South | Page 8

scene and sounds throughout the day were very fine.
The swell was dashing against the sides of huge bergs and leaping right
to the top of their icy cliffs. Sanders Island lay to the south, with a few
rocky faces peering through the misty, swirling clouds that swathed it
most of the time, the booming of the sea running into ice-caverns, the
swishing break of the swell on the loose pack, and the graceful bowing
and undulating of the inner pack to the steeply rolling swell, which here
was robbed of its break by the masses of ice to windward.
We skirted the northern edge of the pack in clear weather with a light
south-westerly breeze and an overcast sky. The bergs were numerous.
During the morning of December 9 an easterly breeze brought hazy
weather with snow, and at 4.30 p.m. we encountered the edge of
pack-ice in lat. 58° 27´ S., long. 22° 08´ W. It was one-year-old ice
interspersed with older pack, all heavily snow-covered and lying west-
south-west to east-north-east. We entered the pack at 5 p.m., but could
not make progress, and cleared it again at 7.40 p.m. Then we steered
east-north-east and spent the rest of the night rounding the pack. During
the day we had seen adelie and ringed penguins, also several humpback
and finner whales. An ice-blink to the westward indicated the presence
of pack in that direction. After rounding the pack we steered S. 40° E.,
and at noon on the 10th had reached lat. 58° 28´ S., long. 20° 28´ W.

Observations showed the compass variation to be 1½° less than the
chart recorded. I kept the 'Endurance' on the course till midnight, when
we entered loose open ice about ninety miles south-east of our noon
position. This ice proved to fringe the pack, and progress became slow.
There was a long easterly swell with a light northerly breeze, and the
weather was clear and fine. Numerous bergs lay outside the pack.
The 'Endurance' steamed through loose open ice till 8 a.m. on the 11th,
when we entered the pack in lat. 59° 46´ S., long. 18° 22´ W. We could
have gone farther east, but the pack extended far in that direction, and
an effort to circle it might have involved a lot of northing. I did not
wish to lose the benefit of the original southing. The extra miles would
not have mattered to a ship with larger coal capacity than the
'Endurance' possessed, but we could not afford to sacrifice miles
unnecessarily. The pack was loose and did not present great difficulties
at this stage. The foresail was set in order to take advantage of the
northerly breeze. The ship was in contact with the ice occasionally and
received some heavy blows. Once or twice she was brought up all
standing against solid pieces, but no harm was done. The chief concern
was to protect the propeller and rudder. If a collision seemed to be
inevitable the officer in charge would order "slow" or "half speed" with
the engines, and put the helm over so as to strike floe a glancing blow.
Then the helm would be put over towards the ice with the object of
throwing the propeller clear of it, and the ship would forge ahead again.
Worsley, Wild, and I, with three officers, kept three watches while we
were working through the pack, so that we had two officers on deck all
the time. The carpenter had rigged a six-foot wooden semaphore on the
bridge to enable the navigating officer to give the seamen or scientists
at the wheel the direction and the exact amount of helm required. This
device saved time, as well as the effort of shouting. We were pushing
through this loose pack all day, and the view from the crow's-nest gave
no promise of improved conditions ahead. A Weddell seal and a
crab-eater seal were noticed on the floes, but we did not pause to secure
fresh meat. It was important that we should make progress towards our
goal as rapidly as possible, and there was reason to fear that we should
have plenty of time to spare later on if the ice conditions continued to
increase in severity.

On the morning of December 12 we were working through loose pack
which later became thick in places. The sky was overcast and light
snow was falling. I had all square sail set at 7 a.m. in order to take
advantage of the northerly breeze, but it had to come in again five
hours later when the wind hauled round to the west. The noon position
was lat. 60° 26´ S., long. 17° 58´ W., and the run for the twenty-four
hours had been only 33 miles. The ice was still badly congested,