INTO THE WEDDELL SEA 
the crow's-nest and find it much the best place, as from there 
one can see ahead and work out the course beforehand, and 
can also guard the rudder and propeller, the most vulnerable 
parts of a ship in the ice. At midnight, as I was sitting in the 
■ tub,' I heard a clamorous noise down on the deck, with ringing 
of bells, and realized that it was the New Year." Worsley 
came down from his lofty seat and met Wild, Hudson, and 
myself on the bridge, where we shook hands and wished one 
another a happy and successful New Year. Since entering the 
pack on December 11 we had come 480 miles through loose and 
close pack-ice. We had pushed and fought the little ship 
through, and she had stood the test well, though the propeller 
had received some shrewd blows agamst hard ice and the vessel 
had been driven against the floe mitil she had fahly moimted 
up on it and slid back rolling heavily from side to side. The 
rolling had been more frequently caused by the operation of 
cracking through thickish young ice, where the crack had taken 
a sinuous course. The ship, in attempting to follow it, struck 
first one bilge and then the other, causing her to roll six or seven 
degrees. Our advance through the pack had been in a S. 10° E. 
dhection, and I estimated that the total steaming distance 
had exceeded 700 miles. The first 100 miles had been 
through loose pack, but the greatest hindrances had been 
three moderate south-westerly gales, two lasting for three days 
each and one for four and a half days. The last 250 miles had 
been through close pack alternating with fine long leads and 
stretches of open water. 
During the weeks we spent manoeuvring to the south through 
the tortuous mazes of the pack it was necessary often to split 
floes by drivmg the ship against them. This form of attack 
was effective agamst ice up to three feet in thickness, and the 
process is interesting enough to be worth describing briefly. 
When the way was barred by a floe of moderate thickness we 
would drive the ship at half speed against it, stopping the 
engines just before the impact. At the first blow the Endurance 
would cut a V-shaped nick in the face of the floe, the slope 
of her cutwater often causing her bows to rise tiU nearly clear 
of the water, when she would shde backwards, rolling slightly, 
B 17 
