As you might remember Lawrence Oates, despite being born in a rich, upper-class family, therefore a gentleman by birth, was not a typical English gentleman, not exactly fiittng to his class with his behaviour, views or fashion sense. I already wrote a bit about his adventures with sewing (the sack-cloth balaclava, the chest pockets on the woolen jacket and probably the famous DIY canvas pants) , which was not exactly a typical skill for someone of Oates's social strata and profession, I mean even a second lieutenant in the army had two servants tending to his needs, so he did not need to learn how to operate a needle.
Today, dear ladies, gentlemen and scientists, we will focus on another atypical set off skills Soldier had, the carpentry. The carpentry was not exactly an often seen hobby among the upper class in Edwardian society, it was more like something a lower class man, or na aristocrat with such position and family history he could afford any excentricities he fancied without any harm to his reputation, might do. Oateses were not that high in the society though, despite being an old family, Domesday Book and all that jazz. There was no single aristocrat, not even a baronet, on Titus's genealogical tree for all I know, and families from this layer of the social piramid were usually behaving more aristocratic than actual aristocrats.
After that overly long introduction, displaying Titus's hobbies on the background of his social strata, let's get to the carpentry itself. Soldier, sent initially to help with renovating Terra Nova in the West India Docks, made such an impression on the crew with his skills, that Teddy Evans begged Smith to leave Titus at this task, not sending him anywhere else. This way Laurie landed the position of carpenter's mate onboard the Terra Nova and there is absolutely no evidence that the ship's carpenter, Francis Davies, ever complained on his skills.
First construction he made on his own I know about were the horse stalls on Terra Nova, built during the stay in New Zealand. That's where the ponies, bought by Meares in Vladivostok got transported to after a long journey that killed not only two ponies, but also any relations between Meares and Scott's brother in law, Wilfrid Bruce, who was supposed to help, but was pretty useless avoiding any dirty job. Let's get back to my Soldier and his carpentry adventures though. Lo and behold, the stalls:
You can see, that the planks are quite smooth and straight, what is supposed to be vertical is vertical, what should be horizontal is horizontal and everything fits together neatly. Overall it is a good, solid carpentry work, done by someone who had, I think, more than elementary knowledge with it. The crescent shaped indentations were made by the horses, as a number of ponies had a bad habit named windsucking. A windsucker hooks his teeth on the edge of the trough, or the stall board, extends the neck and swallows the air. It wears the teeth a lot and can cause neck muscle issues, the cause is usually boredom. Many bored horses humour themselves also with chewing on whatever they have in their reach, leaving marks like that.
Building the stalls was not an easy task, due to the fact they were on a ship, they had to have a certain size, They had to be wide enough to accommodate the ponies, of course, yet tight enough so the ponies wouldn't be tossed around with every stronger movement of the ship. They gave Soldier a lot of anxiety, as the letter he wrote to his mother from New Zealand and quoted by Bernacchi in his shitty bio of Titus (to be honest Laurie has only shitty bios though), attests.
A you can see Titus was not as imperturbable and calm as he is usually depicted, here he anxieties the living crap out of himself in such a style that I, a seasoned anxiety pro can give him the highest note for his performance. The stalls were all right, ponies fitted in them perfectly and getting them out was not much of a problem.
That's how they were unloaded in Antarctic. Man in the white hat on the right is Rennick, the one in the dark clothes and the one next to the pony are unrecognisable to me. If someone can recognize them, please, chime in. If you look directly above the pony unloading device, you will see a man in white shirt and black woolen hat. That's Titus.
And here we have the stables at thee hut on Cape Evans, built by Titus himself (visible on the left). Also a good quality carpentry in my honest opinion, so it begs the questions: where did this man learn the carpentry? From whom? Who taught him? As for what pushed the rich young man from the idle caste to learn that, well I think there are two things at play here. First, he simple liked to work with his hands. Second, I get a strong impression that he hated to be helpless and dependent on others, that's why he learned how to do things on his own. In one thing I do agree with Bill Wilson: there is more in Titus than meets the eye.
