The ballast made the interior of the Caird very cramped and uncomfortable, the men lying directly on the stones. On top of this the reindeer fur sleeping bags began to rot and molt so everything and everyone from the food to the men to the drinking water became covered in reindeer hairs. It must have been an especially unpleasant place to be. The only means of disposing of water was to stick a brass pump through the ballast and suck the water into the cooking pot to bin it over board, I can’t imagine the hairs helped this process and the pump would have choked frequently.
Given the ferocity of the winds in the southern ocean, it is most likely that if they were forced to take to the boats, they would be running before a large sea. Now Worsley was an experienced sailor and handler of boats but when the time came to load the modified Caird with stone ballast on Elephant Island, he and Shackleton disagreed about the amount that was required:
Seb:
The Caird was heavily laden with approximately 1016 kilos of stone ballast, far more than Worsley wished to carry. Shackleton had a bit of a falling out with Worsley over this because he (Sir Ernest) believe more ballast would keep the boat stable and upright. Worsley believed that less ballast would be better, in turn making the boat lighter and they would have arrived at South Georgia a few days earlier. The additional weight meant the boat moved slower and shipped in more sea, especially when pooped!
My research suggests Shackleton was right on the money, in fact the ballast calculation done by Shackleton on the back of a fag packet were only 40 kilos off when compared to computer models.
The effect of carrying more ballast (aside from lowering the centre of gravity and making the boat more stable) reduced the danger of a following sea turning the boat over. A lightweight boat (either a whaler or a cutter) could be carried in-front of wave and turned sideways if not properly laden, the result being immediately fatal!! A boats only chance at surviving the crest of a large wave, is to row with as much speed against the waves (in effect slowing it down as the sea rushes by). The James Caird was unfortunately fully decked over and sailing down wind most of the time so rowing on the high seas was out of the question (not to mention suicidal).
In a normal boat the effect of each passing wave would be to lift the stern and depress the bow, the boat would speed up as it rushes down the front of the wave and then it would most likely go end-over-end. Now, this is the clever bit...if you have sufficient inertia travelling through the sea (proportional to the weight) every successive passing wave will pass the sharp end of the double-ended stern by applying almost minimal force on her submerged surface area. The right amount of weight (positioned towards the stern of the boat, but not at her extreme end) will allow the boat to descend momentarily in-front of the wave, her bow almost horizontal as the wave peaks, then she would ascend the wave as it rushes by. Once the wave passes, the boat will actually be pointing back-up the wave which just passed.
If you don't have enough inertia to allow a wave to pass, the stern will be raised high in the air and the boat will be carried in-front of the wave with dangerous velocity. The bow will then be driven underwater in the hollow of the sea; if there is no reserve buoyancy forward, the bow would fill with water and actually stop the boat dead. The sea will continue to press the stern over (especially bad for a transom ended boat) and force her underwater end-over-end. The Caird wasn't perfect (by any means in this regard) but she was better than a square ended boat in terms of handling. Her disadvantage came as a result of her decked over bow (assumed to be the safest part of the boat...and the most buoyant), if the same wave action happened, the buoyancy resistance at the bow would be transferred aft forcing the boat to spin sideways and the sea would then capsize her.
Without going into too much technical stuff her...the double ended whaler design was far safer for a whole variety of handling reasons...and Worsley may have been very aware of this. The minute you begin to look at capsize vulnerability in small boats you soon realise, any boat can sink...the sea doesn't care.
Some people say that it is possible to avoid being turned end-over-end by a following sea if you surf down the front of a wave...this immediately sets off alarm bells in my mind because it assumes you have good steerage! If you are moving at the same speed as the wave, then the rudder will have no effect on the boat. Its a bit too risky for me! In order to surf , you have to be travelling faster than the wave itself in order to steer and if you get caught at the bottom by a breaking wave, you are toast.
Shackleton & Worsley had a heated argument about how much ballast should be carried.
The James Caird, displayed on the roof of Selfridges Department Store, London
Right: The hut on Cape Wild, Elephant Island. constructed from the two cutters, Dudley Docker and Stancombe Wills. The men, under the command of Frank Wild, waited for 4 months for Shackleton to return. Not knowing if they had made it. Wild was on the verge of taking the Docker on a desperate attempt to summon help when Shackleton returned in the Yelcho, on his 3rd attempt to reach the men.
51.