 Preface and Expedition Members of Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 1. 14 years ago Robert Falcon Scott was a rising naval officer. Abel accomplished popular, highly thought of by his superiors and devoted to his noble profession. It was a serious responsibility to introduce him to take up the work of an explorer, yet no man living could be found who was so well-fitted to command a great Antarctic expedition. The undertaking was new and unprecedented. The object was to explore the unknown Antarctic continent by land. Captain Scott entered upon the Enterprise with enthusiasm tempered by prudence and sound sense, and all had to be learned by a thorough study of the history of Arctic travelling, combined with the experience of different conditions in the Antarctic regions. Scott was the initiator and founder of Antarctic sludge travelling. His discoveries were of great importance, the survey and soundings along the barrier cliffs, the discovery of King Edward Land, the discovery of Ross Island, and the other volcanic islets, the examination of the barrier surface, the discovery of Victoria Mountains, a range of great height, and many hundreds of miles in length, which had only before been seen from a distance out at sea, and above all the discovery of the Great Ice Cap on which the South Pole is situated, by one of the most remarkable polar journeys on record. His small but excellent scientific staff worked hard, and with trained intelligence, their results being recorded in twelve large quattro volumes. The great discoverer had no intention of losing touch with his beloved profession, though resolved to complete his Antarctic work. The exigency of the naval service called him to the command of battleships and to confidential work of the Admiralty, so that five years elapsed before he could resume his Antarctic labours. The object of Captain Scott's second expedition was mainly scientific, to complete and extend his former work in all branches of science. It was his ambition that in his ship there should be the most complete equipped expedition for scientific purposes connected with the polar regions, both as regard to men and material that have ever left these shores. In this he succeeded. He had on board a fuller complement of geologists, one of them especially trained for the study of physiography, biologists, physicists, and surveyors that never before composed the staff of the polar expedition. Thus Captain Scott's objects were strictly scientific, including the completion and extension of his former discoveries. The results will be explained in the second volume of his work. They will be found to be extensive and important. Never before in the polar regions have meteorological, magnetic, and tidal observations been taken in one locality during five years. It was also part of Captain Scott's plan to reach the South Pole by a long and most arduous journey, but here again his intention was, if possible, to achieve scientific result on the way, especially hoping to discover fossils which would throw light on the former history of the great range of mountains which he had made known to science. The principal aim of this great man, for he rightly has his niche among the polar dimajors, was the advancement of knowledge, from all aspects Scott was among the most remarkable men of our time, and the vast number of readers of his journal will be deeply impressed with the beauty of his character, the chief traits which shone forth through his life were conspicuous in the hour of his death. There are few events in history to be compared for grandeur and pathos. With the last closing scene in the silent wilderness of snow, the great leader, with the bodies of his dearest friends beside him, wrote and wrote until the pencil dropped from his dying grasp. There was no thought of himself, only the earnest desire to give comfort and consolation to others in their sorrow. His very last lines were written, least he who introduced him to enter upon Antarctic work should now feel regret for what he had done. If I cannot write to Sir Clements, tell him I thought much of him, and never regretted his putting me in command of the discovery. Clements R. Markham, September 1913 British Antarctic Expedition, 1910 Shore Parties Officers Robert Falcon Scott Captain R. N. C. V. O. Edward R. G. R. Evans Commander R. N. Victor L. A. Campbell Lieutenant R. N. Emergency List Henry R. Bowers Lieutenant R. N. Lawrence E. G. Oates Captain Sixth In Skiing Dragoons G. Murray Levick Surgeon R. N. Edward L. Atkinson Surgeon R. N. Periocytologist Scientific Staff Edward Adrian Wilson M. A. M. B. Chief of the Scientific Staff and Zoologist George C. Simpson DSC Meteorologist T. Griffith Mayer BA-BSC-BE Geologist Edward W. Nelson Biologist Frank Debenham BA-BSC Geologist Charles S. Wright BA-Physicist Raymond E. Priestley Geologist Herbert G. Ponting FRGS Camera Artist Cecil H. Mears In Charge of Dogs Bernard C. Day Motor Engineer Apsley Cherry Gerard BA-Assistant Zoologist Trigiv Gran Sub-Lieutenant Norwegian N.R. Ski Expert Men W. Lashley Chief Stoker W. W. Archer Chief Steward Thomas Sisselt Cook Late R. N. Edgar Evans Petty Officer R. N. Robert Ford Petty Officer R. N. Thomas Kreen Petty Officer R. N. Thomas S. Williamson Petty Officer R. N. Patrick Kehan Petty Officer R. N. George P. Abbott Petty Officer R. N. Frank V. Browning Petty Officer Second Class R. N. Harry Dickinson Abel Seaman R. N. F. J. Hooper Seward Late R. N. F. J. Hooper Steward Late R. N. Anton Amachenko Groom Dmitry Gurov Dog Driver Ships Party Officers Harry L. L. Penel Lieutenant R. N. Henry E. D. P. Rinnick Lieutenant R. N. Wilfred M. Bruce Lieutenant R. N. R. Francis R. H. Drake Assistant Paymaster R. N. Retired Secretary and Meteorologist in Ship Dennis G. Lilly MA Biologist in Ship James R. Deninson In Charge of Mules in Ship Alfred B. Chinem R. N. R. Boatson William Williams O. N. Chief Engine Room Artificer R. N. Engineer William A. Horton O. N. Engine Room Artificer Third Class R. N. Second Engineer Francis E. C. Davies O. N. Shipwright R. N. Carpenter Francis E. C. Davies O. N. Shipwright R. N. Carpenter Frederick Parsons Petty Officer R. N. William L. Heald Late P. O. R. N. Arthur S. Bailey Petty Officer Second Class R. N. Albert Balson Leading Seaman R. N. Joseph Leasy O. N. Abled Seaman R. N. John Hugh Mather O. N. Petty Officer R. N. V. R. Robert Olfant Abel Seaman Thomas F. McLean Abled Seaman Mortimer McCarthy Abel Seaman William Nowells Abel Seaman Charles Williams Abel Seaman James Skelton Abel Seaman William MacDonald Abled Seaman James Patton Abel Seaman Robert Brissenden Leading Stoker R. N. Edward A. McKinsey Leading Stoker R. N. William Burton Leading Stoker R. N. Bernard J. Stone Leading Stoker R. N. Angus MacDonald Fireman Thomas McGillen Fireman Charles Lammus Fireman W. H. Neal Stewart End of Preface and List of Expedition Members Recording by Michael Gray Tacoma, Washington Section 1 of Scott's last expedition volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Russ Clough, Stoughton, Massachusetts Scott's last expedition volume 1 The Journals of Robert Falcon Scott Arranged by Leonard Huxley Chapter 1 Through Stormy Seas The Final Preparations in New Zealand The first three weeks of November have gone with such a rush that I have neglected my diary and can only patch it up from memory The dates seem unimportant, but throughout the period the officers and men of the ship have been unremittingly busy On arrival the ship was cleared of all the shore party stores, including huts, sledges, etc. Within five days she was in dark, bowers attacked the ship's stores, surveyed, re-listed and re-stowed them, saving very much space by unstowing numerous cases and stowing the contents in the lazarette Meanwhile a good friend Miller attacked the leak and traced it to the stern We found the false stem split, and in one case a hole bored for a long stem through bolt which was much too large for the bolt Miller made the excellent job in overcoming this difficulty, which I expected, and since the ship has been afloat and loaded the leak is found to be enormously reduced The ship still leaks, but the amount of water entering is little more than one would expect in an old wooden vessel The stream which was visible and audible inside the stern has been entirely stopped Without steam the leak can now be kept under with the hand pump by two daily efforts of a quarter of an hour to twenty minutes As the ship was, and in her present heavily laden condition, it would certainly have taken three to four hours each day Before the ship left dark, bowers and white were at work again in the shed with the party of stevedores, sorting and re-listing the shore party stores Everything seems to have gone without a hitch The various gifts and purchases made in New Zealand were collected butter, cheese, bacon, hams, some preserved meats, tongues Meanwhile the huts were erected on the waste ground beyond the harbour works Everything was overhauled, sorted and marked afresh to prevent difficulty in the south Davies, our excellent carpenter, ford, avid and co-hane were employed in this work The large green tent was put up and proper supports made for it When the ship came out of dark, she presented a scene of great industry Offices as men of the ship, the party of stevedores were busy storing the holds Millers men were building horse stalls, caulking the decks, re-securing the deck houses putting in bolts and various small fittings The engine room staff and Anderson's people on the engines Scientists were storing their laboratories, the cook refitting his galley, and so forth Not a single spot, but had its band of workers We prepared to start our storage much as follows The main hold contains all the shore party provisions and parts of the huts Above this on the main deck is packed in wonderfully closed fashion the remainder of the wood of the huts, the sledges and travelling equipment And the larger instruments and machines be employed by the scientific people This encroaches far on the men's space, but the extent has been determined by their own wish They have requested, through Evans, that they should not be considered They were prepared to pick it anyhow and a few cubic feet of space didn't matter Such is their spirit The men's space, such as it is Therefore extends from the forehatch to the stem on the main deck Under the forecastle are stalls for 15 ponies, the maximum the space would hold The narrow irregular space in front is packed tight with fodder Immediately behind the forecastle bulkhead is a small booby hatch The only hinges to the men's mess deck and bad weather Next comes the foremast, and between that and the forehatch the galley and winch On the port side of the forehatch are stalls for four ponies A very stout wooden structure A bath to forehatch is the ice house We manage to get three tons of ice, 162 carcasses of mutton and three carcasses of beef Besides some boxes of sweetbreads and kidneys into this space The carcasses are stowed in tears with wooden battens between the tears It looks a triumph of orderly stowage and I have great hope that it will ensure fresh mutton throughout our winter On either side of the main hatch and close up to the ice house are two out of our three modus ledges The third rests across the break of the poop in a space formerly occupied by a winch In front of the break of the poop is a stack of petrol cases A further stacks amount with bales of fodder stands between the main hatch and the main mast In cases of petrol, paraffin and alcohol arranged along either gangway We have managed to get 405 tons of coal in bunkers in main hold 25 tons in space left in the forehold and a little over 30 tons on the upper deck The sacks containing this last added to the goods already mentioned make a really heavy deck cargo And one is naturally anxious concerning it But everything that can be done by lashing and securing has been done The appearance of confusion on deck is completed by our 33 dogs chained to stanchions and bolts On the ice house and on the main hatch between the modus ledges Footnote. These included 33 sledging dogs and a collie bitch, lassie The 33 all-cyberian dogs, accepting the Esquimax, Parry and Borup Were collected by Mr. Mears who drove them across Siberia to Vladivostok With the help of the dog driver Dmitry Girov, whom he had engaged for the expedition From Vladivostok, where it was joined by Lieutenant Wilfred Bruce He brought them by steamer to Sydney and then to Lyleton End of footnote With all these stores on board, the ship still stood two inches above her load mark The tanks are filled with compressed forage, except one which contains 12 tons of fresh water Enough, we hope, to take us to the ice Forage. I originally ordered 30 tons of compressed oat and hay from Melbourne Oats has gradually persuaded us that this is insufficient and our pony food weight has gone up to 45 tons Besides 3 or 4 tons for immediate use The extra consists of 5 tons of hay, 5 or 6 tons of oil cake, 4 or 5 tons of bran and some crushed oats We're not taking any corn We've managed to wedge in all the dog biscuits, the total weight being about 5 tons Mears is reluctant to feed the dogs on seal, but I think we ought to do so during the winter We stayed with the Kinzies at their house, Tehan at Clifton The house stands at the edge of the cliff, 400 feet above the sea It looks far over the Christchurch plains in the long northern beach which limits it Close beneath one is the Haberbar, the winding estuary of the two small rivers, the Avon and the Waimakiriri Far away, beyond the plains are the mountains, ever changing their aspect And yet farther in over this northern sweep of sea can be seen in clear weather The beautiful snow-capped peaks of the Kaikouris The scene is wholly enchanting In such a view from some sheltered sunny corner in a garden which blazes with masses of red and golden flowers Tends to feelings of inexpressible satisfaction with all things At night we slept in this garden under peaceful skies And by day I was off to my office in Christchurch, then perhaps to the ship or the island And so home by the mountain road over the Port Hills It is a pleasant time to remember, in spite of interruptions And it gave time for many necessary consultations with Kinzies His interest in the expedition is wonderful, and such interest on the part of a thoroughly shrewd businessman Is an asset of which I have taken full advantage Kinzies will act as my agent in Christchurch during my absence I have given him an ordinary power of attorney, and I think have left him in possession of all facts His kindness to us was beyond words The voyage out Saturday, November 26 We advertised that at 3 p.m., and at 3 minutes to that hour, the Teranoa pushed off from the jetty A great mass of people assembled K and I lunch with the party in the New Zealand company ship Rupahu Mr. Kinzies, Ainsley, the author in George Rhodes, Sir George Clifford, etc. Footnote Those who were named in these opening pages were all keen supporters of the expedition Sir George Clifford, Bart and Macias Arthur and George Rhodes were friends from Christchurch Mr. M. J. Miller, Mayor of Littleton was a master shipwright and contractor who took great interest in both the discovery and the Teranoa, and stopped the leak in the latter vessel which had been so troublesome on the voyage out Mr. Anderson belonged to the firm of John Anderson's and Son's, engineers who owned Littleton Foundry Mr. Kinzies was the trusted friend and representative who acted as the representative of Captain Scott in New Zealand during his absence in the south Mr. Wyatt was business manager to the expedition End of footnote K and I went out on the ship, but left her inside the heads after passing the Cambrian, the only naval ship present We came home in the hover tug, two other tugs followed the ship out in innumerable small boats Pointing busy with sematograph, we walked over the hills to Sumner, saw the Teranoa, a little dot to the southeast Monday, November 28, caught eight o'clock express to Port Chalmers Kinzies saw us off Wilson joined train Rhodes met us, Timaru Telegram to say, Teranova had arrived Sunday night Arrived Port Chalmers at 4.30 Found all well Tuesday, November 29, Saw Fenwick I.R.E. Central News, Agreement to Town St. Glen Denning for handsome gift, 130 grade jerseys To Town Hall to see Mayor Found all well on board We left the war for 2.30, bright sunshine, very gay scene If anything more craft following us than at Lytleton Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Evans and Kaye left at heads and back in hover tug Other tugs followed Father with volunteer reserve gunboat All left about 4.30 The panel swung the ship for compass adjustment, then away Evening, loom of land and Cape Saunders light blinking Wednesday, November 30 Noon, no miles Light breeze from northward all day, freshening towards nightfall and turning to northwest Bright sunshine Ship pitching with southwesterly swell All in good spirits except one or two sick We're away sliding easily and smoothly through the water But burning coal, 8 tons in 24 hours reported 8 p.m. Thursday, December 1 The month opens well on the whole During the night the wind increased We worked up to 8, to 9, and to 9.5 knots Stiff wind from the northwest and confused sea Awoke to much motion The ship are queer and not altogether cheerful sight under the circumstances Below one knows all space is packed as tight as human skill can devise And on deck Under the forecastle 15 ponies close side by side 7 one side, 8 the other Heads together and groom between Swaying, swaying continually in the plunging irregular motion One takes a look through a hole in the bulkhead and sees a row of heads with sad, patient eyes Come swinging up together from the starboard side Waltz those on the port side, swing back Then up come the port heads, whilst the starboard recede It seems a terrible ordeal for these poor beasts to stand this day after day for weeks together And indeed though they continue to feed well, the strain quickly drags down their weight and condition But nevertheless the trial cannot be gauged from human standards These are horses which never lie down and all horses can sleep standing Anatomically they possess a ligament in each leg which takes their weight without strain Even our poor animals will get rest and sleep in spite of the violent motion Some four or five tons of fodder and the ever watchful Anton take up the remainder of the forecastle space Anton is suffering badly from seasickness But last night he smoked a cigar He smoked a little, then had an interval of evacuation And back to a cigar, whilst he rubbed his stomach and remarked to oats No good Gallant little Anton There are four ponies outside the forecastle and to leeward are the four hatch And on the whole, perhaps, with shielding toplins, they have a rather better time than their comrades Just behind the ice house and on either side of the main hatch are two enormous packing cases containing motor sledges Each sixteen by five by four Mounted as they are, several inches above the deck they take up a formidable amount of space A third sledge stands across the break of the poop in the space hitherto occupied by the afterwinch All these cases are covered with stout topline and lashed with heavy chain and rope lashings So that they may be absolutely secure The petrol for these sledges is contained in tins and drums protected in stout wooden packing cases Which are arranged across the deck immediately in front of the poop in a breast of the motor sledges The quantity is two and a half tons and the space occupied considerable Rounden about these packing cases stretching from the galley forward to the wheel aft The deck stacked with cold bags forming a deck cargo of coal Now rapidly diminishing We left Port Chalmers with 462 tons of coal on board Rather a greater quantity than I had hoped for And yet the load mark was three inches above the water The ship was over two feet by the stern But this will soon be remedied Upon the coal sacks, upon and between the motor sledges And upon the ice house are grouped the dogs 33 and all They must perforce be chained up and they are given what shelters afforded on deck But their position is not enviable The seas continually break on the weather bulwarks And scatter clouds of heavy spray over the backs of all who must venture into the waste of the ship The dogs sit with their tails to this invading water, their coats wet and dripping It is a pathetic attitude, deeply significant of cold and misery Occasionally some poor beast emits a long pathetic whine The group forms a picture of wretched dejection Such a life is truly hard for these poor creatures We manage somehow to find a seat for everyone at our cabin table Although the wardroom contains 24 offices There are generally one to two on watch which eases matters But it is a squash Our meals are simple enough But it is really remarkable to see the manner in which our two stewards, Hooper and Neeld Provide for all requirements Washing up, tidying cabin And making themselves generally useful in the cheerfulest manner With such a large number of hands on board Allowing nine seamen in each watch The ship is easily worked And mayors and oats have their appointed assistants to help them in custody of dogs and ponies But on such a night as the last with the prospect of dirty weather The after-god of volunteers is awake in exhibiting its delightful enthusiasm And the cause of safety and comfort Some are ready to lend a hand if there is difficulty with ponies and dogs Others in shortening or trimming sails And others again in keeping the bunkers filled with the deck-hole I think priestly is the most seriously incapacitated by seasickness Others who might be as bad have had some experience of the ship and her movement Ponting cannot face meals but sticks to his work On the way to Port Chalmers I am told that he posed several groups before the cinemagraph Though obliged repeatedly to retire to the ship's side Yesterday he was developing plates with the developing dish in one hand And an ordinary basin in the other We have run one hundred ninety miles today, a good start But inconvenient in one respect We've been making for Campbell Island But earlier this morning it became evident that our rapid progress would bring us to the island in the middle of the night Instead of tomorrow, as I had anticipated The delay of waiting for daylight would not be advisable under the circumstances So we gave up this item of our program Later in the day, the wind has veered to the westward, heading us slightly I trust it will not go further round We are now more than a point to eastward of our course to the ice And three points to leeward of that to Campbell Island So that we should not have fetched the island anyhow Friday, December 1 A day of great disaster From four o'clock last night the wind freshened with great rapidity And very shortly we were under top sails jib and state sail only It blew very hard and the sea got up at once Soon we were plunging heavily and taking much water over the lee rail Oats and Atkinson, with intermittent assistance from others Were busy keeping the ponies on their legs Cases of petrol, forge, etc. began to break loose on the upper deck The principal trouble was caused by the loose coal bags Which were bodily lifted by the sea and swung against the lashed cases You know how carefully everything had been lashed But no lashings could have withstood the onslaught of these coal sacks for long They acted like battering rams There was nothing for it but to grapple with the evil And nearly all hands were laboring for hours in the waste of the ship Heaving coal sacks overboard and relashing the petrol cases, etc. And the best manner possible under such difficult and dangerous circumstances The seas were continually breaking over these people And now and again they would be completely submerged At such times they had to cling for dear life to some fixture To prevent themselves being washed overboard And with coal bags and loose cases washing about There was every risk of such hold being torn away No sooner was some semblance of order restored Than some exceptionally heavy wave would tear away the lashing And the work had to be done all over again The night wore on, the sea and the wind ever rising And the ship ever plunging more distractedly We shortened sail to main top sail and stay sail Stopped engines and hoe too, but to little purpose Tales of ponies down came frequently from forward Where Oats and Atkinson labored through the entire night Worse was to follow, much worse A report from the engine room that the pumps had choked And the water risen over the gratings From this moment, about 4 am, the engine room became the center of interest The water gained in spite of every effort Lashley to his neck and rushing water stuck gamely to the work of clearing sections For a time, with donkey engine and bilge pump sucking It looked as though the water would be got under But the hope was short lived Five minutes of pumping invariably led to the same result A general choking of the pumps The outlook appeared grim The amount of water which was being made With the ship so roughly handled was most uncertain We knew that normally the ship was not making much water We also knew that a considerable part of the water rushing over the upper deck Must be finding its way below The decks were leaking in streams Ship was very deeply laden, it did not need the addition of much water to get her water logged In which condition anything might have happened The hand pump produced only a dribble, and its suction could not be got at As the water crept higher, it got in contact with the boiler and grew warmer So hot it lasts that no one could work at the suction Williams had to confess he was beaten and must draw fires What was to be done? Things for the moment appeared very black The sea seemed higher than ever, it came over lee rail and poop A rush of green water, the ship wallowed in it A great piece of the boa carried clean away The bilge pump is dependent on the main engine To use the pump it was necessary to go ahead It was at such times that the heavier seas swept in over the lee rail Over and over again, the rail From the fore rigging to the main was covered by a solid sheet of curling water Which swept aft and high on the poop On one occasion I was waist deep when standing on the rail of the poop The scene on the deck was devastating And in the engine room, the water, though really not in great quantity Rushed over the floor plates and frames in a fashion that gave it a fearful significance The after-guard were organized in two parties by Evans to work buckets The men were kept steadily going on the choked hand pumps This seemed all that could be done for the moment And what a measured account is the sole safeguard of the ship from sinking Practically an attempt to bail her out Yet strange as it may seem, the effort had not been wholly fruitless The strings of buckets which had now been going for four hours Footnote It was continued a day and a night Together with the dribble from the pump has kept the water under If anything, there was a small decrease Meanwhile, we've been thinking of a way to get at the suction of the pump The hole is being made in the engine room bulkhead The coal between this and the pump shaft will be removed And a hole made in the shaft With so much water coming on board, it is impossible to open the hatch over the shaft We are not out of the wood, but hope dawns As indeed it should for me when I find myself so wonderfully served Officers and men are singing chanties over the arduous work Williams is working in sweltering heat behind the boiler to get the door made in the bulkhead Not a single one has lost his good spirits A dog was drowned last night One pony is dead and two others in a bad condition Probably they will go too Occasionally a heavy sea would bear one of them away And he was only saved by his chain Mears with some helpers had constantly to be rescuing these wretched creatures from hanging And trying to find them better shelter An almost hopeless task One poor beast was found hanging when dead One was washed away with such force that his chain broke and he disappeared overboard The next wave miraculously washed him on board again and he is now fit and well The gale has exacted heavy toll, but I feel all will be well if we can only cope with the water Another dog has just been washed overboard alas Thank God the gale is abating The sea is still mountainously high, but the ship is not laboring so heavily as she was I pray we may be under sail again before morning End of the first part of chapter one Recording by Russ Clough, Stoughton, Massachusetts Section two of Scott's last expedition, volume one This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information, what a volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Russ Clough, Stoughton, Massachusetts Scott's last expedition, volume one The generals of Robert, Falcon, Scott Arranged by Leonard Huxley Second part of chapter one Through stormy seas Saturday, December 3 Yesterday the wind slowly fell towards evening Less water was taken on board Therefore less found its way below And it soon became evident that our bailing was gaining on the engine room The work was steadily kept going into our shifts By ten p.m., the hole in the engine room bulkhead was completed And Lieutenant Evans, wriggling over the coal, found his way to the pump shaft And down it He soon cleared the suction of the coal balls A mixture of coal and oil, which choked it And to the joy of all, a good stream of water came from the pump for the first time From this moment, it was evident we should get over the difficulty And though the pump choked again on several occasions The water in the engine room steadily decreased It was good to visit that spot this morning and to find that the water no longer Swished from side to side In the forenoon, fires were laid and lighted The hand pump was got into complete order and sucked the bilges almost dry So that great quantities of coal and ashes could be taken out Now all is well again And we are steaming and sailing steadily south within two points of our course Gamble and boughs have been busy relisting everything on the upper deck This afternoon we get out the two dead ponies through the four-castle skylight It was a curious proceeding As the space looked quite inadequate for their passage We looked into the ice house and found it in the best order Though we are not yet safe As another gale might have disastrous results It is wonderful to realize a change which has been wrought in our outlook in 24 hours The others have confessed the gravely serious view of our position Which they shared with me yesterday And now we are all hopeful again As far as one can gather Besides the damage to the bulwarks of the ship We have lost two ponies One dog 10 tons of coal 65 gallons of petrol And a case of the biologist's spirit Serious loss enough But much less than I expected All things considered we have come off lately But it was bad luck to strike a gale at such a time The third pony which was down in a sling for some time And the gale is again on its feet Looks a little groggy But may pull through if we don't have another gale Osman, our best sledge dog, was very bad this morning But he's been lying warmly in hay all day And is now much better Several more were in a very bad way And needed nursing back to life The sea and wind seem to be increasing again And there is a heavy southerly swell But the glass is high We ought not to have another gale till it falls Footnote from Dr. Wilson's journal I must say I enjoyed it all from beginning to end As one bunk became unbearable after another Owing to the wet And the comments became more and more to the point As people searched out dry spots here and there To finish the night in oil skins and great coats On the cabin or ward room seats I thought what things were becoming interesting Some of the staff were like dead men with seasickness Even so, Cherry Garade and Wright and Day Turned out with the rest of us And alternately worked and were sick I have no seasickness on these ships myself Under any conditions So I enjoyed it all And as I have the run of the bridge And can ask as many questions as I choose I knew all that was going on All Friday and Friday night we worked in two parties Two hours on and two hours off It was heavy work filling and handing up huge buckets of water As fast as they could be given from one to the other From the very bottom of the stoke hole to the upper deck Up little metal ladders all the way One was of course wet through the whole time In a sweater and trousers and sea boots And every two hours one took these off And hurried in for a rest in a great coat To turn out again in two hours And put in the same cold sopping clothes And so on until four a.m. on Saturday When we were bailed out between four and five tons of water And had so loaded that it was once more possible to light fires And try the engines and the steam pump again And to clear the valves and the inlet Which had once more within reach The fires had been put out at 11.40 a.m. And were then out for 22 hours while we bailed It was a weird night's work With the howling gale and the darkness And the immense seas running over the ship every few minutes And no engines and no sail And we all in the engine room Black as ink with the engine room oil and bilge pumps Singing chanties as we passed up Slopping buckets full of bilge Each man above slopping a little over the heads Of all below him Wet through to the skin so much so That some of the party worked altogether naked Like Chinese Coolies In the rush of the wave Backwards and forwards at the bottom grew hourly Less in the dim light of a couple of engine room oil lamps Whose light just made the darkness visible The ship all the time rolling like a sodden lifeless log Her league gunnel under water every time December 3 We were all at work till 4 a.m. And then were all told off to sleep till 8 a.m. At 9.30 a.m. We were all on to the main hand pump And lo and behold it worked And we pumped and pumped till 12.30 When the ship was once more only as full of bilge water As she always is And the position was practically solved There was one thrilling moment in the midst of the worst hour on Friday When we were realizing that the fires must be drawn When every pump had failed to act And when the bulwarks began to go to pieces And the petrol cases were all afloat and going overboard And the word was suddenly passed in a shout From the hands at work and the waist of the ship Trying to save petrol cases That smoke was coming up through the seams in the after-hold As this was full of coal and patent fuel It was next to the engine room And as it had not been open for the airing It required to get rid of gas on account of the flood of water on deck Making it impossible to open the hatchways The possibility of a fire there was patent to everyone And it could not possibly have been dealt with in any way Short of opening the hatches and flooding the ship When she must have floundered It was therefore a thrilling moment or two Until it was discovered that the smoke was really steam Rising from the bilge at the bottom Having risen to the heated coal End of footnote Monday, December 5th Latitude 56 degrees, 40 minutes The barometer has been almost steady since Saturday The wind rising and falling slightly But steady in direction from the west From a point off course We have crept up to the course itself Everything looks prosperous except the ponies Up to this morning, in spite of favorable wind and sea The ship has been pitching heavily to a southwesterly swell This has tried the animals badly Especially those under the forecastle We had thought the ponies on the port side to be pretty safe But two of them seemed to me to be groggy And I doubt if they could stand more heavy weather Without a spell of rest I pray there be no more gales We should be nearing the limits of the westerlies But one cannot be sure for at least two days There is still a swell from the southwest Though it is not nearly so heavy as yesterday But I devoutly wish it would vanish altogether So much depends on fine weather December ought to be a fine month in the Ross Sea It always has been, and just now, conditions point to fine weather Well, we must be prepared for anything But I'm anxious Anxious about these animals of ours The dogs have quite recovered since the fine weather They are quite in good form again Our deck cargo was getting reduced All the coal is off the upper deck And the petrol is restored in better fashion As far as that is concerned, we should not mind another blow Campbell and Bowers have been untiring In getting things straight on the deck The idea of making our station Cape Crozier Has again come on the tapas There would be many advantages Easy of getting there at an early date The fact that none of the autumn or summer potties Could be cut off The fact that the main barrier could be reached Without crossing crevasses And that the track to the pole Would be due south from the first The mild condition and absence of blizzards At the Penguin Rookery The opportunity of studying The Emperor Penguin Incubation And the new interest in the geology of terror Besides minor facilities Such as the getting of ice, stones for shelter, etc. The disadvantages mainly consist In the possible difficulty of landing stores A swell would make things very unpleasant And might possibly prevent the landing Of the horses and motors Then again it would be certain That some distance of bare rock Would have to be traversed For a good snow service was reached from the hut And possibly a climb of three or four hundred feet Would intervene Again it might be difficult to handle the ship While stores were being landed Owing to current, bergs, and flow ice It remains to be seen But the prospect is certainly alluring At a pinch we could land the ponies in McMurdo Sound And let them walk around The sun is shining brightly this afternoon Everything is drying And I think the swell continues to subside Tuesday, December 6 Latitude, fifty-nine degrees seven minutes Longitude, one hundred seventy-seven degrees Fifty-one minutes east Made good south, seventeen east One hundred fifty-three Four fifty-seven minutes to circle The promise of yesterday has been fulfilled The swell has continued to subside And this afternoon we go so steadily That we have much comfort I am truly thankful, mainly for the sake of the ponies Poor things, they look thin and scraggly enough But generally brighter and fitter There is no doubt the four castles Are a bad place for them But in any case some must have gone there The four midship ponies Which were expected to be subject to the worst conditions Have had much better time than their fellows A few ponies have swollen legs But all are feeding well The wind failed in the morning watch And later a faint breeze came from the eastward The barometer has been falling But not on a steep gradient It is still above normal This afternoon it is overcast with a scotch mist Another day ought to put us beyond the reach of westerly gales We still continue to discuss the project Of landing at Cape Proger And the prospect grows more fascinating as we realize it For instance, we ought from such a base To get an excellent idea of the barrier movement And of the relative movement amongst the pressure ridges There is no doubt it would be a tremendous stroke of luck To get safely landed there with all our paraphernalia Everyone is very cheerful One hears laughter and song all day It's delightful to be with such a merry crew A week from New Zealand today Wednesday, December 7 Latitude 61°22 minutes Longitude 179°56 minutes west Made good, south 25°E150 Antarctic circle 313 minutes The barometer descended on a steep regular gradient all night Turning suddenly to an equally steep upgrade this morning With the turn a smart breeze sprang up from the southwest And forced us three points off our course The seas remained calm, seeming to show that the ice is not far off This afternoon temperature of air and water both 34°C Supporting the assumption The wind has come fair and we are on our course again Going between 7°C and 8°C knots Quantities of whalebirds about the ship The first full mire is in the first McCormick school we're seeing Last night saw hourglass dolphins about Sooty and black-browed apotross continue with cape chickens The cold makes people hungry and one gets just a tremor on seeing The marvelous disappearance of consumables when our 24 young appetites Have to be appeased Last night I discussed the western geological party And explained to Ponting the desirability of his going with it I had thought he ought to be in charge as the oldest and most experienced traveler And mentioned it to him Then to Griffith Taylor The latter was evidently deeply disappointed So we three talked the matter out between us And pointing at once disclaimed any right And announced cheerful agreement with Taylor's leadership It was a satisfactory arrangement And shows Ponting in a very pleasant light I'm sure he's a very nice fellow I would record here a symptom of the spirit which actuates the men After the gale the main deck under the four-castle space In which the ponies are stapled, leaked badly And the dirt of the stable leaked through on hammocks and bedding Not a word has been said The men living in that pod have done their best to fend off the nuisance with oil skins and canvas But without a sign of complaint Indeed the discomfort throughout the mess deck has been extreme Everything has been thrown about Water has found its way down into a dozen places There is no daylight And air can come only through the small four hatch The artificial lamp light has given much trouble The men have been wedded to the skin repeatedly on deck And have no chance of drying their clothing All things considered Their cheerful fortitude is little short of wonderful First ice There was a report of ice at dinner tonight Evans corroborated Cheetham's statement that there was a berg far away to the west Showing now and again as the sun burst through the clouds Thursday, December 8 63 degrees, 20 minutes And 177 degrees, 22 minutes South, 31 East, 138 minutes To circle, 191 minutes The wind increased in the first watch last night to a moderate gale The ship close hauled, held within two points of her course Top gallon sails and mainsail were furled And later in the night the wind gradually crept ahead At 6 a.m. we were obliged to furl everything And throughout the day we had been plunging against a stiff breeze in moderate sea This afternoon By keeping a little to eastward of the course we have managed to get four an aft sail filled The barometer has continued its steady upward path for 24 hours It shows signs of turning having reached within one-tenth of 30 inches It was light throughout last night Always a cheerful condition But this headwind is trying to the patience More especially as our coal expenditure is more than I estimated We managed 62 or 63 revolutions on about 9 tons But have to distill every three days at expense of half a ton And then there is a weekly half ton for the cook It is certainly a case of fighting one's way south I was much disturbed last night by the motion The ship was pitching and twisting with short sharp movements on a confused sea And with every plunge my thoughts flew to our poor ponies This afternoon they are fairly well But one knows that they must be getting weaker as time goes on And one longs to give them a good sound rest with the ship on an even keel Poor patient beasts One wonders how far the memory of such fearful discomfort will remain with them Animals so often remember places and conditions where they have encountered difficulties of heart Do they only recollect circumstances which are deeply impressed by some shock or fear or sudden pain? And does the remembrance of prolonged strain pass away? Who can tell? But it would seem strangely merciful if nature should blot out these weeks of slow but inevitable torture The dogs are in great form again For them the greatest circumstance of discomfort is to be constantly wet It was this circumstance prolonged throughout the gale which nearly lost us our splendid leader, Osman In the morning he was discovered utterly exhausted and only feebly trembling Life was very nearly out of him He was buried in hay in lasso for 24 hours, refusing food The wonderful hidey-hood of his species was again shown by the fact that within another 24 hours he was to all appearances as fit as ever Antarctic petrals have come about us. This afternoon one was caught Later, about 7 p.m. Evan saw two icebergs far on the port beam They could only be seen from the mast head Whales have been frequently seen Balanoptra subalty Supposed to be the biggest mammal that has ever existed Footnote from Dr. Wilson's journal We watched two or three immense blue whales at fairly short distance This is Balanoptra subalty One sees first a small dark hump appear and then immediately A jet of gray fog squirted upwards 15 to 18 feet Gradually spreading as it rises vertically into the frosty air I have been nearly in these blows once or twice and had the moisture in my face with the sickening smell of shrimpy oil Then the bumpy long gates An uprolls an immense blue gray or blackish gray round back with a faint ridge along the top On which presently appears a small hook-like dorsal fin And then the hole sinks and disappears End of footnote Friday, December 9 65 degrees, 8 minutes And 177 degrees, 41 minutes Made good South 4 West 109 minutes Scott Island South 22 West 147 minutes At 6 this morning, bergs and pack were reported ahead At first we thought the pack might consist only of fragments of the bergs But on entering a stream we found small worn flows The ice not more than two or three feet in thickness I had hoped that we should not meet it till we reached latitude 66 and a half or at least 66 We decided to work to the south and west as far as the open water would allow And it met with some success At 4pm, as I write, we are still in open water Having kept a fairly straight course and come through five or six light streams of ice None more than 300 yards across We have passed some very beautiful bergs, mostly tabula The heights have varied from 6 to 80 feet and I am getting to think that this part of the Antarctic Yields a few bergs of greater altitude Two bergs deserve some description One, passed very close on port hand in order that it might be cinnamon scrapped Was about 80 feet in height and tabula It seemed to have been cavited at a comparatively recent date The above picture shows us peculiarities and points to the desirability of close examination of other berg faces There seemed to be a distinct difference of origin between the upper and lower portions of the berg As though a land glacier had been covered by a layer and layer of seasonal snow Then again, what I have described as intrusive layers of blue ice was a remarkable feature One could imagine that these layers represent surfaces which have been transformed by regulation under hot sun and wind This point required investigation The second berg was distinguished by innumerable vertical cracks These seemed to run crisscross and to weaken the structure so that the various seracs Formed by them had bent at different angles and shapes giving a very irregular surface to the berg And a face scoured with immense vertical fishes One imagines that such a berg has come from a region of ice disturbance such as King Ledwood's land We have seen a good many whales today, rocquals with high black spouts, balanoptera sobaldi The birds with us, Antarctic and snow petrol, a fulmar and this morning Cape pigeon We have pack ice further north than expected and it's impossible to interpret the fact One hopes that we shall not have anything heavy but I'm afraid there's not much to build upon 10pm, we have made good progress throughout the day but the ice streams thicken as we advance And on either side of us the pack now appears in considerable fields We still pass quantities of bergs, perhaps nearly one half the number tabula But the rest worn and fantastic The sky has been wonderful with every form of cloud and every condition of light and shade The sun has continually appeared through breaks in the cloudy heavens from time to time Brilliantly illuminating some field of pack, some steep walled berg or some patch of bluest sea So sunlight and shadow have chased each other across our scene Tonight there's little or no swell, the ship is on an even keel Steady save for the occasional shocks of striking ice It is difficult to express the sense of relief the steadiness gives after our storm-tossed passage One can only imagine the relief and comfort afforded to the ponies But the dogs are visibly cheered and the human element is full of gaity The voyage seems full of promise in spite of the imminence of delay If the pack becomes sick I shall certainly put the fires out and wait for it to open I do not think it ought to remain close for long in this meridian Tonight we must be beyond the 66 parallel Saturday, December 10th, dead reckoning 66 degrees 38 minutes Longitude 178 degrees 47 minutes Made good, south 17, west 94 See Crozier 688 minutes Stayed on deck till midnight The sun just dipped below the southern horizon The scene was incomparable The northern sky was gloriously rosy and reflected in the calm sea between the ice Which varied from burnished copper to salmon pink Bergs and packs to the south had a pale greenish hue with deep purple shadows The sky shaded to saffron and pale green We gazed long at these beautiful effects The ship made through leads during the night Morning found us pretty well at the end of the open water We stopped to water ship from a nice hummockly fall We made about 8 tons of water Renek took a sounding 1,960 fathoms The tube brought up two small lumps of volcanic lava with the usual Glovergina ooze Wilson shot a number of Antarctic Petrol and Snowy Petrol Nelson got some crustaceans and other beasts with a vertical tone net And got a water sample in temperatures at 400 meters The water was warmer at that depth About 130 we proceeded at first through fairly easy pack Then in amongst very heavy old flows grouped about a big burg We shot out of this and made a detour, getting easier going But though the flows were less formidable as we proceeded south Pack grew thicker I noticed large flows of comparatively thin ice very sodden and easily split These are similar to some we went through in the discovery But tougher by a month At three we stopped and shot four Krabita seals Tonight we had the livers for dinner They were excellent Tonight we are in very close pack It is deltful if it is worth pushing on But an arch of clear sky which is shown to the south wood all day Makes me think that there must be clear water in that direction Perhaps only some 20 miles away But 20 miles is much under present conditions As I came below to bed at 11pm Bruce was slogging away making fair progress But now it again brought up all together I noticed the ice was becoming much smoother and thinner With occasional signs of pressure Between which the ice was very thin We had been very carefully into all the evidence of formal voyages To pick the best meridian to go south on And I thought and still think that the evidence points to the 178 West as the best We enter back more or less on this meridian And have been rewarded by encountering worse conditions than any ships had before Worse in fact than I imagine would have been possible on any Other meridian of those which we could have chosen To understand the difficulty of the position You must appreciate what the pack is and how little is known of its movements The pack in this part of the world consists One of the ice which is formed over the sea On the fringe of the Antarctic continent during the last winter Two, a very heavy old ice flows which have broken out of bays and inlets during the previous summer But have not had time to get north before the winter set in Three, a comparatively heavy ice formed over the raw sea earlier in the last winter And four, of comparatively thin ice which has formed over parts of the raw sea in middle or towards the end of the last winter Undoubtedly throughout the winter all ice sheets move in twist Tear apart and press into ridges And thousands of bergs charge through these sheets Raising hummocks and lines of pressure and mixing things up Then of course with such rents are made in the winter The sea freezes again forming a newer and thinner sheet With the coming of summer the northern edge of the sheet decays And the heavy ocean swell penetrates it Gradually breaking it into smaller and smaller fragments Then the whole body moves to the north and the swell of the raw sea Attacks the southern edge of the pack This makes it clear why at the northern and southern limits The pieces or ice flows are comparatively small Whilst in the middle the flows may be two or three miles across And why the pack may and does consist of various natures of ice flows And extraordinary confusion Further it will be understood why the belt grows narrower And the flows thinner and smaller as the summer advances We know that where thick pack may be found early in January Open water and a clear sea may be found in February And broadly that the later the date The easier the chance of getting through A ship going through the pack must either break through the flows Or push them aside or go around them Observing that she cannot push flows which are more than two or three hundred yards across Whether a ship can get through or not depends on the thickness and nature of the ice The size of the flows and the closeness with which they are packed together As well as on her own power The situation of the main bodies of pack And the closeness with which the flows of pack Depend almost entirely on the prevailing winds One cannot tell what winds have prevailed before one's arrival Therefore one cannot know much about the situation or density Within limits the density is changing from day to day and even from hour to hour Such changes depend on the wind but it may not necessarily be a local wind So that at times they seem almost mysterious One sees the flows pressing closely against one another at a given time In an hour or two afterwards a gap of a foot or more may be seen between each When the flows are pressed together it is difficult Sometimes impossible to force a way through But when there is release of pressure the sum of many little gaps Allows one to take a zig-zag path End of Chapter 1 Recording by Ross Clough Stoughton, Massachusetts Section 3 of Scott's Last Expedition Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer Please visit LibriVox.org Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 1 The Journals of Robert Falcon Scott Arranged by Leonard Huxley Chapter 2 In the Pack Sunday, December 11th The ice grew closer during the night And at six it seemed hopeless to try and get ahead The pack here is very regular The flows about two and a half feet thick and very solid They are pressed closely together But being a regular in shape Open spaces frequently occur Generally triangular in shape It might be noted that such ice as this occupies much greater space Than it originally did when it formed a complete sheet Hence if the Rossi were wholly frozen over in the spring The total quantity of pack to the north of it When it breaks out must be immense The ice looks as though it must have come from the Rossi And yet one is puzzled to account for the absence of pressure We have lane tight in the pack all day The wind from six a.m. strong from west and northwest With snow The wind has eased tonight and for some hours The glass, which fell rapidly last night Has been stationary I expect the wind will shift soon Pressure on the pack has eased But so far it has not opened This morning, Renek got a sounding At 2015 fathoms from bottom Similarly yesterday With small pieces of basic lava These two soundings appear to show a great distribution Of this volcanic rock by ice The line was weighed by hand after the soundings I read service in the wardroom This afternoon all hands have been away on ski over the flows It is delightful to get the exercise I'm much pleased with the ski and ski boots Both are very well adapted to our purposes This waiting requires patience Though I suppose it was to be expected at such an early season It is difficult to know when to try and push on again Monday December 12th The pack was a little looser this morning There was a distinct long swell apparently from northwest The flows were not apart but barely touching the edges Which were hard pressed yesterday The wind still holds from northwest but lighter Grand oaths and bowers went on ski towards a reported island About which there had been some difference of opinion I felt certain it was a bird And it proved to be so Only of a very curious dome shape with very low cliffs all about Fires were ordered for twelve and at eleven thirty We started steaming with plain sail set We made an R making fair progress on the whole But it is very uneven We escaped from the heavy flows about us Into much thinner pack Then through two waterholes Then back to the thinner pack Consisting of thin flows of large area Fairly easily broken All went well till we struck heavy flows again Then for half an hour we stopped and Then on again and since alternately bad and good That is thin young flows and horary older ones Occasionally a pressed up burg Very heavy The best news of yesterday was that We drifted fifteen miles to the southeast So that we have not really stopped our progress at all Though it has of course been pretty slow I really don't know what to think of the pack Or what to hope for open water We tried Atkinson's blubber stove this afternoon With great success The interior of the stove holds a pipe in a single coil First with holes on the underside These holes drip oil onto an asbestos burner The blubbers placed in a tank Suitably built around the chimney The overflow of oil from this tank Leads to the feed pipe in the stove With a cock to regulate the flow A very simple device But as has been shown a very effective one The stove gives great heat But of course some blubbers smell However with such stoves in the south One would never lack cooked food or warm hut Discussed with Wright The fact that the hummocks on sea Ice always yield fresh water We agreed that the brine must simply run down Out of the ice It will be interesting to bring up a piece of sea ice And watch this process But the fact itself is interesting As showing that the process producing the hummock Is really producing fresh water It may also be noted as phenomenon Which makes all the difference to the ice navigator Footnote from Dr. Wilson's journal December 18th Watered ship at a tumbled flow Sea ice when pressed up into large hummocks Gradually loses all its salt Even when sea water freezes It squeezes out the great bulk of its salt As a solid But the sea water gets into it By soaking again And yet when held out of the water As it is in a hummock The salt all drains out And the melted ice is blue And quite good for drinking engines Etc End of footnote Truly the getting to our winter quarters Is no light task At first the gales and heavy seas And now this continuous fight 8pm We are getting on with much bumping And occasional hold ups Tuesday December 13th I was up most of the night Never have I experienced such rapid And complete changes of prospect Chetam in the last dog watch Was running the ship through sludgy new ice Making with all sailset Four or five knots Bruce in the first took over As we got into heavy ice again But after a severe tussle Got through into better conditions The ice of yesterday Loose with sludgy thin flows Between The middle watch found us making For an open lead The ice around hard and heavy We got through And by sticking to the open water And then to some recently frozen Pools Made good progress At the end of the middle watch Trouble began again And during this in the first part of the morning We were wrestling with the worst conditions We have met Heavy hummocked bay ice The flows standing seven or eight feet Out of water And very deep below It was just such ice as we encountered At King Edward's land In the discovery I've never seen anything more formidable The last part of the morning watch Was spent in a long, recently frozen Lead or pool And the ship went well ahead again These changes sound tame enough But they are a great strain On one's nerves One is forever wondering Whether one is done riding Trying to come down so far east And have a regard to coal What ought to be done Under the circumstances In the first watch came Many alterations of opinion Time and again it looks as though We ought to stop when it seemed feudal To be pushing and pushing Without result Then would come a stretch of easygoing And the impression that All was going very well with us The fact of the matter is It is difficult not to imagine the conditions In which one finds oneself To be more extensive Than they are It is wearing to have to face New conditions every hour This morning We met at breakfast in great spirits The ship has been Boring along well for two hours Then Chetam Suddenly ran her into a belt of the worst And we were held up immediately We can push back again I think But meanwhile We have taken advantage of the conditions To watershed These big flows are very handy For that purpose at any rate Renek got a sounding 2,124 f Similar bottom Including volcanic lava December 13th Continued 67 degree 30 south 177 degree 58 west Made good S20 E27 See you close here S21 We got in several tons of ice Then pushed off and slowly And laboriously Worked our way to one of the recently frozen pools It was not easily crossed But when we came to its junction With the next part to the southwest In which direction I proposed to go We were quite hung up A little inspection Showed that the big flows Were tending to close It seems as though the tenacity Of the six or seven inches Of ice over the pools Is enormously increased By lateral pressure But whatever the cause We could not budge We have decided to put fires out And remain here till the conditions change Altogether for the better It is sheer waste of coal To make further attempts to break through As things are at present We've been set to the east During the past days Is it the normal set in the region Of the influence of westerly winds? Possibly much depends On this as concerns are Data release It is annoying but one must contain One's soul and patience And hope for a brighter outlook In a day or two Meanwhile we shall sound And do as much biological work As is possible The pack is a sunless place As a rule This morning we had bright sunshine But later the sky clouded over From the north again And now it is snowing dismally It is calm Wednesday December 14th Position North to west One half The pack's still close around From the mast head one can see A few patches of open water In different directions But the main outlook is the same scene Of desolate Hummocky pack The wind has come from the southwest Force two We have bright sunshine and good sights The ship Has swung to the wind And the flows around are continually moving They change their relative positions In a slow, furtive, creeping fashion The temperature is 35 degree The water 29.2 degree To 29.5 Under such conditions This ought to be weakening all the time A few inches of such stuff Should allow us to push through anywhere One realizes the awful monotony Of a long stay in the pack Such as Nansen and others experienced One can imagine such days as these Lengthening into interminable Months and years For us there is novelty And everyone has work to do or makes work So that there is no keen sense Of impatience Nelson and Lily Were up all night with the current meter It is not quite satisfactory But some result has been obtained They will also get a series of Temperatures and samples And use the vertical Tone it The current is satisfactory Both days the fixes have been good It is best that we should go north And west I had a great fear that we should Be drifted east and Sew away to regions of permanent Pack If we go on in this direction It can only be a question of time Before we are freed We've all been away on ski On the large flow To which we anchored this morning Grand is wonderfully good And gives instruction well It was hot and garments came off One by one The soldier, footnote And Atkinson Were stripped to the waist Eventually And have been sliding around the flow For some time in that condition Nearly everyone has been wearing goggles The glare is very bad Pontein Tried to get a color picture But unfortunately the ice colors Are too delicate for this Tonight Campbell Evans and I went over the flow And each in turn toed the other two It was fairly easy work That is to pull 310 to 320 pounds One could pull it perhaps More easily on foot Yet it would be impossible to pull Such a load on a sledge What a puzzle this Pulling of loads is If one could think that this Captivity was soon to end There would be little reason to regret it It is giving practice with our Deep sea gear Everyone keen to learn the proper use Of ski This well is increased considerably But it is impossible to tell From what direction it comes One can simply note that the ship And brash ice swing to and fro Bumping into the flow Note from the glossary Brash Small ice fragments From a flow that is breaking up End of note We opened the ice house today And found the meat in excellent condition Most of it still frozen Thursday December 15th 66 degree 23 south 177 degree 59 west Sit North 2, east 5 and 1 half In the morning the conditions were unaltered Went for a ski run before breakfast It makes a wonderful difference To get the blood circulating By a little exercise After breakfast We served out ski To the men of the landing party They are all very keen to learn And grand has been out Morning and afternoon giving instruction Mirrors got some of his dogs out And a sledge Two Lots of seven Those that looked in worse condition And several are getting very fat They were very short of wind It is difficult to understand How they can get so fat As they only get 2 and a half biscuits a day At the most The ponies are looking very well on the whole Especially those in the outside stalls Renate got a sounding today 1844 fathoms Reversible thermometers Were placed close to bottom And 500 fathoms up We shall get a very good series Of temperatures from the bottom up During the wait Nelson will try to get some more current observations Tonight or tomorrow It is very trying to find One self continually drifting north But one is thankful not to be going east Tonight it has fallen calm And the flows have decided they opened There is a lot of water about the ship But it does not look to extend far Meanwhile the brush And thinner flows are melting Everything of that sort must help But it is trying to the patients To be delayed like this We have seen enough to know that With a north westerly or a westerly wind The flows tend to pack And that they open when it is calm The question is Will they open more with an easterly Or a south easterly wind That is the hope Signs of open water round and about Are certainly increasing Rather than diminishing Friday December 16th The winds bring up from the northeast This morning bringing snow The light hail and finally rain It grew very thick And has remained so all day Early the flow in which We had done so much skiing Broke up and we gathered In our ice anchors Then put on head sail To which she gradually paid off With a fair wind we set sail On the four mast And slowly but surely She pushed the heavy flows aside At lunchtime we entered A long lead of open water And for nearly half an hour we sailed along Comfortably in it Entering the pack again We found the flows much lighter And again pushed on slowly In all we may have made as much As three miles I have observed for some time Some flows of immense area In a chain of lakes in this pack And have been most anxious to discover Their thickness They are most certainly the result of the freezing Of comparatively recent pools In the winter pack And it follows that they must be getting weaker Day by day If one could be certain firstly That these big areas extend to the south And secondly that the ship Could go through them It would be worth getting upstream We've arrived at the edge Of one of these flows And the ship will not go through under sail But I'm sure she would do so Under steam Is this a typical flow And are there more ahead? One of the ponies got down This afternoon Oats thinks it was probably asleep and fell But the incident is alarming The animals are not too strong On this account This delay is harassing Otherwise we should not have Much to regret Saturday December 17th 67 degree 24 177 degree 34 Drift for 48 hours South 82 East 9.7 Note from the glossary Drift Snow swept from the ground Like dust And driven before the wind End of note It rained hard And the glass fell rapidly last night With every sign of a coming gale This morning the wind increased To 4.6 from the west with snow At noon The barograph curve Turned up and the wind moderated The sky gradually clearing Tonight It is fairly bright and clear There is a light southwesterly wind It seems rather as though The great gales of the westerlies Must begin in these latitudes With such mild disturbances As we have just experienced I think it is the first time I have known rain Beyond the Antarctic circle It is interesting to speculate On its effect in melting the flows We have scarcely moved all day But birds Which have become quite old friends Through the week are on the move And one has approached And almost circled us Evidently these birds are moving about In a regular fashion Only they must have all traveled A little east in the 48 hours As we have done Another interesting observation Tonight is that of the slow passage Of a stream of old heavy flows Past the ship and The lighter ice in which she is held There are signs of water sky to the south And I am impatient to be off But still one feels that waiting May be good policy And I should certainly contemplate Waiting some time longer If it weren't for the ponies Everyone is wonderfully cheerful There is laughter all day Nelson finished a series of Temperatures and samples today With an observation at 1800 meters Series of sea temperatures December 14th Depth meters Zero Temperature uncorrected Negative 1.67 At 10 meters Negative 1.84 20 Negative 1.86 30 Negative 1.89 50 Negative 1.92 75 Negative 1.93 100 Negative 1.80 150 Negative 0.63 At 200 0.24 500 1.18 1500 0.935 4 December 17th 1800 meters Temperature 0.61 2300 meters Temperature 0.48 4 December 15th Temperatures Temperature 0.28 3220 0.11 3650 Negative 0.13 No sample At 3891 Bottom For December 20th 2300 Parentheses 1260 FMS Temperature 0.48 At 3220 Parentheses 1660 FMS 0.11 Degree Centigrade 3300 Bottom A curious point is that the bottom layer is 2 tenths higher on the 20th remaining in accord with the same depth on the 15th. Sunday December 18th In the night it fell calm and the flows opened out. There's more open water between the flows around us, yet not a great deal more. In general what we've observed on the opening of the pack means a very small increase in the open water spaces. But enough to convey the impression that the flows, instead of wishing to rub shoulders and grind against one another, desire to be apart. They touch lightly where they touch at all. Such a condition makes much difference to the ship in attempts to force her through as each flow is freer to move on being struck. If a pack be taken as an area bounded by open water it is evident that a small increase of the periphery or a small outward movement of the flows will add much to the open water spaces and create a general freedom. The opening of this pack was reported at 3 AM and orders were given to raise steam. The die is cast and we must now make a determined push for the open southern sea. There is a considerable swell from the northwest. It should help us to get along. Evening Again, extraordinary differences of fortune. At first things looked very bad. It took nearly half an hour to get started, much more than an hour to work away to one of the area flows to which I have referred. Then to my horror the ship refused to look at it. Again by hard fighting we worked away to a crack running across the sheet and to get through this crack required many stoppages and engine reversals. Then we had to shoot away south to avoid another unbroken flow of large area, but after we had rounded this things became easier. We were almost able to keep a steady course only occasionally hung up by some thicker flow. The rest of the ice was fairly recent and easily broken. At 7 the leads of recent ice became easier still and at 8 we entered a long lane of open water. For a time we almost thought we had come to the end of our troubles and there was much jubilation. But alas at the end of the lead we came again to heavy bay ice. It is undoubtedly this mixture of bay ice which causes the open leads and I cannot but think that this is the King Edward's land pack. We are making southwest as best we can. What an exasperating game this is. One cannot tell what is going to happen in the next half or even quarter of an hour. At one moment everything looks flourishing. The next one begins to doubt if it is possible new fish. Just at the end of the open lead tonight we capsized a small flow and thereby jerked a fish out on top of another one. We stopped and picked it up finding it a beautiful silver-gray genus notothinia I think a new species. Snow squalls have been passing at intervals. The wind continues in the northwest it is comparatively warm. We saw the first full-grown Emperor Penguin tonight and the first part of Chapter 2.