SOUTH 
that my tent, whicli had been on the wrong side of the crack, 
had not been erected again. Hudson and James had managed 
to squeeze themselves into other tents, and Hm4ey had wrapped 
himself in the canvas of No. 1 tent. I discovered this about 5 a.m. 
All night long the electric light gleamed from the stern of the dying 
Endurance. Hussey had left this light switched on when he took a 
last observation, and, like a lamp in a cottage wmdow, it braved 
the night until in the early morning the Endurance received a 
particularly violent squeeze. There was a sound of rending beams 
and the light disappeared. The connexion had been cut. 
Morning came in chill and cheerless. All hands were stifi 
and weary after their first disturbed night on the floe. Just 
at daybreak I went over to the Endurance with Wild and 
Hurley, in order to retrieve some tins of petrol that could be 
used to boil up milk for the rest of the men. The ship presented 
a painful spectacle of chaos and wreck. The jib-boom and 
bowsprit had snapped off during the night and now lay at 
right angles to the ship, with the chains, martingale, and bob- 
stay dragging them as the vessel quivered and moved in the 
grinding pack. The ice had driven over the forecastle and she 
was well down by the head. We secured two tins of petrol 
with some difficulty, and postponed the further examination of 
the ship until after breakfast. Jumping across cracks with the 
tins, we soon reached camp, and built a fireplace out of the 
triangular water-tight tanks we had ripped from the Ufeboat. 
This we had done in order to make more room. Then we 
pierced a petrol-tin in half a dozen places with an ice-axe and 
set fire to it. The petrol blazed fiercely under the five-gallon 
drum we used as a cooker, and the hot milk was ready in quick 
time. Then we three ministering angels went round the tents 
with the life-giving drink, and were surprised and a trifle 
chagrined at the matter-of-fact manner in which some of the 
men accepted this contribution to their comfort. They did 
not quite understand what work we had done for them in the 
early dawn, and I heard Wild say, " If any of you gentlemen 
would like your boots cleaned just put them outside ! " This 
was his gentle way of reminding them that a little thanks will 
go a long way on such occasions. 
78 
