My Stonington Dogs (continued)
At moments like this with the blood pumping we seemed to acquire superhuman strength and to our surprise, inside the crevasse, all the dogs were hanging in their harnesses and fighting.
Droopy was getting a beating and started to slip out of his harness, he dropped at an amazing speed, and disappeared from sight. The remaining three dogs were pulled to safety by Mike and Mick.
We were sure that Droopy killed or even worse, fatally injured. Droopy was in my team and therefore it was up to me to put Droopy out of his misery. A 300′ rope doubled was lowered into the crevasse and I abseiled down. At 80′ nothing could be seen of Droopy, there was a bulge in the wall of the crevasse and the bottom was not yet in sight.
At 140′, a small melt water ledge protruded by some 2cm on both walls, the crevasse was about 3′ wide at this point. I was sure Droopy had fallen beyond this point and was wedged some distance below. I had taken the 45 revolver with now and now had it to hand. Searching for some sight of the stricken dog in the gleem of the crevasse to my utter surprise somc 20’’ away, standing with legs astride the abyss, there he was. Somehow he had managed to get a foothold on the melt water shelf. I tried to get him to move closer to me as the rope was not long enough to allow me to move to him.
He was not for moving and no enticement would shift him from his icy stance. It seemed the dog was not hurt, the revolver was returned to the anorak picket and I inched my way towards Droopy. The rope had to be discarded and my position was fairly precarious as I inched my way over to the motionless dog. Droopy was reached and we returned to the safety of the rope end where both man and dog were made fast. Mike pulled Droopy to the surface through a jumper clamp and I jumared up the rope. Droopy was found to have a broken tail. This healed in 6 weeks and he was once again able to hold his tail high.
Neddy – King Dog at Stonington
Weighed in at 112 lbs and was the undisputed ‘King Dog’ at Stonington for 4 years or so, 1967-1971. Neddy enjoyed fighting more than anything else and although he was spanned on the steel night trace he would on occasion bite through it and cause havoc. This he did on 2 occasions that I know of.
At the camp site if he escaped during the night he would much prefer to pick a fight than to ‘visit’ a bitch on heat. One could always tell from inside the tent if it was Neddy who was ‘off’ simply by the noise made by the other dogs – nervous growls from the male dogs.
On one occasion when there were a number of teams travelling in tandem, Neddy slipped his harness and proceeded to patrol up and down the train of dog sledges deciding who he would choose to attack! A great cry of ‘Neddy’s off’ went up from the dog drivers and each man had his thumped at the ready and banged it against the sledge boxes shouting slogans like “bugger off Neddy’ etc, etc. The teams each took off at great speed and lots of noise. Neddy was finally caught when he attacked one of the teams.
One winter survey trip took the Giants to Blaiklock refuge. The dogs were picketed on the sea-ice some distance from the hut. Neddy had been unruly most of the day and he had beaten up Gimli and Droopy, and these two dogs were trying to get back at Neddy for the day, and Droopy tried to steal Neddy’s feed at the end of the day.
On checking the team the following morning I discovered that Gimli had chewed through the rope main trace during the night and both he and Droopy set about Neddy who was spanned on the trace. As I walked towards the dogs I could see Gimli and Droopy sitting just out of reach of Neddy and there was a large amount of blood-stained snow around him. I feared that he had been severely mauled by his team mates.
On inspection Neddy was found to be completely untouched but the same could not be said for his attackers. Droopy had more than half an ear bitten off and Gimli had a 3” open gash on his foreleg which took 10 stitches to close. The dogs had obviously had a stand-off for most of the night.
Summer Survey trip to Flyspot Rocks, seaward of Terra Firmas Islands
Neddy was attacked by the whole team. Leaving the camp standing on the sea ice at the Terra Firma lslands, a day trip by dog sledge was made to survey the Flyspot Rocks. The teams were picketed on the sea ice and survey equipment was carried to the top of the Island and measurements commenced. As usual the ’boys’ had been grumbling at one another for most of the journey, over with Neddy snapping at the two dogs in front everytime they stopped for a pee, and the run over had not been long enough to tire them out being just 8 miles or so.
The survey equipment was being set up when a considerable commotion was heared coming from the dogs. The Giants were fighting! At first it was been Neddy and his immediate team member, but so much excitement had been created that the front picket was soon pulled out and the whole team became a writhing ball of fur and teeth. It took me some minutes to get down from the survey station climbing over rocks and when I got there I could see that the whole team had set upon Neddy. At first he held his own but soon the other dogs had him down and I could him yelping.
Clearly the team were out to kill Neddy and end his reign of terror!! By the time I reached the Giants they were in a frenzy and the thumper had no effect. The steel shaft of an ice axe was the only thing that had an effect. I was also kicking dogs out of the way as well and wondered why this was so effective until I remembered l was still wearing crampons, complete with front points! It took half an hour to settle the team down, Neddy was still lying in the snow which was dyed red with his blood. He was a sorry sight. I stayed with the team until the survey work was completed. lt was time to return to our camp at Terra Firma lsland but Neddy refused to move even after being dragged some distance by the rest of the team The team were charly enjoying the demise of Neddy. I decided to unclip him from his trace and allow him to follow in his own time. The sea ice was in good condition and there were no problems with hime falling through leads, etc.
We arrived back at camp, spanned the dogs and made a brew. An hour had passed and as there was no sign of Neddy, I went to look for him. Through binoculars I could see him limping across the ice – but not in the direction of the camp, he appeared to be on a heading which would take him back to Stonington some 4 days travel away. I shouted to him he looked in my direction but he continued on this course. I intercepted him and brought him back to camp. Both teams shouted with derision when they saw him. That evening we worked on Neddy and it took 27 stitches to close his wounds. It took him a week before he regained status as King Dog, this at the expense of the other dogs – yet more evenings spent sewing up wounds of battle.
Neddy the Father Figure
Gawaine came to the Giants as a novice and like many young male dogs, he felt that he must chance his hand with the mature dogs in the team. Gawaine was put in the middle of the trace – not close enough to cause the front pair and leader any distraction and away from Neddy at the back. Gawaine was a real nuisance and picked fights with all those around him. I decided to put him next to Neddy to try and get some sense knocked into him. Neddy at this time was running next to a bitch – Gwen who was not a threat and seemed to quite like him. Gawaine was put with Neddy and for a day or two he behaved himself, until he took it into his head to jump Neddy one day. He literally jumped onto Neddy’s back and started to bite him about the neck. Neddy was a big dog and he threw Gawaine to the floor where he landed on his back. Neddy then stood over him, took hold of him by the throat and held him down. Gawaine struggled fiercely but Neddy held him firm. I was ready to step in and break them up but I quickly realised that Neddy was not trying to rip at Gawaine but was just holding him down, and Gawaine at least at the moment was in no danger.
I left them to it. There was of course a lot of noise going on from both the team and Gawaine ,who was still struggling to regain his feet. I then noticed a large area of blood stained snow appear. I thought Neddy had pierced Gawaine’s throat. I broke them up immediately and found that Gawaine in his attempts to escape had bitten his own tongue. Gawaine and Neddy had developed a relationship which saw them through two full years as sledging companions. Never again did Gawaine attempt to thwart Neddy and in turn Neddy left him in peace.
Mick Pawley – GA Stonington 1969 & 1970, BC Stonington 1972