The pioneer sledge party, consisting of Wordie, Hussey, Hudson, and
myself, carrying picks and shovels, started to break a road through the
pressure-ridges for the sledges carrying the boats. The boats, with
their gear and the sledges beneath them, weighed each more than a ton.
The cutter was smaller than the whaler, but weighed more and was a much
more strongly built boat. The whaler was mounted on the sledge part of
the Girling tractor forward and two sledges amidships and aft. These
sledges were strengthened with cross-timbers and shortened oars fore
and aft. The cutter was mounted on the aero-sledge. The sledges were
the point of weakness. It appeared almost hopeless to prevent them
smashing under their heavy loads when travelling over rough pressure-
ice which stretched ahead of us for probably 300 miles. After the
pioneer sledge had started the seven dog teams got off. They took their
sledges forward for half a mile, then went back for the other sledges.
Worsley took charge of the two boats, with fifteen men hauling, and
these also had to be relayed. It was heavy work for dogs and men, but
there were intervals of comparative rest on the backward journey, after
the first portion of the load had been taken forward. We passed over
two opening cracks, through which killers were pushing their ugly
snouts, and by 5 p.
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