Manhauling or man-hauling is the pulling forward of
sledge
A sled, skid, sledge, or sleigh is a land vehicle that slides across a surface, usually of ice or snow. It is built with either a smooth underside or a separate body supported by two or more smooth, relatively narrow, longitudinal runners s ...
s, trucks or other load-carrying vehicles by
human power
Human power is work or energy that is produced from the human body. It can also refer to the power (rate of work per time) of a human. Power comes primarily from muscles, but body heat is also used to do work like warming shelters, food, or other ...
unaided by animals (e.g.
huskies
Husky is a general term for a dog used in the polar regions, primarily and specifically for work as sled dogs. It refers to a traditional northern type, notable for its cold-weather tolerance and overall hardiness. Modern racing huskies that mai ...
) or machines. The term is used primarily in connection with travel over snow and ice, and was common during
Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
and
Antarctic
The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...
expeditions before the days of modern motorised traction.
In the years following the end of the
Napoleonic wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
the British
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
took up polar/cold climate exploration as its chief peacetime activity. Due to its simplicity, manhauling was adopted by the early British naval expeditions, where it quickly became the preferred even the 'traditional' technique. In time it would be hailed as inherently more noble than the sole use of dogs as practised by the native
Arctic-dwelling peoples. The technique's chief advocate was
Sir Clements Markham
Sir Clements Robert Markham (20 July 1830 – 30 January 1916) was an English geographer, explorer and writer. He was secretary of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) between 1863 and 1888, and later served as the Society's president fo ...
, President of the
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
during the latter part of the 19th century. A figure of considerable influence, he brought his prejudices to bear on the series of great British Antarctic ventures during the
Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration
The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration was an era in the exploration of the continent of Antarctica which began at the end of the 19th century, and ended after the First World War; the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–1922 is often cit ...
, in all of which manhauling was predominant.
Many later writers would condemn manhauling, particularly with heavily loaded sledges, as inefficient and wasteful, citing it as a direct cause of the great Antarctic tragedy of 1910–12 – the deaths of
Captain Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, , (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–1904 and the ill-fated ''Terra Nov ...
and his four companions as they man-hauled their way across the
Ross Ice Shelf
The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (, an area of roughly and about across: about the size of France). It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than long, and between hi ...
on their return from the
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...
, while their rival
Amundsen
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen began ...
had beaten them to the Pole using dogs, and returned safely.
Historical perspective
Naval tradition
Long before the nations of Europe and America became fascinated with polar exploration, the native populations of Northern
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
,
Lapland and
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
had trained dogs to draw sledges. Attempts by the early polar explorers to adopt these techniques were rarely successful – the handling of “Eskimo” dogs was recognised as a specialized art. This led to the use of manhauling as a simpler alternative, when the Royal Navy began its long association with polar exploration. The first example of manhauling on a naval Arctic expedition was the journey by
William Edward Parry
Sir William Edward Parry (19 December 1790 – 8 July 1855) was an Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for his 1819–1820 expedition through the Parry Channel, probably the most successful in the long quest for the Northwest Pass ...
across
Melville Island in 1820, when he and his party dragged of equipment on a two-wheeled cart. Thereafter man-hauling began to be seen as a natural, even a 'nobler' alternative to the use of dogs.
Francis Leopold McClintock
Sir Francis Leopold McClintock (8 July 1819 – 17 November 1907) was an Irish explorer in the British Royal Navy, known for his discoveries in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. He confirmed explorer John Rae's controversial report gather ...
earned the title of "Father of Arctic Sledging" for his feats of manhauling travel during
one of the many expeditions despatched to search for the missing
Franklin expedition
Franklin's lost expedition was a failed British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain (Royal Navy), Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845 aboard two ships, and , and was assigned to traverse the last unnavigated sect ...
. Among McClintock's admirers on that expedition was a 21-year-old midshipman,
Clements Markham
Sir Clements Robert Markham (20 July 1830 – 30 January 1916) was an English geographer, explorer and writer. He was secretary of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) between 1863 and 1888, and later served as the Society's president for ...
.
Markham’s obsession
Based on his experiences with McClintock and his love for naval traditions, Markham, future President of the
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
, became a fervent believer in the principle that manhauling was the purest form of polar travel. Markham became the driving force behind British Antarctic exploration endeavours in the early 20th century, and was the mentor of
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, , (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–1904 and the ill-fated ''Terra Nov ...
, to whom his thinking and drive were transferred. After his unhappy experiences with dogs in the Antarctic on the
''Discovery'' Expedition, 1901–04 Scott wrote, in his account of the expedition: "In my mind no journey ever made with dogs can approach the height of that fine conception which is realised when a party of men go forth to face hardships, dangers, and difficulties with their own unaided efforts
Surely in this case the conquest is more nobly and splendidly won."
Scott and Shackleton
An aversion to the use of dogs pervaded all the British expeditions during the
Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration
The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration was an era in the exploration of the continent of Antarctica which began at the end of the 19th century, and ended after the First World War; the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–1922 is often cit ...
(including those led by
Ernest Shackleton
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of ...
). This was baffling to the great Norwegian explorers
Fridtjof Nansen
Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (; 10 October 186113 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian. He led the team t ...
and
Roald Amundsen
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen bega ...
. To them manhauling was "futile toil", to be avoided at all costs.
Edward Wilson, however, on the fatal southern journey during Scott's 1910–1913
''Terra Nova'' Expedition expressed a profound relief, as the pole-bound party began its ascent of the
Beardmore Glacier
The Beardmore Glacier in Antarctica is one of the largest valley glaciers in the world, being long and having a width of . It descends about from the Antarctic Plateau to the Ross Ice Shelf and is bordered by the Commonwealth Range of the Queen ...
after the last of the ponies had been shot: "Thank God the horses are now done with, and we begin the heavier work ourselves", he wrote. His companion
Lawrence Oates
Lawrence Edward Grace "Titus" Oates (17 March 188017 March 1912) was a British army officer, and later an Antarctic explorer, who died from hypothermia thought differently but kept his counsel. Later, when the Pole had been attained and Amundsen's prior arrival discovered, Oates privately castigated “our wretched manhauling” as a cause of his party's defeat.
Some conclusions
Some chroniclers have suggested that excessive reliance on manhauling may have cost the lives of Scott's polar party. Each man pulling a sledge was burning around 6,000 calories a day, and consuming rations producing only 4,500 calories. Max Jones concludes that they were slowly starving to death. Much earlier, an expedition account by James Gordon Hayes had highlighted two principal causes of Scott's disaster: dietary deficiencies and the decision to rely on men instead of dogs. In 1997, in another history of the expedition, Michael de-la-Noy concludes: “…the whole expedition had been founded upon a blind and very British belief in the moral superiority of human muscle power…Scott thought it more manly for men to haul the sledges themselves. Five of them died as a result”.
[Quoted from de-la-Hoy’s book Scott of the Antarctic (1997) by Jones, p. 118]
Notes and references
Sources
* Berton, Pierre: ''The Arctic Grail: The Quest for the Northwest Passage and the North Pole, 1818-1909'' Viking Penguin Inc. New York, 1988
*
Huntford, Roland: ''The Last Place On Earth'' Pan Books Ltd London, 1985
* Jones, Max: ''The Last Great Quest'' OUP Oxford, 2003
* Preston, Diana: ''A First Rate Tragedy'' Constable Co Ltd London, 1997 {{ISBN, 0094795304
*
Scott, Robert F.: ''The Voyage of the Discovery'' Smith, Elder & Co London, 1905
External links
SnowSled - British Polar Equipment Supplier
Winter sports
Exploration
Human power