LOSS OF THE ENDURANCE 
" To-night the temperature has dropped to - 16"^ Fahr., 
and most of the men are cold and uncomfortable. After the 
tents had been pitched I mustered all hands and explained the 
position to them briefly and, I hope, clearly. I have told them 
the distance to the Barrier and the distance to Paulet Island, 
and have stated that I propose to try to march with equipment 
across the ice in the direction of Paulet Island. I thanked the 
men for the steadiness and good 7noral they have shown in 
these trying circumstances, and told them I had no doubt 
that, provided they continued to work their utmost and to 
trust me, we will all reach safety in the end. Then we had 
supper, which the cook had prepared at the big blubber stove, 
and after a watch had been set all hands except the watch turned 
in." For myself, I could not sleep. The destruction and 
abandonment of the ship was no sudden shock. The disaster 
had been looming ahead for many months, and I had studied 
my plans for all contingencies a hundred times. But the 
thoughts that came to me as I walked up and down in the 
darkness were not particularly cheerful. The task now was 
to secure the safety of the party, and to that I must bend my 
energies and mental power and apply every bit of knowledge 
that experience of the Antarctic had given me. The task was 
likely to be long and strenuous, and an ordered mind and a 
clear programme were essential if we were to come through 
without loss of life. A man must shape himself to a new 
mark directly the old one goes to ground. 
At midnight I was pacing the ice, listening to the grinding 
floe and to the groans and crashes that told of the death- 
agony of the Endurance^ when I noticed suddenly a crack 
running across our floe right through the camp. The alarm- 
whistle brought all hands tumbling out, and we moved the 
tents and stores lying on what was now the smaller portion 
of the floe to the larger portion. Nothing more could be done 
at that moment, and the men turned in again ; but there was 
little sleep. Each time I came to the end of my beat on the 
floe I could just see in the darkness the uprearing piles of 
pressure-ice, which toppled over and narrowed still further the 
little floating island we occupied. I did not notice at the time 
77 
