 42] Feeling fed up generally to-day. Cant settle down to anything. Even Geometry studies from Encyclopaedia Britannic usually most attractive to me fails to allure. Have read and absorbed nearly the whole article on projective Geometry. I find these encyclopaedias a great boon. They have many splendid articles which are regular Text-books.
March 5th. Sunday. [leaf 46] Trying to keep alive mentally on the physical articles in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
March 6. [leaf 47] We have a slack day in tent doing mending and various jobs, reading and playing cards. The Boss has just discovered a new use for blubber and is industriously cleaning the backs of our cards with it.
June 12. Monday. Dull snowy day. Light variable winds, high temperature. Nothing doing. Pack in bay again. Heard in tent “Stephenson, turning over leaves of a book containing some of Wordsworth’s poems “Imitations of Immorality.” There’s an ‘ell of a name for a poem! Cook— “That’s like you looking at them sort of things. You always ‘unt the dirty things out.”
July 10. [leaf 118-19] Nights now a contest between Lees the snoring and those who try to sleep. Lees has won the opening engagements of the war. I am starting on the ‘French Revolution’ again which I managed to bring along. It is a good stand-by in the case when literature is scarce. Our library consists of a few much mutilated E.B. vols. A couple of polar books (Kane & Nordenskjöld ) carefully kept for reference and not in circulation. Wordie has Lockhart’s ‘Life of Scott’, Greenstreet, Scott’s Works, & Hurley “The Ancient Mariner” & a small volume of Keats & Pear’s Encyclopaedia & Bacon’s Essays. still have my translation of the ‘Iliad Clark has the ‘Open Road’.
MS 1537/3/2/2; D Point Wild. Notes July 30th 1916. Leaf 16-17: Owing to the badness of the weather and our limited wardrobe we are obliged to spend a good deal of time indoors. Fortunately we have a certain amount of reading material. There are the remains of 7 vols. of the E. Brit and a number of us brought books which were included in the weight allowed us.
There are in the library, Carlyle’s “French Revolution” and the Iliad, (Lang’s translation) Bacon’s essays, selections of Keats, the “Ancient Mariner”, Scott’s poems and Lockhart’s “Life of Scott”, Young’s “Travels in France”, “The Open Road’ (Lucas), Nordenskjöld ’s “Antarctica” a book of peculiar interest under our present circumstances and Kanes “Grinnel Expedition”.
It is fortunate that these are all fairly solid for they last well and bear reading twice.
SPRI MS 1537/3/2/3; D Diary typescript:
August 9, Wednesday [1916] Spent most of the day drawing out map of spit from the readings taken in May a book with a large clean inside cover having turned up to draw on. [leaf 7]
August 10, Thursday: …Hurley and I proceeded to put a window in the side of the hut near our bunk. Three pieces film transparent celluloid about whole plate photograph were found in Sir E’s bag yesterday; they had formerly been photograph covers. They will now be three windows in our house…. The new window, although it only looks on to a big snow dump gives fine light for reading and writing and supplies a long felt want. Weather vile…. [leaf 8]
August 30th, Wednesday—the day of rescue, leaves 16-18. On 18: The news from home startling to say least. It seems that the world has altered much. Feel rather like “Well’s” Sleeper.”