92 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
I find a note in my own diary as to what happened 
after that: ‘‘Last night the ice was getting very soft in 
places, and I was a little doubtful about leading ponies 
over a spot on the route to the hut which is about a quarter 
of a mile from the ship. It has been thawing very fast the 
last few days, and has been very hot as Antarctic weather 
goes. This morning was the same, and Bailey went in up 
to his neck. 
‘Some half-hour after the motor was put on to the 
floe, we were told to tow it on to firm ice as that near the 
ship was breaking up. All hands started on a long tow 
line. We got on to the rotten piece, and somebody behind 
shouted ‘You must run.’ From that moment everything 
happened very quickly. Williamson fell right in through 
the ice; immediately afterwards we were all brought up 
with a jerk. Then the line began to pull us backwards ; 
the stern of the motor had sunk through the ice, and the 
whole car began to sink. It slowly went right through and 
disappeared and then the tow line followed it. Everything 
possible was done to hang on to the rope, but in the end we 
had to let it go, each man keeping his hold until he was 
dragged to the lip of the hole. Then we made for the fast 
ice, leaving the rotten bit between us and the ship. 
“Pennell and Priestley sounded their way back to the 
ship, and Day asked Priestley to bring his goggles when he 
returned. They came back with a life-line, Pennell leading. 
Suddenly the ice gave way under Priestley, who disap- 
peared entirely and came up, so we learned afterwards, 
under the ice, there being a big current. In a moment 
Pennell was lying flat upon the floe on his chest, got his 
hand under Priestley’s arm, and so pulled him out. All 
Priestley said was, ‘Day, here are your goggles.’ We all 
got back to the ship, but communication between the ship 
and the shore was interrupted for the rest of the day, when 
a solid road was found right up to the ship in another 
place,’’ 2 
Meanwhile the hut was rising very quickly, and Davies, 
who was Chippy Chap, the carpenter, deserves much credit. 
1 My own diary. 
