SOUTH 
propeller and prevent it striking heavy ice, and the arrangement 
proved very valuable. It saved the rudder as well as the 
propeller from many blows. 
The high winds that had prevailed for four and a half 
days gave way to a gentle southerly breeze in the evening of 
December 29. Owing to the drift we w^ere actually eleven 
miles farther north than we had been on December 25. But 
we made fairly good progress on the 30th in fine, clear weather. 
The ship followed a long lead to the south-east during the 
afternoon and evening, and at 11 p.m. we crossed the Antarctic 
Cii'cle. An examination of the horizon disclosed considerable 
breaks in the vast circle of pack-ice, interspersed with bergs of 
different sizes. Leads could be traced in various directions, 
but I looked in vain for an indication of open water. The 
sun did not set that night, and as it was concealed behind a 
bank of clouds we had a glow of crimson and gold to the 
southward, with delicate pale green reflections in the water of 
the lanes to the south-east. 
The ship had a serious encomiter with the ice on the morning 
of December 31. We w^ere stopped first by floes closing around 
us, and then about noon the E^idurance got jammed between 
two floes heading ea,st-nortli-east. The pressure heeled the ship 
over six degrees while we were getting an ice-anchor on to the 
floe in order to heave astern and thus assist the engines, which 
were running at full speed. The effort was successful. 
Inmiediately afterwards, at the spot where the Endurance 
had been held, slabs of ice 60 ft. by 15 ft. and 4 ft, thick were 
forced ten or twelve feet up on the lee floe at an angle of 45 
degrees. The pressure was severe, and we were not sorry to have 
the ship out of its reach. The noon position was lat. 66"^ 47' S., 
long. 15° 52' W., and the run for the preceding twenty-four 
hours w^as 51 miles S. 29° E. 
" Since noon the character of the pack has improved," wrote 
Worsley on this day. Though the leads are short, the floes 
are rotten and easily broken through if a good place is selected 
with care and judgment. In many cases we find large sheets 
of young ice through whicli the ship cuts for a mile or two miles 
at a stretch. I have been conning and working the ship from 
16 
