The Infidel Pages: Kiss me, I saved Western Civilization

  To go to Rome

Is little profit, endless pain;

The master that you seek in Rome,

You find a home or seek in vain.

~ Early Irish Christian Proverb

  Saint Patrick's day in the present time has become something of a parody, one would even tempt the term mockery of its original significance.  Today we wear garish costumes, march in chintzy parades, get raving drunk, and dye rivers green to celebrate the conversion of the Irish pagans to Christianity.  "Everyone's Irish on Saint Patrick's Day!" "Kiss me, I'm Irish!" I often wonder what the point is of all this display.  Other than, like Cinco De Mayo, yet another excuse to get drunk. Somewhere in all the kitsch is the point of the holiday, to celebrate the Irish people's conversion to Christianity.  Why is this important? Because if a bunch of barely literate pagans had not come to Christ and taught themselves to read and write, Western Civilization might have been lost.
   Let us back up to the so-called "Fall of Rome" really more of a Subsidence of Rome or The Same Rome under New Management.  I say this for two reasons.  One, Rome did not fall as say, Carthage or Babylon fell.  Those civilizations were destroyed outright, Rome was not.  Yes, some "barbarians" sacked the city of Rome a few times, mostly because they wanted what Rome had and I don't just mean money. They wanted the technology and the culture too. The Visigoths caused the Sack of Rome (the most famous one that caused St. Augustine to write his "City of God") on August 24, A.D. 410.  After that, Rome formed a partnership with these Germanic peoples, who would later help them fight of Attila the Hun. The Vandals and Ostrogoths would come later and, with the help of the Visigoths, would completely take over the City and put Rome under new management, i.e themselves. By then, the seat of the Roman Empire had already been moved to Constantinople as of A.D. 333.  So the Roman Empire proper did not fall until Constantinople was taken by Muslim Turks in 1453. Sultan Mehmed II, who took over the city once conquered, also referred to himself as "Caesar of Rome". Side note: The German title "Kaiser" which is what Germans called their kings until Germany didn't have kings anymore is the German word for "Caesar" as is the Russian title "Tsar".
  Friends, I must pause here a moment.  I received a minor epiphany a few weeks ago and intend to explore it further with you.  I was presented with the theory that German Barbarians did not cause the Fall of Rome. Neither did wantonness or Christianity or something strange in the water that made everyone suddenly stupid, but by Islam. Islam took out Rome and almost took away Western Civilization entirely.  This certainly makes more sense than most of the other theories posited over the past 1400 years, and I have no reason to doubt the information. But I do need to investigate further.  I am starting a new column in this blog about Islam and its 1400 year war on Western Civilization. This is the first installment.
   Back to Ireland.  Meanwhile, up north there's an island that the Romans called Hibernia. It would later be called Ireland.  They didn't really bother much with it, Britannia itself was almost too much for them to handle (see: Hadrian's Wall).  Hibernia was peopled with unshaven, unwashed, savages. Rome left them alone and when they moved out of Britannia, due to trouble back home, the Romanized Celtic peoples they left behind were at the mercy of said savages. These Scotti, as they were known, liked to raid the coasts of Britain and take slaves. A sixteen year-old boy named Patricius was one of these. Patricius, raised in the civilization and comfort of Roman Britain, found himself a slave, a sheep herder to his barbarian master in Hibernia. The man who would become known as Patrick was a man of few words, and doesn't tell us much about his early life, save that he spent six years hungry and cold tending sheep. He only found consolation in one thing, God. Patrick would pray night and day, that was his only consolation.  One day a vision prompted him to escape.
    He eventually made his way home, to Britain, but he did not stay. Patrick could not get his former masters out of his mind. Another vision prompted him to be ordained as a priest and bishop, and then head back to Ireland to bring the love of Christ to the dark world he had once escaped. That one spark of light would catch the whole island on fire.  In the thirty years from Patrick's return until his death in A.D. 461, Ireland was transformed from a completely pagan to a wholly Christian land.  The Irish have never done anything halfway, and their new found faith was no exception.  They made literacy the central act of their new religion.  In a land that was previously illiterate and in darkness, the written word now became their light.  With civilization crumbling to the south, these monks took every book and manuscript they could find, many of them brought back from pilgrimages to Rome. Hebrew scripture, Greek commentary, Greek and Roman classics, Church fathers, their own myths and legends and preserved them.  Everything they found was copied, re-copied, translated, copied again. They even invented languages and wrote in those.  As their ancestors would collect the heads of their enemies as trophies, now they collected books.
     And it did not stop there, the Irish now had to share their new found faith with the world.  Among the first was one Columba, who crossed the sea to former Britannia, now taken over by the Anglo-Saxons, and began to teach them about Christ, and how to read. The rest would fan out across Europe, shining light into the fast-darkening world. Charlemagne, who himself could barely write his name, gathered a whole group of Irish monks to educate his children. Many of these Irish missionaries would go on to found monasteries that would later become cities: Liege, Salzburg, Vienna, and Rheinhau.  When the Vikings arrived in Iceland in A.D. 870, they found Irish monks. Whether or not they made it all the way to North America is still in debate, but it is possible.
    Where they went is less important than what they did.  Wherever they went, these Irish brought their books, everything that had been salvaged from the collapsing culture that was Rome.  Had they not...well I won't say Western Civilization would have completely disappeared, it probably would have restarted itself somehow.  But undoubtedly it would have taken much, much longer.
 

Belgium Says "Over My Dead Body!" Germany Takes it Literally.

 The minstrel boy to the war is gone,

In the ranks of death you'll find him;

His father's sword he has girded on,

And his wild harp slung behind him;

"Land of Song!" said the warrior bard, 

"Though all the world betrays thee,

One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard,

One faithful harp shall praise thee.

~Thomas Moore, after 1798

While the statesmen of Europe greeted the onset of war with foreboding, the general public were wildly enthusiastic. When war was announced, crowds thronged the streets cheering and singing patriotic songs. In Russia, a huge crowd assembled in the Winter Palace Square of St. Petersburg, carrying icons, flags, banners and portraits of the Tsar. When the emperor appeared on the balcony, the crowd knelt and sang the Russian national anthem.  A similar gathering was held in Munich where the mobilization proclamation was read. In the Berlin Cathedral, the Kaiser's pastor led a huge congregation in the recitation of Psalm 130 (I am not sure what that particular psalm has to do with war...I suppose it would make more sense if I were German.) and at the Oranienstrasse Synagogue the rabbi conducted prayers for victory.
   The holiday atmosphere was carried on by the men being sent out.  French soldiers would compare what mobilization days they were assigned as if they were comparing sports scores. "I am the on the first!" one would say 'beat that' being implied. "I am the ninth" another would respond, and the others would reply "Rotten luck for you, you will miss all the fun. The War will be nearly over by then." The unlucky ones were assigned the later days if mobilization.  "You'll never make it to Berlin in time!" the others would say to him. No matter what day they were to leave, they were all put on trains and sent to preparation points just behind the frontier, usually at stations in small villages whose huge train platforms had been designed just for such a purpose .
   French and British soldiers had a relatively short journey to war. The French headed northeastward to the Frontier, while the British arrived at Boulogne on August 14 from their ships and headed south to Le Cateau, close to the Belgian border. Germany, by contrast, had a longer race, west, and then south towards Chalons, Epernay, Compiegne, Abbeville, and finally they intended to take Paris. From their detraining points at Aachen, on the western border of Germany, to Paris was 200 miles.  But before Paris, the Germans would have to go through the Belgian fortresses, Liege, Namur and the others that surrounded Belgium to keep foes out.  Disproportionately wealthy (for its size) thanks to an early industrial revolution and goods that poured in from it's colony in the Congo, Belgium had invested heavily in fortification to defend its neutrality.  As a result, Belgium had the most modern fortifications in Europe. Built between 1888 and 1892, they were designed to withstand the heaviest gun then in existence, the 210 mm (8.4 inch). Each defense consisted of a circle, 25 miles in circumference, of individual forts arranged in a circle to protect the city they defended and lend each other the service of their own guns.  A garrison of  40,000 men were used not just to operate the guns, but at threat of invasion, dig trenches between the forts to close all gaps and hold the enemy at bay.
    Back in Schlieffen's day, Germany wasn't really sure how they were going to get through Belgium, no gun existed that would pierce the concrete and steel of their forts. In 1909, the answer came in the form of a 420 mm (16.8 inch) howitzer. The only problem was this gun was almost too big to move, it had to be transported by rail and embedded in a specially built concrete platform for action.  Austria developed a much more manageable 305 mm (12.2 inch) gun the next year.  Nearly as powerful and far more portable.
    If Germany wanted to get anywhere outside its own borders in this war, Belgium had to be taken. General Otto von Emmich was given 48 hours to overtake the country.  The Germans expected Belgium would either not resist at all, or if it did,would be quickly subdued. They were wrong. The Belgian constitution made the king commander-in-chief during war, and also president of his own council of ministers. King Albert I was not one to take such a responsibility lightly.
 At this time, if one had looked from above, they would have seen the French Army aligned towards Lorraine, the German army whose main force had still not left Germany, the British Army still mobilizing, Belgium's army concentrated in the middle of it's homeland and, a small German strike force pinned down by a small group of Belgian fortress troops determined not to let them in    Belgium had international guarantees of its independence and neutrality, which it took very seriously. In 1912, Britain had politely offered to lend assistance in the event Germany invaded, Belgium refused.  Diplomatic delicacy kept France from making a similar offer.  In their refusal of help, the Belgian government was aware it would have to stand on it's own when Germany came.
   Stand they did.  When Germany delivered its ultimatum, King Alfred refused the terms and also refused to ask Britain and France for help.  Kaiser Wilhelm was a distant relative of Alfred (along with every other royal family in Europe) and he politely entreated Cousin Alfred saying that it was necessary for Germany to come through  Belgium to get to France if Belgium were only so kind to let them through. "What does he take me for?" was Alfred's response, and he gave orders to destroy the bridges leading into Belgian territory. The man in charge of holding off Germany was General Gerard Leman, a 30- year veteran of the War College and the king's former military tutor. Leman was a man of hono rand courage, with an unyielding sense of duty.  Alfred told him to hold the fort at Liege to the end.
    The Meuse River, at the border of Belgium, enters a 450 foot deep gorge as it flows past Liege, a natural moat not easily crossed in the face of opposition.  Emmich would learn this when he entered Belgium and made his way to Liege.  Emmich and his troops entered Belgium on August 4, and soon came under fire from Belgian cavalry and troops on bicycles that showed an unexpected resolve to keep the Germans at bay.
   Germany interpreted international law to mean that an occupying force shout treat any resistance as rebellion, and such resistance should be punished.  Belgium had been warned if they demolished their bridges, Germany would consider it a hostile act.  When the Germans got to Liege and found the bridges blown, they responded as threatened in what would be called the "Rape of Belgium". Innocent civilians were shot and villages burned, priests were even shot. Men, women, and children were massed in village squares and shot by execution squat, the survivors bayoneted.
   The worst was at Louvain, called the "Oxford of Belgium". This town was a treasure of Flemish Gothic and Renaissance Architecture, paintings, manuscripts, and books. The Germans, panicked by a nighttime movement of their own forces, began to shout "Snipers!" and set fire to streets and buildings where they supposed the offenders to be. After a three day inferno and looting, the library with 230,000 books was gone, along with 1,100 other buildings.  Two hundred nine civilians were dead and population of the town, 42,000 strong, evacuated.
  This slaughter served no real purpose and actually harmed the reputation of the German army and the German people, especially in the eyes of the United States.  Worldwide accusations of Germany's war on culture started immediately, which incensed the German citizens themselves. Their own academics represented the war as an attack by barbarians, decadents, and philistines (Russians, French, and British respectively) on high German civilization. Germany had always prided itself on being a major contributor to Enlightenment ideals of philosophy, science and classical scholarship. To be found out as book-burners was almost too much for them to bear.  I would wager that even some German citizens themselves were shocked the acts of their own fellow countrymen. (Just wait until the second time around, then you'll really burn some books.)
   On August, Captain Brinkman, military attache to Brussels, arrived at Liege to demand Leman's surrender.  He was turned away, and the German bombardment of the eastern forts began. The Belgians held their ground, and German casualties mounted throughout the night. The next morning, General Erich Ludendorff fought his way to a high point where he could look down into Liege itself. A force of 6,000 Germans had penetrated Leman's ring of forts, and Ludendorff ordered in a party under a flag of truce to demand a surrender.  The surrender party was told off, and a raiding party that followed them was shot down at the door of Leman's headquarters. Gerard Leman intended to stand as long as the forts remained intact, which they still did.
    Leman thought the forts were assaulted by five German corps, and therefore he sent the infantry, the 3rd Division and the 15th Brigade to join the field army outside Brussels for fear Belgium would be overrun.  He was mistaken, the Germans at the gate were merely representative of the five corps to which they belonged. But his miscalculation spared one-sixth of the Belgian army to fight in Antwerp, where King Albert had already planned to make his last stand.
   For a fleeting moment, the outcome of the conflict was unsure. Ludendorff had broken through the ring, but did not have sufficient force to demand a surrender as Emmich's forces remained outside. King Albert had appealed to France for help, but all they promised to do was send some cavalry troops to reconnoiter.  Britain had planned to deploy six divisions to Belgium, but now decided to keep two home.
    The spell was broken by Ludendorff. On the morning of August 7 he sent the 14th Brigade crashing through the center of Liege on the off-chance he would not be opposed. He was not. General Ludendorff marched up to the gates of the citadel and hammered on them with his sword, and was admitted.  The garrison surrendered the city to him...just like that.
  Emmich, meanwhile, was ravaging the other forts with some fancy new artillery.  The first Krupp 420, later known as the Big Bertha, arrived August 12 and was immediately put to work.  The crew lay prone 300 yards away with padding wrapped around their heads as the gun was fired electronically. The gun was loaded with delay fused 2,000 pound shells that would only explode once they had penetrated the fort. It didn't take long once elevation and range had been perfected. Pontisse was a wreck when it surrendered at 12:30 the next day. Embourg fell at 17:30, Chaudfontaine was destroyed when its magazine exploded. On August 14 Fort Liers fell at 09:40 and Fleron at 09:45. The day after, the 15th, Boncelle fell at 07:30, Lautin at 12:30.  Fort Loncin, where General Leman had headquartered nine days prior, was destroyed after 140 minutes of bombardment when it's magazine was penetrated. The final two forts Hollonge and Flemelle surrendered on the 16th without struggle
    A few forts in Belgium and around Europe would remain standing, but this war essentially ended the era of the fort in modern warfare. For thousands of years men were protected, and held off the enemy for months behind ramparts of stone and steel. But with giant guns that could blast their walls to rubble in hours, forts had become obsolete. Battles would now be fought by ramparts of men, rather than stone.
   Just such a rampart was being built to the South as Germany was tearing into Belgium. The French, thinking that Germany would come for them first, assembled along the common frontier they had with Luxembourg and Switzerland. Marshall Joseph Joffre ordered General Bonneau to take Mulhouse in Alsace, hoping to raise the countryside against the Germans. Their turn would come.  Once Germany had finished with Belgium, it would turn its eyes southeast to the ultimate prize, France.

Breaking News! Update on an Earlier Post

     On April 19, 2014, I wrote a little essay about a very great man: Zionist, Irishman, War Hero, Lion Killer and "godfather of the Israeli Army" Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, D.S.O. That can be viewed here .When I wrote that that, Patterson and his wife, Francis Helena, had been cremated and interred at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, CA.  According to Patterson's only living descendant, his grandson Alan, the Colonel wished for his and Francis' remains to be interred in Israel.  Mr. Alan Patterson, the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, Canadian Representative Todd Young, Beit HaGedidum, and the Moshav of Avihayil effort led by Ezekiel Sivak began working toward that end in 2010.
    Friends, I am happy to announce that this has now occurred!  With the assistance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli Government, Lt. Col. J.H. Patterson D.S.O and Francis Helena Patterson (nee Gray) were re-interred at the Avihayil cemetery on December 4, 2014.  They rest now with some of the men that Patterson himself commanded in the First World War. Attending the ceremony were Prime Minister Netanyahu, members of his family, military and cabinet ministers of the Israeli government, the British Ambassador, the Irish Ambassador, Alan Patterson, Jerry Klinger of the of The Jewish American Society for Historical Preservation, Ezekiel Sivak of Avihayil, representatives and descendants family members of the Jewish Legion, Christian Supporters of Israel, 350 guests and many other dignitaries. At the ceremony, Prime Minister Netanyahu referred to Patterson as the godfather of the Israeli Army.  I do wish I could have been there.

Picture of the Reburial Ceremony

 Graves of John Henry and Helena Patterson in Israel

One other thing I found out when I stumbled over this happy news. Not only was the oldest son of Benzion Netanyahu, Yonatan, named for Patterson, but Patterson also attended Yonatan's circumcision.  At the circumcision, Patterson gave Yonatan a silver cup engraved with the words "To my beloved godson Yonatan from Lt.-Col John Henry Patterson."

In Heavenly Peace: The Christmas Truce

   There is something defiant in it also; something that makes the abrupt bells at midnight sound like the great guns of a battle that has just been won. All this indescribable thing we call the Christmas atmosphere only hangs in the air as something like a lingering fragrance or a fading vapor from the exultant explosion of that one hour in the Judean hills nearly two thousand years ago. But the savor is still unmistakable, and it is something to subtle or too solitary to be covered by our use of the word peace. By the very nature of the story the rejoicings of the cavern were rejoicings in a fortress or an outlaw's den; properly understood it is not unduly flippant to say they were rejoicings in a dug-out....There is in this buried divinity and idea of undermining the world;..."

G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man 1925.  (emphasis his)

Christmas Day, 1914 was the first Christmas in war of a century that would be defined by its wars. And yet, that first Christmas in war, would be strangely defined by its peace. In the week leading up to Christmas, a series of unofficial cease-fires spontaneously occurred along the front line.  The Germans called it Weinachtsfreiden, the French, Treve de Noel. 

   The truce mostly involved British and German troops who crossed lines into the opposing side's trenches to talk and exchange gifts.  They all expressed that they were tired of the war. A war they were told would be over "before the leaves fell" or "over by Christmas" was now dug into trenches and frozen in place, a deadlock that showed no signs of being over quickly.
    Fraternization with the enemy was banned, for obvious reasons, but it happened anyway.  As early as November of 1914, peaceful and even friendly interactions between opposing sides was not uncommon.  This ranged from just letting each other alone to men from either side coming into the other's trench for a visit, which irked the commanders to no end. But something magical happened on December 24 and 25 1914 in places like Ypres, Ploegsteert, and Neuve Chapelle.
   By many accounts it started when the Germans lit candles, decorated Christmas trees, and began to sing carols whose tunes were familiar to the English, though the words foreign. Probably the Germans were singing Stille Nacht (Silent Night) or Herbei, o ihr Glaeubigen (O Come, All Ye Faithful). Hearing this, the British responded by singing the same thing in their own language. After that, the Germans began to shout across the lines "You no shoot, we no shoot", "Pudding", "A Happy Christmas" and "English means good." The British thought it was a trap at first, a ruse by the Germans to draw them out to be shot. But finally, a few English soldiers that were either brave enough, or hopeful enough, ventured forward. The rest followed slowly.
  They were met by smiling, unarmed Germans who seemed to be rather nice.  Both sides exchanged wine, cigarettes, pictures and food. One British man got a German to write his name and address on a card as a souvenir.  Both sides expressed how tired they were of the war. They all got together and sang carols, one German even played "God Save the King" on a mouth organ, according to a letter sent home by Rifleman C.H. Brazier. Many accounts from those days claim that impromptu football (i.e. soccer) matches broke out between both sides.  Part of this truce was also a cease fire agreement to let each side bury their dead.  On the eastern front, where Austria was facing Russia, similar truces were reported. Several Austrian commanders of uncertain rank were reported to be the initiators. The Austrian soldiers were told not to fire unless provoked, and the Russians did the same. Both sides met to exchange Austrian schnapps and tobacco for Russian bread and meat.  At the siege of the Polish fort Przemysl, the Russian besiegers left three Christmas trees in no-man's land with an attached note saying "We wish you, the heroes of Przemysl, a Merry Christmas, and hope we can come to a peaceful agreement as soon as possible."
    It wasn't just soldiers on the front that wished for peace this Christmas.  The Open Christmas Letter was a public call for peace signed by 101 British Suffragettes addressed "To the Women of Germany and Austria". The current pope, Benedict XV requested an official truce between the warring governments "on the night the angels sang".
   Peace on earth, and goodwill toward men with whom He is well pleased.  Many want peace on earth at Christmas without knowing why.  The rest of us know that God is our Peace.  This Christmas truce in this first great and terrible war shows us that He will one day return to us, not as a baby, but as a conquering king to to bring the actual war that will end all wars......forever. 

The Regretful Shore

   So we'll stoke the fire and light the lamp

Turn our backs in from the damp

Settle down beneath the starry sky

Endure the winter passing by

~Winter Song

    The first day of the year 1915 was cloudy, with a northerly breeze and occasional snow squalls. The ice began to break up, and Endurance made good speed through the floes.  Twenty-four hours run gave them 124 miles which was encouraging, but by midday on the 2nd the way was blocked by ice again, and they were forced to sail west and north to find another opening.  The party passed about 200 bergs that day, along with great quantities of bay ice (ice that had come from a bay, obviously) and ice foot (ice foot is either ice from the foot of a glacier, or spray that has frozen to the waterline of a shore. One floe of the bay ice had black earth on it, most likely basaltic in origin, and another large berg had a broad band of yellowish-brown through it.
   Shackleton suggests that the band of yellow-brown in this berg was volcanic dust, and I have no reason to doubt him. Although he was not a geologist, Shackleton was not ignorant, and he was a seasoned explorer. Also, he had scientists with him that could have suggested otherwise if they had ideas to the contrary.  If this was indeed volcanic dust, where did it come from? Antarctica has many volcanoes, but most of the currently active ones are on the opposite side of the continent.  There are only two volcanoes near the Weddell Sea that have been active in the past 100 years. Deception Island is at the very tip of the Antarctic Peninsula that reaches up like an arm toward South America. It's last eruption was in 1970. Penguin Island is in the same vicinity as Deception, and it's most recent eruption is thought to have occurred in  1905.  If the estimate is 9 or so years off (which is possible) either one of these volcanoes could have been erupting onto ice in 1914-1915. The only problem is, they are rather far away from Shackleton's position, on the opposite end of the Weddell Sea in fact.  Still, with the clockwise current that churns in the Weddell Sea, which would later carry the ship a good third of the circumference of the Sea, it is possible those ice floes did have volcanic dust.

Location of Deception and Penguin Islands

Approximate Location of Endurance January/February 1915

   By 10 a.m. on January 4th, the ship passed a berg they had passed twice on the previous day.  In their effort to find an opening in the ice, Endurance had steamed around an area of 20 square miles for 50 hours. They were trying to find an opening to the south or southwest, but all openings were to the north and northeast.  Further effort for the present time seemed useless, so Shackleton gave the order to bank the fires, and the ship was moored to a solid floe. The weather was clear, so some enthusiastic crew members started a game of soccer on the floe (Shackleton is the one using the word soccer, despite being British/Anglo-Irish) until around midnight when Captain Frank Worsley fell through a hole in some rotten ice while retrieving the ball.  After retrieving Worsley, they called it a day. 

  On the 6th, still moored to the ice, the crew took the opportunity to exercise the dogs, who had begun to languish from lack of exercise. The dogs got very excited, and several managed to get in the water. Two dogs managed to get into a fight after slipping their muzzles, they were pulled from the water still grappling with each other.  All around, men and dogs much enjoyed the exercise.  But caution had to be in order for anyone exiting the ship.  Killer whales were becoming active in the vicinity. The crew had seen several seals plucked off the bergs they were lying on, and to a whale men would probably look much like seals.
  By the 8th, the pack was beginning to loosen again, and the ship was able to make headway south once more. The next day, water-sky was seen extending to the southeast, and the ship reached open water just before noon.  Water-sky is quite an interesting thing, and I had no idea there was such a phenomenon before reading Shackleton's writing. When light shines on blue ocean some of the light bounces back and is reflected of low-lying clouds.  The more blue light reflected off the water is a contrast to the white light reflected off ice. These darker clouds allow observers to see where water is even when they cannot see the actual open water.  Arctic and Antarctic explorers often use water sky to navigate sea ice.

Water sky, the darker stain on the clouds indicates open water. 

   Open water inside the ice pack was frequented by large whales, probably Blue Whales. Shackleton speculated they found refuge this far south, since they were harried by whalers further north, outside the pack. They had now come near the land discovered bu Dr. W.S. Bruce, leader of the Scotia expedition in 1904, which he had named Coats' Land.  Dr. Bruce had seen no bare rock, but had described rising slopes of snow and ice, with shoaling water off the ice barrier that stood in his way of reaching the land. Shakleton planned to land at these slopes as far south as possible, and from there begin the march across the continent.  After passing through some loose ice, they came around what appeared to be a small peninsula to open water and headed south without delay. On January 12th, they passed the southernmost point reached by Scotia, and were sighting new land.

Caird Coast of Coats Land, as photographed from Endurance, January 1915

    Shackleton planned to skirt this new land to the southwest as far as they could go, and then embark from the ship to start across the continent with the dog sleds.  They needed to land soon, some of the dogs were beginning to lose condition.  One of the dogs had to be shot on the 12th, Shackleton does not elaborate why. He had started now looking for landing places, but really did not intent to port anywhere north of Vahsel Bay, which was still quite a distance away. Endurance made her way through loose ice pack or open water, rounding several glaciers that came down from the land into the sea.  On January 15, the ship came to the edge of a great glacier extending into the sea. The bay formed by the northern edge of this glacier would, Shackleton noted, have made an excellent landing place, as it was protected from the south wind and only open to the warmer, and almost nonexistent, northern winds.  Shackleton called it Glacier Bay.  Passing this bay, they came to the junction of Coats Land and Luitpold land, observing the ice locked coast that remained in view through all but the worst weather. January 19th found the ship completely locked in ice.  The ice had come close around the ship in the night and now she would not move. The party worked hard at chipping the ice away from the ship, but Endurance was held fast within it, to the point they almost lost the rudder in the squeezing floes.  On the 27th, Shackleton gave orders for the boilers to be put out, since they only had half their coal stores left and were wasting it sitting in the ice. On January 31st, Physicist Reginald James and Navigator Huberht Hudson rigged the wireless in hopes of hearing the monthly message from the Falklands, but at 1630 miles from the station, they were too far away.
   Aside from some slight movement when the pack loosened, the ship remained stuck in the ice.  On February 5, Endurance received a foretaste of her ultimate fate. At noon the ship gave a sudden start and heeled over three degrees. The ice around her then cracked on both sides and the ship righted again.  Being stuck within sight of land was maddening.  Shackleton wrote sometime in early February "From the masthead the mirage is continually giving us false alarms. Everything wears an aspect of unreality. Icebergs hang upside down in the sky; the land appears as layers of silvery golden cloud. Cloud banks look like land, icebergs masquerade as islands...Worst of all is the deceptive appearance of open water, caused by refraction of distant water, or by the sun shining at an angle on a field of smooth snow or the face of ice cliffs below the horizon."  Desert regions are famous for mirages, but they are as likely if not even more common in the polar regions of the earth.
  On February 14 there was a last-ditch effort to chip the ice from the ship and break through the floes to open water. After 24 hours of labor, they got the ship about a third of the way through the ice, but a good 400 feet of pack still separated her from open water, and Shackleton had to admit that further effort was useless. They were now realizing they would have to spend winter in the embrace of the ice, and winder was fast approaching. The sun, which had spent two months above the horizon, set for the first time at midnight on February 17. On the 22nd, Endurance reached the furthest south point she would, touching the 77th parallel latitude at 35 degrees west longitude. Summer was no more, it had barely existed. Seals were disappearing, as were birds, headed north to warmer waters.  Shackleton wrote "This calm weather with intense cold in a summer moth is surely exceptional". He did, unfortunately, picked an unusually cold winter to attempt reaching the South Pole. One wonders if he may have had more success in a different year, several years prior or after 1914.  Ninety years on, the Weddell Sea was largely free of ice in summers, (that is of course, changing again) but all who have traveled it, in any season, claim it is the most treacherous and dismal sea on earth.
    February 24, they stopped observing ship routine and turned Endurance into a winter station. All hands on duty during the day, all slept at night except for the night watchman. They made ice houses or "dogloos" for the dogs (one of which had recently had puppies) out of blocks of ice. The dogs were certainly glad to leave the ship and have the run of the ice floes. Seals were hunted and provided fuel as well as food for man and dog. Hockey and soccer on the ice were the chief forms of entertainment, and both were enjoyed by all. Really, it wasn't that unpleasant a situation, things could have been much worse.  Still, Shackleton had to be regretting he did not land at Glacier Bay in Coats' Land, the perfect sheltered bay he had described in January.

Wringing the Last Drops of Innocence from the World

   "Never such innocence,

Never before or since,

As changed itself to past

Without a word – the men

Leaving the gardens tidy,

The thousands of marriages,

Lasting a little while longer:

Never such innocence again."

MCMXIV by Philip Larkin

Casual historians today tell the story of the First World War as if Bang! The Archduke gets shot, and Bam! everyone started shooting each other.  In reality, the whole thing was far more complicated. For a while after Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, the Crisis of 1914 was seen as just a small dispute between Austria and Serbia.  A local problem best left to the two participants to sort out between them. Then, when it looked like there really would be a huge war, everyone stood around for a while deciding whether or not they really should start the whole thing or just talk each other out of it.
   Local crises like the murder of the Archduke had happened before, for example European quarrels over who owned what in Africa, or the Balkan Wars of 1912-13.  These had mostly been settled by a few shots fired and some diplomacy, but they had touched only matters of national interest.  The death of Franz Ferdinand was a matter of national pride.
    Austria was the weakest of the European powers, and was therefore also the most sensitive. A very multicultural, multi-religious, multi-ethnic territory, Austria-Hungary lived in fear of ethnic subversion. When the heir to the throne was killed by a member of the most subversive minority, it was too much for Austrian sensibilities. An investigation revealed that the terrorists were Austrian subjects, but they had been armed in Serbia and the smuggled across the Austria/Serbia border by Serbian nationalists. This national organization was the Narodna Odbranda (National Defence) which had been set up in 1908 to work against the incorporation of Serbia into the Austrian Empire. Narodna shared members with another nationalist organization,"Union or Death" better known as The Black Hand. They wanted to unite Serbia, it was actually from The Black Hand where there terrorists had come.  This secret society was under the control of an individual code named "Apis" who was the commander of the Serbian Army's General staff.  No one is still quite sure how much the Serbian government knew about the plot.  However much they knew, it was enough to confirm to Austria that Serbia was nothing but trouble and was best punished for their crime.
    The Serbs were Orthodox Christians, which made them a religious as well as ethnic minority. Their religion, however, made them the darling of Russia.  Austria knew this, and to were hesitant to take action against Serbia. Russia aside, Serbia was not well-liked among most of Europe.  In 1903, the Serbs had killed their king and queen and then thrown their bodies out a window and hacked them to bits with swords.  This shocked the rest of Europe, even sympathetic Russians and Bulgarians, and no one was really keen on defending people that did this to their sovereigns.
   The assassins confessed to Serbian complicity in the crime on July 2. Austria had long wanted to get Serbia out of their hair and this was a perfect excuse. Austria made its position clear a mere six days after the assassination, but would not dare to act if they could not count on backing from Germany. This was a mistake on Austria's part.  Everyone else, even Russia, wasn't all that interested in Serbia. If Austria had struck immediately, without waiting to see if Germany would help them, the rest of Europe might have let Austria do what it wished with Serbia and passed it off as a local problem.
    Over lunch on July 5, Kaiser Wilhelm II told the Austrian Minister, Count Berchtold, Austria would have Germany's support. The German Foreign Office was informed the next day that Britain would not get involved in a Balkan crisis, nor would Russia and France. Satisfied, the Kaiser departed on the imperial yacht, the Hohenzollern, for his annual cruise to the Norwegian fjords. Before he left, the Kaiser insisted on one thing, Austria needed to come to a firm decision on waht it wanted to do. Austrians were known for what Germany referred to as Schlamperei, a mix of prevarication and procrastination which often irritated  Germans to no end.  Kaiser Wilhelm feared the same was about to happen this time. Oddly enough, in the first weeks of July the roles were reversed; Austria wanted action, Germany went on holiday.
    Tuesday, July 7 was ten days after the assassination when the Imperial Counsel of Ministers finally met. Count Berchtold wanted to go to war, The Hungarian Prime Minister, Tisza, insisted that a list of demands be sent to Serbia first. If they rejected the terms, then they would be sent an ultimatum that led to war. They argued over this for a while, and then turned it over to the Emperor. Franz Josef agreed that Serbia should be given terms first, to Berchtold's dismay.  By July 14th, Berchtold and Tisza drafted the terms and set the date for the terms to be approved. The date chosen was July 19, twenty days after the assassination. Even worse, the note would not be delivered to Serbia for at least another week.  Why? Because the President of France was going on a state visit to Russia and Austria/Germany did not want their note going out when two potential allies to Serbia would be in close contact with one another. With France and Russia together when the terms were sent to Serbia, it would lessen the chance conflict with Serbia remaining a local problem, and make it more likely that France and Russia would come to Serbia's defence.
       The French president was scheduled to leave Russia on Thursday, July 23rd. Austria's terms would be sent to Serbia on the same day and would expire at 6 o'clock in the evening (local time) of the 25th. In short, the terms imposed the arrest, interrogation, and punishment of Serbian officials implicated in the assassination.  They also insisted Austro-Hungarian officials should take part in the process on Serbian soil.  Translation: Austria-Hungary did not trust Serbia to handle the crime itself.
   Twenty-five days since the assassination had passed, and the Serbian Prime Minister, Nicholas Pasic, was warned the note from Austria with terms was on its way. Despite this, he left  Belgrade for the country. During the night he had a change of heart and returned to the city, and met with his ministers the next morning. France, Britain, Germany and Russia had by this time all received copies of the note, although France was currently in the hands of a deputy since the president and foreign minister were at sea. Meanwhile in Belgrade, the British minister was ill, the Russian minister had just died and was yet to be replaced, the French minister had a nervous breakdown and his replacement had just arrived. Messages from London and Paris urged Serbia to accept as many of the terms as they could, but the Serbians were still deciding. With Serbia humiliated and everyone else mostly just standing around not knowing what to do, the murder of the Archduke was still a matter between Austria and Serbia and not really any other country. The British Foreign Minister, Sir Edward Grey, left London for a weekend of fishing.  At this point I am beginning to wonder how this war got started at all.  We're deciding on whether or not we should end civilization as we know it and everyone goes on holiday!  Although, there is something to be said for prolonging the inevitable, and wringing those last drops of innocence from the world.
   Serbia was still considering the terms from Austria when word reached them the mood in the Tsar's country palace was very pro-Serbian.  This emboldened Serbia to reject the most important of Austria's terms, that Austria would take part in the investigation of the assassination. Tsar Nicholas, meanwhile, announced a  "Period Preparatory to War", where Russia would think about thinking about mobilization.  At this, Serbia began mobilizing its small army, and Russia recalled the youngest reservists from its western districts.  Aside from this, for two days not much else happened. Germany warned Russia that if it fully mobilized, it would cause Germany to mobilize its army which would mean war. Britain and France began working to restrain Russia, which seemed to work, Russia moderated its position and so did Germany.  For an instant it looked like this crisis could be negotiated away like so many before.

Kalimegdan or Belgrade Fort

    If only, if only! Few realized what a flash point the mobilization of Russia was until after the fact. While Britain and France were trying to talk Russia down, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia Tuesday July 28, officially beginning the War to End All Wars and start a hundred others. Austria began bombing Belgrade the next day. Horrible as that sounds, the attack was really just a pinprick. The fort that was shelled, Kalimegdan, an old Turkish fort at the meeting of the Danube and Sava Rivers, still stands to this day. Also on the 29th, Russia began partial mobilization. That afternoon, Kaiser Wilhelm telegraphed his cousin, Tsar Nicholas, and asked him to smooth over difficulties between Austria and Serbia,  Nicholas replied "It would be right to give over the Austro-Servian problem to the Hague conference." The international court that Nicholas himself had invented to handle such crises which no one seemed to want to be a member of. Wilhelm telegraphed back asking Russia to remain a spectator,  Nicholas had a change of heart and recalled the mobilization orders that evening. The Tsar, on holiday along with everyone else it seems, was at his summer residence. He was being badgered by his cabinet about what might happen if they didn't mobilize,  Finally giving in, Tsar Nicholas gave the order for the first day of mobilization to be July 31, thirty-four days since the Archduke had been murdered.
   The next day saw Germany's mobilization, while France fell into despair when Britain still refused to get involved. Britain was disconnected from the rest of Europe, both geographically and in ties of diplomacy, and she still believed that the primary offending parties could be talked out of their current positions.  August 2 saw Germany deliver an ultimatum to Belgium, which would expire in 24 hours. This was the causus belli for Britain, they told Germany to stand down or else. The Germans refused, so at midnight on August 4, Britain and France collectively declared war on Germany. Austria managed to delay its declaration of war on Russia until the next day, August 5 and was still not at war with Britain and France a week later.  The two Allies made up dithering Austria's mind for it by declaring war on Austria August 12th. Italy, meanwhile, would remain neutral for the time being and Serbia, the cause of all this woe? War would not come to their country for another 14 months.
    Modern forms of communication overload those who use them.  Valuable information is lost as we try to separate what is vital from what is not, and drown in the onslaught. In 1914, everyone was plague by the opposite problem "underload." Information about who was doing what trickled in slowly, if at all, and was usually incomplete. No one had any idea what everyone else was up to, nor could they get advice from anyone else on how to respond.  (It probably would have helped some if most of the main decision-makers hadn't all gone on holiday at once.) In the dreadful in-between, the gaps of information that had to be filled in, everyone deliberated, thought, acted and then rescinded, and finally just made the choice and prayed it was the right one.

Ad Infernum: The Edge of Civilization

    To talk about the bottom of the universe

the way it truly is, is no child's play,

no task for tongues that gurgle baby-talk. ...

...In the depths of Austria's wintertime, the Danube 

never in all its course showed ice so thick, 

nor did the Don beneath its frigid sky,

as this crust here; for if Mount Tambernic

or Pietrapana would crash down upon it,

not even at its edges would a crack creak.

~Dante, The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Canto XXXII

 As mentioned previously, Shackleton had volunteered all the men and supplies of his Trans-Antarctic Expedition, without consulting his donors, to the war effort as soon as Britain declared war on Germany. He was thanked but told they were not needed since the war would likely be over in a few months. So Endurance set sail from Plymouth on August 8, 1914 heading for Buenos Aires. Shackleton had been detained by expedition business, so he did not depart on the ship. He took a faster ship to Buenos Aires and met with the rest of the crew there.I do not know what day Endurance reached Buenos Aires, Shackleton does not mention it in any of his published writings. Perhaps, because he arrived separately, no one bothered to mark it. The voyage from Plymouth to Argentina would probably take about two months.  They departed Buenos Aires on October 26 and came to Grytviken, the whaling station at South Georgia, on November 5.     South Georgia is the largest and northernmost of a chain of islands known as South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.  It was then and still is a British Overseas Territory. Britain had claimed South Georgia since 1775 but had only taken over the South Sandwich Islands in 1908, six years prior.  Back in 1914 they were known as the Falkland Islands Dependencies. Grytviken was the main settlement there, a whaling station (where whales were brought for processing after being killed by whaling ships) and literally the end of civilization. Past Grytviken there was nothing, no towns, no radio, no telegraphs, no people. Today there are a few research stations in Antarctica so one is never very far from at least other humans, but Shackleton and Company were completely on their own.   The whalers at Grytviken had warned Shackleton about ice around the South Sandwich group, they had seen ice come all the way up to the island chain even in summer (which it was now), and said the best time to get into the Weddell Sea was probably late February or early March.  The Weddell Sea is the large bay facing the South America side of Antarctica. (I would say the North/West/or East side, but at the bottom of the world, there is really only one direction to go, North.

South Georgia, taken by Frank Hurley

    The ship departed Grytviken on December 5, 1914. They had hoped a steamer would arrive at the station to bring mail and news of the war before they had left, but they tarried long enough and had to leave while the ice pack was at least barely passable. A year and a half later they would learn that the steamer Harpoon had arrived with mail just two hours after Endurance departed. Passing through the South Sandwich islands on the 7th of December, they met their first ice at 57°26’ south latitude. Many icebergs, tabular in shape and yellow with diatoms, were seen west of the islands.  Two hours later, the ship encountered its first band of heavy pack ice. Although the whalers had said ice came as far north as the southern end of the islands, Shackleton was had not expected to see it this soon.
    Why was there ice this far north? Even today, when Antarctica is supposedly warmer, pack ice comes as far north as the Southern Sandwich Islands in winter.  Also, 1914 was a mere 64 years after the approximate end of the Little Ice Age, and the climate was still coming out of that. Only two years prior had benen the great maritime tragedy when Titanic struck a berg in the opposing hemisphere in a place were ice is now less common.  Titanic herself was only a few miles from pack ice in the north Atlantic when she struck the berg that was her undoing. Indeed, there is a theory that the Great Ship did not hit an iceberg but pack ice.  If pack ice was that far south in 1912, then it is no surprise that it was that far north of the South Pole in late spring two years later.
  Thus began the process that would become routine most of the way south.  Sail or steam through leads in the ice as they found them, break through the ice when there were no leads, or when the wind was driving the ice floes so close together they were impassible, shut off the engine and wait.  During colder weather, water that was exposed between floes would soon freeze over in a matter of hours after putting off "frost smoke". Often, they would have to break through the ice by driving the ship against a floe at half speed, stopping the engines just before impact. The ship would then ram into the ice and cut a V-shape into the floe, and often the impact caused the ship's bow to rise nearly out of the water and roll slightly. After ensuring loose bits of ice would not hit the propeller, they then reversed the engines and drove the ship back 200 to 300 yards. They would then drive the ship forward and hit the V in the center. This would be repeated until, usually on the fourth attempt, the ice split and they could sail through. Sailing through these ice floes required muscle as well as nerves. One day, while navigating and breaking through the ice, there was a great nose aft. Leonard Hussey, meteorologist, was at the wheel and explained "The wheel spun round and threw me over the top if it!" This was no pleasure cruise.
       It wasn't all monotonous ice-splitting, though. There were sled dogs to train and give names to like Rugby, Upton, Saint, Caruso, and Slobbers. Shackleton and Company did a good deal of whale, penguin and seal spotting, as often as not they would hunt the animals as well. This was not so much for sport as to add to their food supply. Then of course there was fun to be had at the scientists' expense. One of the standing jokes on the ship was that the Adelie Penguins they saw quite often all knew biologist Robert Clark, and when he was at the wheel would run alongside the ship squawking "Clark! Clark!" and seemed to be disappointed that he never answered. Some of the men would later put a few strands of spaghetti in a jar and present it to Clark as some new Antarctic worm they had found.  At one point while trying to run through some ice, the captain had the semaphore hard-a-port, but the ship would not port. The captain shouted to the scientist who happened to be manning the wheel "Why in Paradise don't you Port!" The indignant reply came "I am blowing my nose!" Ah, scientists. Even they were required to steer the ship through the ice floes.
    The penguins, in addition to acquainting themselves with Clark, also seemed to have a taste for music. One afternoon, Hussey was playing the banjo on deck and three Adelie penguins approached the ship. They apparently very much appreciated "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" but, according to Shackleton, "they fled in horror when Hussey treated them to a little of the music that comes from Scotland." The roars of laughter from the crew dismayed the little birds even more, and they ran off as fast as their short legs would go.
      Christmas Day 1914 found Endurance stuck in heavy ice floes from midnight to 6:00 a.m. then the ice opened and they made progress until about 11:30 a.m., when the ice closed in again. During the early part of the night, they had good leads and easily broken ice.  They made more progress that day then the had and of the prior two weeks.   On the other side of the world, Germans and British soldiers on the front lines were calling a temporary truce for Christmas.  They would get back to killing each other the next day. Meanwhile,  the crew of the Endurance had grog at midnight for all on deck, and grog again breakfast for those who had been asleep at midnight. Thomas Orde-Lees, the storekeeper and motor expert, had decorated the wardroom with flags and had a little present for each of them. Later came a dinner of turtle soup, whitebait, jugged hare, Christmas pudding, mince pies, dates, figs, and crystallized fruit, with rum and stout.
  New Year's Day, 1915 came, and since the ship had entered pack ice in December, they had made 480 miles through the ice. Shackleton reckoned the total steaming distance to be 700 miles. So 220 miles had been spent sailing along and around ice finding a way through to open water. They had made good progress considering the ice and the winds that had barred their crossing. But winter was quickly on it's way, and they were still not within sight of land.
 

Colorized photograph of Endurance in full sail