Sled Dog Tragedy

Many of us are familiar with Ernest Shackleton, the famous Antarctic explorer. Several books and even a movie series have been published/created concerning his ill-fated attempt to cross the continent of Antarctica in what was termed the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, the sinking of his vessel the Endurance and the incredible odyssey that eventually saw Shackleton sailing in a small open boat to the tiny island of South Georgia from where he was able to arrange for the eventual rescue of his crew that were hunkered down on Elephant Island....with no loss of life.

What is not so well known is that there was another part to that expedition. Shackleton knew that in order to cross the continent it would be impossible for him to carry all of the food and supplies that would be needed. He therefore planned that a second vessel, the Aurora would sail from Tasmania with a crew of seamen and scientists to the other side of the continent. Their task would be to make some scientific studies but primarily their task would be to set up a series of food and supply depots or caches located along Shackleton's proposed route of travel. In this way he would be able to resupply as his journey unfolded.

The timing of Shackleton's expedition coincided with the outbreak of WWI, it was hastily arranged and for various reasons much of the planning was last-minute and incomplete. You can read all of these upsetting details in Kelly Tyler-Lewis's book The Lost Men...The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party. I found myself feeling deeply distressed as I read the sections concerning the sled dogs that were part of this particular expedition. Several times I had to turn away from reading the sled dog sections and I found myself feel quite angry at the humans involved.

The plans were for the supplies to be hauled using dog teams as well as a totally unproven "motor tractor" and of course the good old time tested British military method of man handling heavily-loaded sledges.

I won't go into a lot of detail. The dogs in question were called "Hudson's Bay Dogs" which meant that they were obtained with the help of the Hudson's Bay Company. They were in fact from eastern Canada and were a mixture of mongrels, many of them large Newfoundland-type crosses...they generally weren't sled dogs. There was virtually no dog mushing expertise amongst the men and the equipment was a mish-mash of ill suited harness and sleds. The poor animals were kept in cages on the deck of the Aurora for months, they had to withstand violent storms at sea, they suffered horribly and then when they reached the destination of Mcmurdo Sound they were immediately thrust into action with no time for acclimitization or training and they began to die almost immediately. Within weeks all but four dogs were dead. The story is tragic.

There are probably several lessons to be learned from this heart-wrenching story. Perhaps the most significant is to note that there can be a tremendous amount of romance associated with dog mushing and the past. This romance can blur the reality and the hardship that was part of the life of a working sled dog. There was nothing romantic about this story. These dogs were mistreated, their handlers were inept, the planning was haphazard at best. Perhaps this illustrates just how far we have come in terms of our understanding of the needs of these animals. It also serves as an indicator of just how incredibly durable and tough these sled dogs were.