Published diaries are one of the main primary sources for secondary works about polar exploration, fictional or nonfictional, and once a diary is published there is little reason for a researcher, especially a casual one, to make the trip out to an archive in order to consult the original.
In the case of Frank Debenham’s The Quiet Land, edited by his daughter June Debenham Back, there is no advertisement that it is either an abridged or unabridged version. A reader might therefore assume, because they have no reason not to, that it is unabridged. But that is not the case!
After succeeding in a months-long quest for an obscure Australian article about Griffith Taylor, I was interested to see that since it was published in 1979, before the publication of The Quiet Land, the author had consulted Deb’s original SPRI diaries and included a few interesting quotes which I did not recognize from the published version.
Acting on a hunch I requested the three original volumes on my next SPRI trip and found to my surprise that TQL was indeed a pretty intensely cut-down version of the manuscript diaries. Reading the book you’d get the impression that Deb was an inconsistent diarist, sometimes skipping every other day or multiple days in a row, but that is the work of the editor: he was very consistent in making lengthy entries most days, even out on sledge journeys.
Various cuts and edits were made presumably for readability but for a real primary source addict and a fan of the Terra Nova’s various side players like me there is a big difference between a paragraph like this (from TQL):
The study of ice and ice-action is usually included in the domain of geology but we had a specialist in that branch in the person of Charles Seymour Wright, representing the Canadian branch of the Empire. He was educated at Toronto University specialising in Physics and went from there as a ’51 Scholar to Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge where he did not quite complete his research on Ionisation in the Air when he joined this expedition. He is a well set up fellow, very strong though only 11st 10lbs. He has the misfortune to wear spectacles and had considerable trouble with them on the trip.
and this (from the diary):
[But] although ice-action and even the study of ice itself is usually included within the domain of geology we had a specialist in that branch in the person of Charles Seymour Wright, representing the Canadian branch of the Empire. He was educated at Toronto University specializing in Physics and went from there as a ‘57 Scholar to the Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge where he did not quite complete is research on ionisation in the Air when he joined this expedition. The Ice-ologist as we called him is a well set up fellow very strong though only 11st 10lb. At Ice-ology he is naturally rather a neophyte and in fact he is really learning it as he goes along but he was very constant in his cold work of cutting sections of ice & examining them with polarised light, drawing crystals etc. He is very proud of his country and we have had fierce arguments Canada v. Australia and he has the characteristic American tricks of speech and twang though not to an objectionable degree. He has the misfortune to wear spectacles and had considerable trouble with them on the trip but he has a light-hearted nature and he was always either laughing hard at our little contretemps or else rendering the air blue with expletives.
Aside from various little details one of the main narratives that was sidelined for the most part in TQL but very prominent in the manuscript was Deb’s friendship with Taff Evans on the First Western Journey in summer 1911. I was delighted to find multiple passages which depict Taff as a character far more vividly than most Terra Nova material, primary or secondary.
Taff was the sledgemaster, teacher, and experienced companion of Silas, Deb, and Griff on their summer jaunt to the Dry Valleys across McMurdo Sound via the Koettlitz Glacier. He had visited the Dry Valleys with Scott during the Discovery expedition and was assigned to serve as guide for the three scientist neophytes.
Deb was very much charmed by Evans. In a description preserved in TQL he wrote: “He is no taller than 5ft 10ins but is nearly 14 stone in weight and yet always in splendid condition. He is about 35 years old and is not good-looking, in fact I think there is only one uglier man in the expedition”—this being Birdie Bowers, Deb was not shy with his aesthetic judgements #prettyprivilege— “[We] were lucky to have such a man to initiate us into the mysteries of sledging and his experience was valuable to us at every turn. Besides being efficient he was a great companion, always ready with a yarn or a song, always ready for hard or dirty jobs and yet not at all self-asserting or inclined to show us up as new chums. He is a product of Old South Wales and had many a wordy battle with me as representative of New South Wales.”
Isobel Williams, in her biography of Evans, wrote that “Debenham clearly liked him. In the accounts there is no sense of a class barrier; instead there is a sense that Edgar had qualities that the more educated men admired.” She made extensive use of the original diary material in her book—if only I’d read it earlier I’d have saved myself a lot of trouble!
Evans was an expert raconteur and entertained Deb and the others with tales of his Navy days and particularly of Scott’s previous expedition. “Had a long yarn with Evans today over ‘Discovery’ times and people, most interesting to be able to read between the lines of Capt. Scott’s book in this way,” Deb recorded on Jan 28th (not in TQL). Some of these stories verged on gossip, as on Feb 1:
Evans again amusing us with yarns after dinner. Dr. Koettlitz (Old Cutlass) the medical officer of the Discovery, apparently had many contretempts with Evans. [Thus] he was apparently much averse to strong language & he was continually overhearing some of Evans’ bad French & reporting him to the Owner. Evans used to get his own back by turning out the Doctor’s incubator lamps & allowing all his “cultures” to freeze.
Also recorded on Feb 1 and not in TQL are Evans’ tale of “acquiring the taste” for delicious sweetbreads from Koettlitz and Armitage, and his story of “gun practice” in Corfu (both summarized in the Williams).
On Feb 5th Deb recorded a surreal scene, and Evans’ rejoinder:
When having lunch on the ridge today I found a girl’s hair on my sleeve, heaven only knows how it got there, but it was unmistakeable, long and dark. As Evans said “It’s a queer time and place for a girl’s hair to be knocking around” All my clothes are expedition one’s so I don’t know how it can have got there, but I did not make a romance out of it but twisted it round a pebble and put it in a crevice. Someday it will give a very adventurous explorer a surprise.
Edited out of the entry for Feb 6th is an empathetic observation from Deb:
Evans spent a slow day at the camp. When we are all out on our respective lines of research things are pretty slow for him especially as he is accustomed to marching and nothing else between mealtimes.
Described on Feb 10 is the effects of the “double hoosh” the men enjoyed after being away from hot food for some days while backpacking down the Dry Valley – the camp’s name, “Dyspepsia Camp,” was not included in TQL, nor Evans’ prescription.
Spent the morning looking out valley at side of glacier and collecting specimens of dolerite, also in recovering from the effects of a double hoosh at breakfast. We are still having double “whacks” of cocoa & pemmican from what we saved down Dry Valley. Evans’ sympathetic suggestion for a remedy was massage with an ice axe, or else, operation for appendicitis with the same.
However Deb’s recording of Evans calling a dead penguin a “desiccated pongoose” happily made the cut. He seemed generally to take much delight in recording Evans’ characterful dialogue, such as on the 13th after a near-miss out on the sea ice as it began to break up under them:
Evans keeps a diary with much pain and tribulation but his remark on taking out his book tonight was “Hooray, got something for the log tonight anyhow”
and on the 14th after a day of difficult sledging:
Evans stories at meal-times again becoming prominent in the amusements of the day. At lunch he gave his (prospective I presume) method of proposing to a girl: “Kin you keep yerself and help me a bit, too, if so, then youre the pizened critter for me” . If she doesn’t “bite”, then you’re better off without her, if she does, it means you’re richer instead of poorer.
and on the 15th after a card game:
We drew with cards by a beautifully prolonged process in which I was losing steadily till the last deal which was mine. I managed to deal him a very bad set of cards which made him the victim, whereupon he assaulted me and after a battle during which we endangered the tent we drew off muttering, “Right oh, my old Blossom, just wait till I’m peggy (cook) again, I’ll pizen you outright.” Such is a common scene nowadays, and tho’ it may sound rather alarming it is not so in reality. Evans is an ideal sledging companion.
This is the first record of a mock “feud” between Deb and Taff that lasted the rest of the journey.
On the 20th Evans taught them all knot-tying:
During the day Evans bet us each a dinner (a one-and-threepenny dinner when we get back is the coin of the realm here, as introduced by T.G.) that we could not tie a clove hitch in the way he did with one hand. He did it three times & gave us six times each. By watching him very carefully I managed to do it the 2nd time and won my dinner, the other two were not so attentive and lost theirs.
Certainly I immediately afterward forgot how to do it, which caused a little fuss with Evans and we were constrained to call each other rude names for a while.
From that we went on to the other knots and I learnt quite a number from him, most of them being fancy knots including 3-part and 4-part Turks head, Bowline on a bight, diamond, ocean plait, etc. Evans is wonderful with rope and his tremendous hands seem to have no difficulty in sorting out strands and tying tiny knots.
On February 21:
TG took a photo of our bad cropper that the sledge had thro’ a sheet of ice and told us to stand around and look pensive. Evans broke up at the critical moment by saying ”Hold hard, sir, my face has slipped, it’s a bit insubordinate.” so we two will come out grinning like apes. We have contrived a new word, to “pont” that is, to pose for a photo and Evans’s type of ponting is supreme. He almost “Grips” his face to keep the smile back and it often comes “unstuck.”
On February 22 – the printed version of this entry ends with “amusement of others,” but the diary version goes on:
The nails have all come out of my boots and the [steigeison] crampons have raised a blister on my heel so I did not wear them yesterday. The consequence was that I slipped & slid in all directions with many falls on these rivers & lakes, much to the amusement of others, especially Evans.
In fact when on slippery ice Evans was constantly shoving me and we were sparring across the traces half the day. Over a long slippery bit he incited the others so that this absurd spectacle might have been seen. 3 fellows running along as hard as they could, laughing and looking round at the fourth, me, trying hard to keep up without slipping & finally having to hang on to the sledge itself like grim death. Staid explorers!!
But I get some of my own back now and then.
Maneuvering through difficult surfaces on the Koettlitz glacier on their way back to Ross Island, Deb and Evans found time to keep up their playful feud:
The usual procedure was for Evans and me. who pull next to the sledge, to drop back and hang on to the sledge and toboggan down as slowly as possible. If we happened to have an easy slope it was alright and we [???] [to snap] across the sledge. Our feud continues with great rigour and reprisals take place hourly. Had a race with him this morning on slippery ice with finneskoes on. I got a lead but he shoved me and won with huge joy.
This version of the diary was being written up by Deb after the fact, when back at Cape Evans in May 1911, and on the page at this entry there is an insertion in his handwriting: “Evans just saw this & said ‘it’s a lie.’”
On March 1st Deb was suffering from a heel injury: “My heel rather nasty. Evans as surgeon wanted to take it off but compromised by merely bandaging it skillfully.” But just the next day: “My feud with Evans is [resumed] again. I managed to give him a fine buster on the ice.” On the 4th he recorded learning more knots:
Learned 3 more knots from Evans, the Diamond, [True] Lovers, & Your Fool’s knots. Going on to 3 part Turks head next. As we had camped early after supper TG & Charles undertook to teach Evans & me bridge. The former is a good whist player so took to it at once so Charles & I got badly whacked.
By the 14th of March the party had returned to Hut Point, and by mid-April the whole expedition was back at Cape Evans.
At the main hut, the division between men and afterguard came down hard again, certainly by design. Titus, Birdie, and Bill especially play a larger role in Deb’s diary by this point at least as far as reported dialogue and anecdotes go.
But Evans crops up a few more times—”I spent over an hour watching Evans (Taff) making me a sennet sole for my felt boots” (Apr 27) and, after a May 4 soccer game: “I met Taff Evans during the game & we were both going hard in opposite directions. He is 14st6lb hence my discomfiture, but I have just been in to inquire after him and find he is very sore too so I am appeased.”
Deb spoke after the expedition about his close friendships with Bill and Titus; he was certainly very friendly with Birdie as well and of course highly loyal to Scott. It’s interesting to me (although not wholly inexplicable) that not only did Evans not get that kind of treatment while he (Deb) was still alive, but that much of the material depicting their friendship was lost in the posthumous edit of The Quiet Land.
In 1949, reviewing Scott of the Antarctic for Polar Record, Deb imagined how each of the Polar Party members would have reacted to the film, including Taff:
Taff Evans would have revelled in James Justice as himself, and though moved at his own dramatic end his only remark would have been “Crikey”, and perhaps a hope that there would be beer after the show.
There were a massive number of other cuts made from Deb’s manuscript diaries—I didn’t get through the full four volumes, but I can see there would certainly be value in a completely unabridged version of the diary, along the lines of Orde Lees’ hefty tome edited by the late John Thomson.
My favorite bits during midwinter include the Oatesian origin story of Deb’s nickname (April 28):
Uncle Bill woke up this morning by his having a scrap with Soldier who had called him “Livery Bill.” He welcomed my entry into the fray with “Here’s our Australian Jasmine” and the name appears to to have caught on, tho’ I never heard of Australian jasmine before, nor do I know my likeness to it.
and on the same day, a classic Ubdug vs. Bunderlohg cag:
Tonight I have been having a great old argument with Titus and Birdie on politics, or rather I have been giving them a rare old drubbing for not taking a proper interest in their country’s government.
It reminds me of some of my arguments last year in the 3rd year room, but this had a rather different ending for instead of “You are rude, Mr. Debenham,” this time it was (Soldier) “Ah Jasmine I’m afraid you’re a suffragette!” or (Birdie) “Ugh!”
There’s certainly more where that came from! To say nothing of Griff’s immense diary…. But that, as Kipling would say, is another story.
Sources
SPRI Debenham MS 279/1-4;BJ Journals (4), 1910-1912 [Volume II 19 January to 8 March 1911, volume III 14 April to 1 November 1911]
The Quiet Land: The Antarctic Diaries of Frank Debenham, ed. June Debenham Back. Bluntisham Books, 1992
Williams, Isobel. Captain Scott’s Invaluable Assistant: Edgar Evans: Edgar Evans. The History Press, 2011
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