422 WITH SCOTT: THE SILVER LINING 



propeller. For about ten minutes the engine could not move 

 the shaft. They managed to prise the ice away finally by 

 poking rods down the rudder post. The grinding and 

 bumping of the blades on the ice was physically painful. It 

 jarred one's whole system just like having a tooth out. The 

 shock to the propeller, mainshaft, and engine must have 

 been enormous. Luckily our propeller was four times the 

 usual size for a ship of our tonnage ; but Williams thinks the 

 main shaft might go quite easily, and then we should be in a 

 mess ! 



" ind March. — During the morning we skirted the pack 

 southward, doing a sort of * blanket-stitch ' course in a vain 

 endeavour to find a passage through to Campbell." 



Dr. Atkinson was on board attending to Evans, who was 

 unable to move from his bunk until the day we reached New 

 Zealand (2nd April). We had again to give up hope of 

 rescuing Campbell, and turned south to land Atkinson. At 

 9.30 p.m. we were about thirty miles S.E. of the Drygalski 

 Tongue, and soon had to heave-to on account of bad weather. 

 But in the afternoon of the 3rd the wind dropped, and in 

 about ten minutes the sea was frozen over ! 



However, this time we reached the Cape fairly readily, 

 and when I woke on the morning of the 4th I found that we 

 were off the Hut and that a boat was going to fetch Keohane. 

 He and Atkinson were then landed at Hut Point, and we had 

 to ice ship again at Glacier Tongue. 



Every man was busily employed. Heald, McCarthy, 

 Parsons, and Cheetham quarried the ice at the nearest spot 

 where it seemed solid and free from snow. They filled baskets 

 which Dennistoun, Leese, and myself pulled to the ice edge. 

 Here Simpson and Rennick linked the baskets on to the rope, 

 and Lillie, Drake, and Ponting hauled it aboard. Day and 

 Mather carried it to the tanks, and Meares and Bruce tipped 

 the baskets into the latter. It was hard work, and kept us 

 going from 3 p.m. till 10 p.m. Still there was some fun at 

 times. Leese harnessed the brown sledge dog Tsigan to help 

 him with his sledge, and Tsigan occasionally bolted over the 

 glacier. One basket fell into the sea, and Bill Heald lowered 

 me on a rope till I could grab it ; then (as usual) he hauled 

 up too quickly, and I was dragged through the snow cornice 

 and pretty well filled with soft snow ! 



