SOUTH 
and no doubt it was one of these sets that we had experienced. 
The originating cause would be a north-westerly gale off Cape 
Horn, producmg the swell that had already caused us so much 
trouble. After a whispered consultation with Worsley and 
Wild I announced that we had not made as much progress as 
we expected, but I did not inform the hands of our retrograde 
movement. 
Tlie question of our course now demanded further considera- 
tion. Deception Island seemed to be beyond our reach. The 
wind was foul for Elephant Island, and as the sea was clear 
to the south-west, I discussed with Worsley and Wild the 
advisability of proceeding to Hope Bay on the mainland of the 
Antarctic Continent, now only eighty miles distant. Elephant 
Island was the nearest land, but it lay outside the main body 
of pack, and even if the wind had been fair we would have 
hesitated at that particular time to face the high sea that was 
running in the open. We laid a course roughly for Hope Bay, 
and the boats moved on again. I gave Worsley a line for a 
berg ahead and told him, if possible, to make fast before darkness 
set in. This was about three o'clock in the afternoon. We had 
set sail, and as the Stancomh Wills could not keep up with the 
other two boats I took her in tow, not being anxious to repeat 
the experience of the day we left the reeling berg. The Dudley 
Docker went ahead, but came beating down towards us at dusk. 
Worsley had been close to the berg, and he reported that it 
was unapproachable. It was rolling in the swell and displaying 
an ugly ice-foot. The news was bad. In the failing light we 
turned towards a line of pack, and found it so tossed and 
churned by the sea that no fragment remained big enough to 
give us an anchorage and shelter. Two miles away we could 
see a larger piece of ice, and to it we managed, after some 
trouble, to secure the boats. I brought my boat bow on to 
the floe, whilst Howe, with the painter in his hand, stood ready 
to jump. Standing up to watch our chance, while the oars 
were held ready to back the moment Howe had made his leap, 
I could see that there would be no possibility of getting the 
galley ashore that night. Howe just managed to get a footing 
on the edge of the floe, and then made the painter fast to a 
132 
