The journey to the Antarctic

From the early stages of his planning, Mawson intended to include dogs as part of the AAE (Mawson Reference Mawson1909–1912). He believed they could be bred and trained in the Antarctic to provide an efficient mode of transport in the regions in which he intended to conduct his research (Mawson Reference Mawson1910). When the expedition became a reality, Mawson ordered 50 Greenland dogs, which were brought to Copenhagen in July 1911. Expedition secretary Alfred Reid hoped that Mr C. Bang, an employee of Mawson's publisher, William Heinemann, would collect them, but Heinemann insisted that Bang be accompanied by an expedition representative (Reid Reference Reid1911a). Therefore, to accompany Bang, Reid hired Ernest Joyce, a former Royal Navy petty officer who had served with Mawson on Ernest Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition (1907–1909), during which he had done exemplary work in training the expedition's few dogs (Riffenburgh Reference Riffenburgh2004: 216–218).

Joyce's participation proved very helpful, because in Copenhagen he and Bang discovered that the dogs had been sent in one large consignment, which also included those for a German Antarctic expedition under Wilhelm Filchner. The Germans had arrived first and claimed the best animals, but Joyce created such a fuss that a more equitable distribution took place (Reid Reference Reid1911b). One dog died en route to England, but on 17 July 1911, 49 dogs and three pups arrived at Spratt's Dog Home, a quarantine station in Beddington, Surrey.

After several delays to the scheduled departure, the dogs were loaded onto the expedition ship Aurora on the evening of Thursday, 27 July, one dog and one pup having died at Spratt's. Also aboard were two members of the Antarctic shore party – Lieutenant Belgrave Edward Sutton Ninnis of the Royal Fusiliers and Swiss ski expert Xavier Mertz – who had been placed jointly in charge of the dogs. Shortly after midnight on 28 July, Aurora sailed, the dogs, according to the ship's master, John King Davis, ‘celebrating our departure with such a deafening chorus of barking, yelping, and howling that the pilot had considerable difficulty in making his orders heard’ (Davis Reference Davis1962: 158). The next day, two dogs became the first to receive names: Basilisk and Pavlova (Mertz Reference Mertz1911–1913: 29 July 1911) (see Table 1 for the origins of the dogs’ names).

Table 1. Names of the dogs of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. Although most of the adult dogs on the AAE received names, some did not, because they died too early or were too ‘non-descript’ to suggest names. Numerous pups were born but quickly killed by the adults or died from other causes, so only the pups that lived for an extended period received names. (b) = bitch; (p) = pup born during the expedition; (WB) = dogs that were sent to the Western Base; (A) = dogs that were donated to the expedition by Roald Amundsen. Sources: Blake Reference Blake1911–1914; Davis Reference Davis1911, Reference Davis1919; Dovers 1911–1914; Gray Reference Gray1911–1914; Harrisson Reference Harrisson1911–1913; Hunter Reference Hunter1911–1913; Jones Reference Jones1911–1914; Kennedy 1911–1912; Laseron Reference Laseron1911–1913; Madigan, C. Reference Madigan and McLean1913; Madigan, D.C. Reference Madigan2000; Mawson Reference Mawson1911–1914, Reference Mawson1915, Reference Mawson and Mawson1942; McLean Reference McLean1911–1914, Reference McLean1913; Mertz Reference Mertz1911–1913; Moyes Reference Moyes1911–1913; Ninnis Reference Ninnis1908–1912, Reference Ninnis1911–1912; Riffenburgh Reference Riffenburgh2011; Sandell Reference Sandell1912–1914; Watson Reference Watson1911–1912, 1912–1913; Wild Reference Wild1911–1913, 1912–1913.

On the evening of 31 July, Aurora arrived in Cardiff, where part of the crew was replaced, repairs were carried out, and the ship received some 500 tons of coal. While there, Mertz decided to take Pavlova for a walk. He was stopped before he reached the pier – just in time, as, according to Ninnis, the ‘penalty for landing dogs which have not been in quarantine is I believe £500, so the little jaunt, if accomplished, would have cost about as much as the coal’ (Ninnis Reference Ninnis1908–1912: 4 August 1911).

The next day they set sail with 47 adult dogs, because, according to Ninnis (Reference Ninnis1908–1912: 4 August 1911): ‘we had the misfortune to-day to lose a bitch . . . We were particularly unfortunate in losing this one, as we were daily expecting a litter. However, we have our two pups in a sound & healthy state.’

The voyage to South Africa and thence on to Australia took about 14 weeks, and as Aurora made her slow way south, the bitches – which had been crowded together with the dogs since they had been collected in Greenland – had numerous litters, some three dozen pups being born in one week about a fortnight after the departure from Cardiff, 13 on 16 August alone. However, most of the pups soon died, at least 19 of them on 18 August, from the terrible heat, being washed overboard, or being eaten by the adults. By 23 August there were only five pups left (see Table 2 for the dates and causes of death for the dogs).

Table 2. The dogs of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. This list includes all dogs for which a death date (or approximate one) is known during the expedition, as well as those that lived beyond the end of the expedition. It does not include all of the pups, particularly those that were born early in the expedition and died soon thereafter. (b) = bitch; (p) = pup born during the expedition; (A) = dogs that were donated to the expedition by Roald Amundsen. Sources: Blake Reference Blake1911–1914; Davis Reference Davis1911, Reference Davis1919; Dovers 1911–191914; Gray Reference Gray1911–1914; Harrisson Reference Harrisson1911–1913; Hunter Reference Hunter1911–1913; Jones Reference Jones1911–1914; Kennedy 1911–1912; Laseron Reference Laseron1911–1913; Madigan, C. 1913; Madigan, D.C. 2000; Mawson Reference Mawson1911–1914, 1915, 1942; McLean Reference McLean1911–1914, 1913; Mertz Reference Mertz1911–1913; Moyes Reference Moyes1911–1913; Ninnis Reference Ninnis1908–1912, 1911–1912; Riffenburgh Reference Riffenburgh2011; Sandell Reference Sandell1912–1914; Watson Reference Watson1911–1912, 1912–1913; Wild Reference Wild1911–1913, Reference Wild1912–1913.

A hut was built to protect the dogs, but by mid-September, many had become very weak, and during the stay at Cape Town (23–27 September), the two most successful mothers – Peggy and Hilda – suffered from ‘fits’ and were diagnosed by a local veterinarian as having ‘distemper, accompanied by chorea, and have but an infinitesimal chance of recovery’ (Ninnis Reference Ninnis1908–1912: 27 September 1911). The day that the party sailed from Cape Town, Peggy died during a severe fit; Hilda died the following morning.

The fits began to occur with devastating regularity, with Ninnis dividing them into two kinds. ‘Only the day before yesterday, one of these dogs was eating quite peacefully,’ he wrote. ‘Suddenly he collapsed, kicked about and foamed at the mouth. This lasted for about a minute and a half. Then he ceased to struggle, got up, shook himself, and continued his feed. The distemper fits are different, for they seem only more violent spasms of the incessant twitching that goes on unceasingly’ (Ninnis Reference Ninnis1908–1912: 16 October 1911). In the following weeks many of the dogs also suffered severely from swollen pads on their feet, and five more dogs either died or were shot during violent fits.

It has since been hypothesised that the dogs suffered from piblokto, a little-understood hysterical disease that affects the seemingly unrelated trio of Greenland dogs, Arctic foxes, and Inuit women (Landy Reference Landy1985; Feeney Reference Feeney1997: 237–239). However, at the time, a wide variety of diagnoses were handed down by vets and stock inspectors (for example, Shillingford Reference Shillingford1911). Unfortunately, the fits continued in some of the dogs during the time they were held at the Nubeena Quarantine Station outside Hobart, which they reached on 4 November. By the time Aurora sailed south on 2 December, there were only 36 dogs and two pups left. One dog was left at the sub-Antarctic base at Macquarie Island due to its extreme aggressiveness (Fig. 1). Then, before reaching Cape Denison, where Mawson's Main Base would be located, another seven dogs died after suffering fits.

Fig. 1. Ninnis with the dogs while they were at Macquarie Island. The dogs’ wide variation of colouring is evident from this photo. (Photo courtesy of the Mawson Centre, South Australian Museum, Adelaide, South Australia.)

The first year in the Antarctic

Shortly before reaching Commonwealth Bay, Mawson made the decision to reduce his three Antarctic shore parties to two, with 18 men staying at the Main Base – which would eventually be located at Cape Denison – and the other eight, under the command of Frank Wild, to continue to an undetermined location farther west. After some re-organisation, 19 dogs were kept at Cape Denison under the charge of Ninnis and Mertz, and the other nine were sent on with Wild's party.

Daily life at Main Base agreed with the dogs more than being at sea, and most flourished despite living through an Antarctic winter. The unquestioned leaders among the dogs were Basilisk and his mate Alexandra, the latter usually known as Ginger Bitch. Four pups born in the Antarctic were successfully raised, including the oldest, largest, and most popular – Blizzard.

In preparation for what became known as the Far Eastern Party, Ninnis and Mertz trained the dogs to pull sledges. On 10 November 1912, Mawson, Ninnis, and Mertz headed east with two sledge teams consisting of the remaining 16 of the original dogs plus Blizzard. In the following weeks, four of those dogs wore out and were shot, and one more disappeared, leaving two six-dog teams. On 14 December, on the Antarctic Plateau about 310 miles from Main Base, Ninnis and the sledge drawn by the six best dogs broke through the covering of a crevasse that Mertz, skiing ahead as the trailbreaker, and Mawson with the first sledge had already passed over. Ninnis and the dogs were killed and the supplies that had been carried on the second sledge – including most of the food, the tent, and many valuable parts of the kit – were lost.

Mawson and Mertz turned back toward Cape Denison, racing for their lives, as they had left no depots on the way out and they were extremely short of supplies. As each dog flagged, it was killed for food. Both men eventually suffered from hypervitaminosis A, a medical disorder caused by excessive intake of vitamin A, which is held in the livers of Greenland dogs in amounts toxic to humans (Cleland and Southcott Reference Cleland and Southcott1969; Southcott and others Reference Southcott, Chesterfield and Lugg1971; Shearman Reference Shearman1978; Riffenburgh Reference Riffenburgh2011: 276–278). On 7 January 1913, Mertz died, leaving Mawson to return to Cape Denison alone, not only deathly ill, but weak from lack of food and exposure, and struggling to overcome the extremely difficult terrain. Nevertheless, he reached Main Base on 8 February. There, he was forced to winter again when the small party that had waited behind for him could not be picked up by Aurora due to the high winds.

The reason that Davis could not hold Aurora at Cape Denison for better weather was that he urgently needed to collect Wild's Western Party from the Shackleton Ice Shelf, far to the west, where they had been left the year before. The eight men built a base, known as The Grottoes, directly on the ice shelf and made major journeys east and west. Geologist Andy Watson was officially in charge of the dogs, but Alexander Kennedy also helped train them.

These dogs did not play as major a role as those at the Main Base, because two of the nine died early on, and the two bitches were shot in order to preserve the limited food for the stronger males. Two more disappeared, never to be found, one in early winter, and the other, Sandow, the ‘king dog,’ in the late winter. Thus, when the major sledging programme to the eastern part of the Shackleton Ice Shelf was launched, it was primarily a man-hauling effort, aided by the three remaining dogs. One was put down late in the journey, but two returned to base and thence to Australia, the only two of the expedition's original pack to survive the Antarctic. Amundsen, who had been ‘king dog’ at Western Base after Sandow, died while still in quarantine outside Hobart, but Zip, a favourite of all the men at Western Base, was sent to live out his days at the park at Mount Koscuisko, hauling tourists on a sledge.

The second year

In late 1912, shortly before Aurora returned for the first time to relieve the Antarctic bases, Roald Amundsen, then in Hobart following his triumphant return from the South Pole, donated 21 of his sledge dogs to the AAE, in case a second year should be required. These dogs were left at Cape Denison when Aurora sailed to relieve the Western Base. On 15 February 1913, Mawson had Cecil Madigan and Frank Bickerton shoot 11 of the dogs to reduce them to a manageable number, as there was not only no need for so many dogs, but insufficient food.

Amundsen's 10 remaining dogs joined three that were already at Cape Denison. In April 1912, Ginger, one of the original bitches, had produced a litter of eight pups, three of which, D'Urville, Ross, and Wilkes, survived but were too young to be used by the Far Eastern Party. By the time Amundsen's dogs arrived, these three were as large as any of the new adults, and formed their own clique, one of three cohorts that developed in the second year, as there was no recognised leader among the dogs that year (Madigan Reference Madigan and McLean1913). In April 1913, Mary, the only bitch at Main Base, had a litter of five. One pup survived, giving the base a total of 14 dogs, although one was killed by the others and Mary died during a medical operation.

The next spring, this second set of dogs participated in its only sledging venture, as Mawson, Madigan, and Alfred Hodgeman tried to find equipment depoted the previous year when several parties had been forced to make hurried returns to Main Base. The 12 dogs were then put aboard Aurora for the return to Australia. Although no one seems to have recorded it, it is likely that one of the dogs died on the return voyage, because only 11 were transferred to the Adelaide Zoological Gardens for quarantine. After their period in quarantine, these were were allowed to spend the rest of their days in relative comfort, with a number of them being given to the members of the second year's shore party.