Manhauling , sometimes declared as man-hauling : is pulling forwards sled, truck or other load carrier by human strength not aided by animals or machines. The term is used primarily in connection with travel on snow and ice, and is common during Arctic and Antarctic expeditions before modern motorized traction days.
In the years following the end of the Napoleonic wars, the Royal Navy conducted a polar/cold climate exploration as a prime activity in peacetime. Due to its simplicity, manhauling was adopted by early British naval expeditions, which quickly became a preferred even of 'traditional' techniques. In time it will be regarded as more noble than just using dogs as practiced by the Arctic indigenous people. The main advocate of this technique was Sir Clements Markham, President of the Royal Geographical Society during the later part of the 19th century. As an influential figure, he brings his prejudices to bear a series of great British Antarctic efforts during the Antarctic Age Heroic Age, where all manhauling is dominant.
Many writers would later condemn manhauling, especially with the loaded sled, inefficient and extravagant, citing it as the direct cause of the great tragedy of Antarctica 1910-12 - the death of Captain Scott and his four companions as they transported their way across the Ross Ice Shelf as they back from the South Pole.
Video Manhauling
Historical perspective
Long before Europeans and Americans became fascinated with polar exploration, the natives of Northern Canada, Greenland, Lapland and Siberia had trained dogs to draw sleds. Attempts by early pole explorers to adopt these techniques rarely succeed - "Eskimo" dog handling is recognized as a special 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 a trip by William Edward Parry at Melville Island in 1820, when he and his party dragged 800 pounds (360 kg) of equipment on a two-wheeled train. After that human transport began to be seen as a natural alternative, even more 'noble' for dog use. Francis Leopold McClintock earned the title "Father of the Arctic Sledging" for his manhauling journey on one of the many expeditions sent to search for the lost Franklin expedition. Among McClintock's admirers on the expedition was a 21-year-old midfielder, Clements Markham
Markham's obsession
Based on his experience with McClintock and his passion for naval tradition, Markham, the future President of the Royal Geographical Society, became a person who strongly believed in the principle that manhauling is the purest form of polar travel. Markham became the driving force behind British Antarctic exploration efforts early in the 20th century, and mentor Robert Falcon Scott, to whom his thoughts and drivers were removed. After his unpleasant experience with dogs in Antarctica at the Discovery Expedition, 1901-04 Scott wrote, in his explanation of the expedition: "In my mind, no trips ever made with dogs can approach the height of the subtle conceptions realized when a party of people goes to confront difficulties, dangers, and difficulties with their own efforts without help [...] Certainly in this case the conquest is more noble and excellent win. "
Scott and Shackleton
The reluctance to use dogs permeated all British expeditions during the Antarctic Exploration Heroic Age (including those led by Ernest Shackleton), It is puzzling for Norwegian explorers Nansen and Amundsen. For them manhauling is a "futile hard work", to be avoided at all costs. Edward Wilson, however, on a fatal south journey during Scott's 1910-13 Terra Nova Expedition revealed a deep relief, as the polar tied party started up from Beardmore Glacier after the last horse was shot: "Thank God the horses are now over, and we're starting work harder on his own, "he wrote. His friend, Lawrence Oates, thinks differently but maintains his counsel. Later, when the Pole was reached and before Amundsen's arrival was discovered, Oates personally punished our "wretched celhaut" as the cause of his party's defeat.
Some conclusions
Some chroniclers have suggested that excessive reliance on manhauling may have cost the life of Scott's polar party. Everyone who pulls a sled burns about 6,000 calories a day, and consumes rations producing just 4,500 calories. Max Jones concluded that they were slowly starving to death. Long ago, an expedition account by James Gordon Hayes has highlighted two major causes of Scott's disaster: food deficiencies and decisions to rely on men, not dogs. In 1997, in another history of the expedition, Michael de-la-Noy concluded: "... the entire expedition has been built upon the blind and deeply British belief in the moral superiority of the muscle power of man... Scott thinks more manly to man. men to lift the sled itself, five of them dead as a result.
Maps Manhauling
Modern perspectives
Although no longer a matter of necessity given the availability of modern mechanical equipment, manhauling is widely practiced in the context of modern physical or sporting challenges.
Tools
Common tools include harness, sledge (with the appropriate load) and a good rope or rigid axle connecting the two. Highly breathable breath cotton jackets and pants are commonly used to avoid excessive internal water condensation. Sleds are usually filled with equipment needed to survive in extreme weather conditions such as tents, matching food rations and navigation tools.
Ideals
Similar to modern, fast, free, and light climbing equipment Alpine ideals, modern manhaul pursues trying to reach mileage on their journey where perhaps only through their own physical effort. However, most followers will accept that it is acceptable to enhance this purely mechanical and unhelpful journey by using skis or ski sticks when traveling across snow-covered terrain. In polar or extreme areas, humans are almost completely dependent on equipment, and the quality of equipment and selection is crucial - yet the whole philosophy of voluntary (or sporting) activity in modern settings is the chosen balance between 'challenge' and 'achievement'. So, as Scott himself puts it, it is acceptable that certain inconveniences must be accepted, indeed welcomed - the human condition, making it difficult to describe the glowing sense of accomplishment of the testing of physical and mental tasks.
Variations
The practice of stocking food or equipment before caching along the route, or using external help at any point, also produces a less pure final result, and ultimately less satisfactory. This all says, once again as with climbing 'moral' and 'etiquette', every individual or team will eventually find their own 'rules' that they will enjoy. Assar manhauling is where at least a small part of the motive force is provided by some other source: the most common dog strength, or by using a wind assistance screen. Polar, glacier or snow-capped land, is the most common field where manhauling occurs; although sledges or tires are often dragged across sand or rough terrain for training purposes.
Notes and references
Source
- Berton, Pierre: Antarctic Clone Viking Penguin Inc. New York, 1988 ISBNÃ, 0-670-82491-7
- Huntford, Roland: Last Places on Earth Pan Books Ltd London, 1985 ISBNÃ, 0-330-28816-4
- Jones, Max: Last Great Search OUP Oxford, 2003 ISBNÃ, 0-19-280483-9
- Preston, Diana: First Level Tragedy Constable Co Ltd London, 1997 ISBNÃ, 0-09-479530-4
- Scott, Robert F.: The Discovering voyage Smith, Elder & amp; Co London, 1905
External links
- SnowSled - British Polar Equipment Supplier
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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