ESCAPE FROM THE ICE 
too, the chance of the berg splitting or even overturning during 
our stay. It is not possible to gauge the condition of a big 
mass of ice by surface appearance. The ice may have a fault, 
and when the wind, current, and swell set up strains and 
tensions, the line of weakness may reveal itself suddenly and 
disastrously. No, I do not like the idea of drifting on a berg. 
We must stay on our floe till conditions improve and then make 
another attempt to advance towards the land." 
At 6.30 p.m. a particularly heavy shock went through our 
floe. The watchman and other members of the party made an 
immediate inspection and found a crack right under the James 
Caird and between the other two boats and the main camp. 
Within five minutes the boats were over the crack and close 
to the tents. The trouble was not caused by a blow from 
another floe. We could see that the piece of ice we occupied 
had slewed and now presented its long axis towards the on- 
coming swell. The floe, therefore, was pitching in the manner 
of a ship, and it had cracked across when the swell lifted the 
centre, leaving the two ends comparatively unsupported. We 
were now on a triangular raft of ice, the three sides measuring, 
roughly, 90, 100, and 120 yds. Night came down dull and 
overcast, and before midnight the wind had freshened from 
the west. We could see that the pack was openmg under the 
influence of wind, wave, and current, and I felt that the time 
for launching the boats was near at hand. Indeed, it was 
obvious that even if the conditions were unfavourable for a 
start during the coming day, we could not safely stay on the 
floe many hours longer. The movement of the ice in the swell 
was increasing, and the floe might split right under our camp. 
We had made preparations for quick action if anything of the 
kind occurred. Our case would be desperate if the ice broke 
into small pieces not large enough to support our party and 
not loose enough to permit the use of the boats. 
The following day was Sunday (April 9), but it proved no 
day of rest for us. Many of the important events of our 
Expedition occurred on Sundays, and this particular day was 
to see our forced departure from the floe on which we had 
lived for nearly six months, and the start of our journeyings in 
121 
