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“As he looked apathetically about
him, his eyes chanced on the dog.” An illustration by Frank E. Schoonover1,
which appeared in “To Build
A Fire”, The Century Magazine, August 1908, Vol. LXXVI, No. 4, p. 531
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An excerpt from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine,
August 1908, page 525
Last
week in “Survival Tips From Jack London, Part One”, HERE, I discussed how the
unnamed main character of Jack London’s short story To Build A Fire, did
several things right during his struggle for survival in the Alaskan wilderness
and the lessons we could draw from him.
In part two of “Survival Tips From Jack London”, I am going to explore
the mistakes he made and what we can learn from them.
Just
as the main character of To Build A Fire did five things right, he also made
five mistakes during his journey to meet the “boys”, who were camped at the old
claim on the left side of Henderson Creek: two of the mistakes were more
critical than the rest. So just what did
he do wrong and what can we learn from his mistakes?
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Excerpts from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine,
August 1908, page 525 and 529
|
The
main character of To Build A Fire lacked imagination and was arrogant,
and his first and biggest mistake was his general attitude of “…it can’t
happen to me…”. As a matter of fact,
it can, and probably will happen to you, just as a series of accidents happened
to the unnamed character. It can happen
to you and you need to take steps to prepare for emergencies. Whether you are travelling through the
wilderness, or just through life, it always pays to follow the Boy Scout motto
of “Be Prepared”!
If
it does happen to you and you have a survival emergency, remember, just like
with anything, survival is 80% mental.
You have to know that survival emergencies can happen to you, and remember
boy scouts, you have to “Be Prepared”; also when the worst happens, you have to
stay calm, don’t panic; and keep a positive, can-do mental attitude.
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| Excerpts from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine, August 1908, page 529 and 530 |
His
arrogance and his belief that it couldn’t happen to him, lead him to break “…the
law that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below”. He didn’t listen to the old-timer’s advice to
always travel with a trail-mate and this was his second biggest mistake. Summer or winter, wherever and whenever you
are travelling in the wilderness, you should always have a partner, a
trail-mate or buddy with you: better yet you should always have two buddies
with you. I recently took a survival
class, taught by Craig White, a Canadian survival expert who used to train the
Canadian Military, and he emphasized that you should always be in a
three-person buddy group, (for more on the buddy-system, see “The Buddy System”, HERE.
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An excerpt from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine,
August 1908, page 529 to 530
The
unnamed main character of To Build A Fire knew how to build a fire. However, in his haste to get a fire going after
his feet got wet, either he forgot to place his fire in the open, out from
under any snow covered branches; he was lazy or careless; or maybe he just never
imagined that the snow on the branches could avalanche down onto him and his
fire: probably it was a combination of all three.
 |
An excerpt from Arctic Survival
Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor, page 66
Never
build your fire under snow covered boughs, always build it out in the
open. If you need a wind break, look for
an open spot in the lee of a thicket or stand of trees, as Alan Innes-Taylor
explains in the excerpt from Arctic Survival below:
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| An excerpt from Arctic Survival Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor, page 63 |
Obviously
in the winter it is important not to build your fire under a tree, but it is
just important not to build your fire under a tree in the summer as well. Shrubs, overhanging branches, trees and
sparks from a campfire, these things do not go together and no one wants to be
that guy, you know the one who is responsible for starting a forest fire!
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Excerpts from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine,
August 1908, page 526
The
unnamed main character of To Build A Fire thought that it was 50oF
below zero (-45oC), when it was actually 75oF below zero
(-59oC). He simply couldn’t
imagine just how cold and dangerous 75oF
below zero (-59oC) truly was.
 |
An excerpt from Arctic Survival
Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor, page 76
When you are in the wilderness, your clothes are your primary shelter from the elements, and you should always dress for the worst possible weather. This is something that the main character of To Build A Fire did not do. And while our unnamed main character was dressed warmly, wearing thick socks, warm moccasins, mittens, a jacket and a hat with ear flaps, he simply wasn’t dressed warm enough for the conditions. Also, because he didn’t wear a parka with a hood or a scarf over his nose and cheeks, he was at risk of freezing his face.
Winter
or summer, you should always dress for the worst possible conditions and bring
extra warm clothes. In the summer this
would mean an insulating layer and a windproof and waterproof outer layer. In the winter you would want to dress in
multiple layers, so that you can put on or take off layers as you warm up or
cool off. Your outer layer in the
winter, just like in the summer should be windproof and waterproof. Always take off layers as you get too warm
and before you begin to sweat, damp clothes can kill you in a wilderness
emergency. You should always try to be
comfortably cold, no sweating!
 |
An excerpt from Arctic Survival
Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor, page 77
Also, you should always have a hat. In the summer a wide-brimmed, waterproof hat that will protect you from the sun, rain and bugs is a must. In the winter a knit cap or hood and a windproof and waterproof outer layer for your head is a must, as you can lose a great deal of heat from your bare head: it can be as much as 50% at 40oF (10oC) and 75% at 5oF (-15oC).
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An Excerpt from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine,
August 1908, page 529
In addition, the only way the unnamed main character could stay warm, without a fire, was by walking at a four mile an hour pace (6.4 km per hour), as soon as he stopped, his feet and hands began to grow numb from the cold. During winter journeys you should always bring extra warm clothes to put on when you stop for a meal or to rest, something that the main character did not do
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Excerpts from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine,
August 1908, page 526 to 529
The unnamed main character of To Build A Fire was going to thaw his frostbitten feet by rubbing them with snow before warming them at the fire, he also struck his frostbitten fingers against his leg or chest to get the blood circulating again and he constantly rubbed his frozen nose and cheeks: in 1898 these practices were considered medically sound. In fact, rubbing frostbitten areas with snow was considered by experts to be medically sound until 1956, when H. T. Merryman proved that is was harmful and that rapid rewarming was more beneficial. So, with the medical understanding that existed at the time, he wasn’t doing anything wrong; however, with today’s medical knowledge we would consider it to be a mistake. Today we know that by rubbing a frozen spot roughly with your hands or with snow or stomping or banging frozen hands or feet, you damage the already damaged body parts. The most important thing to remember with frostbitten or frozen body parts, is not thaw them until you can be sure that they won’t be frozen again. While the initial freezing damages the tissues, re-freezing, after thawing, does a great deal more damage. Also, rewarming frozen parts in front of a fire or by submerging them in hot water, can burn the frozen areas, because the circulation is impaired and excess heat can not be carried off. Since field rewarming techniques to treat frostbite have changed very little since the 1950’s, and in keeping with the other 1950’s era arctic survival tips in this article, I have included some great tips from Arctic Survival: The Air Ministry Pamphlet 226, circa 1950, below.
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Excerpts from Arctic Survival: Air
Ministry Pamphlet 226, pages 51-53
|
In
the end as the weather conditions and all his prior mistakes caught up with
him, the unnamed main character of To Build A Fire, panicked and ran
down the trail, before falling and collapsing in the snow. In the end he accepted his fate, sat down and
froze to death.
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An excerpt from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine,
August 1908, page 534
Jack
London, the story’s author, clearly understood the Five Stages of Woodshock and
accurately described the unnamed main characters progression from the Urgency
stage, to the Panic stage, to the Planning stage, followed by the Fatigue stage
and finally to the Resignation and Death stage; for a more in depth discussion
of Woodshock, see “Getting Lost And What To Do About It”, Circa 1915”, HERE.
Hopefully
we have all learned something from the mishaps, mistakes and things that that
the unnamed main character of To Build A Fire does right, as he blunders
through the final hours of his fictional life.
I hope that, if nothing else, I have inspired you to read Jack London’s
short story To Build A Fire.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.
Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube,
and if you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either
site. I announce new articles on
Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at
Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always until next time, Happy Trails
Sources
Air
Ministry, Arctic Survival: Air Ministry Pamphlet 226, [Penguin Books,
Bungay, United Kingdom, 2017, (reprint of 1953 original)], p 51-53
Innes-Taylor,
Alan; Arctic Survival Guide, [Scandinavian Airlines System, Stockholm,
1957], page 64-65
London, Jack; “To Build
A Fire”, The Century Magazine, August 1908, Vol. LXXVI, No. 4, [The
Century Company, New York, 1908], p. 525-534, https://books.google.com/books?id=8XkAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA518&lpg=PA518&dq=%22to+build+a+fire%22+%22jack+london%22+1908+%22century+Magazine%22&source=bl&ots=Erpfoe9twm&sig=ACfU3U2hNB3BlOJWvbrdE1Lr4ctAFaxIHQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjhsNTjjLHlAhXhQ98KHTfiBwU4MhDoATAIegQICBAB#v=onepage&q=%22to%20build%20a%20fire%22%20%22jack%20london%22%201908%20%22century%20Magazine%22&f=false, accessed 11/02/2019
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