SOUTH 
movement exposed these comparatively warm spots to the 
biting air, we clung motionless, whispering each to his com- 
panion our hopes and thoughts. Occasionally from an almost 
clear sky came snow-showers, falling silently on the sea and 
laying a thin shroud of white over our bodies and our boats. 
The dawn of April 13 came clear and bright, with occasional 
passing clouds. Most of the men were now looking seriously 
worn and strained. Their lips were cracked and their eyes and 
eyelids showed red in their salt-encrusted faces. The beards 
even of the younger men might have been those of patriarchs, for 
the frost and the salt spray had made them white. I called the 
Dudley Docker alongside and found that the condition of the people 
there was no better than in the James Caird. Obviously we must 
make land quickly, and I decided to run for Elephant Island. 
The wind had shifted fair for that rocky isle, then about one 
hundred miles away, and the pack that separated us from Hope 
Bay had closed up during the night from the south. At 6 a.m. 
we made a distribution of stores among the three boats, in 
view of the possibility of their being separated. The prepara- 
tion of a hot breakfast was out of the question. The breeze 
was strong and the sea was running high in the loose pack around 
us. We had a cold meal, and I gave orders that all hands might 
eat as much as they pleased, this concession being due partly 
to a realization that we would have to jettison some of our 
stores when we reached open sea in order to lighten the boats, 
I hoped, moreover, that a full meal of cold rations would 
compensate to some extent for the lack of warm food and 
shelter. Unfortunately, some of the men were unable to take 
advantage of the extra food owing to sea-sickness. Poor fellows, 
it was bad enough to be huddled in the deeply laden, spray- 
swept boats, frost-bitten and half frozen, without having the 
pangs of sea-sickness added to the list of their woes. But some 
smUes were caused even then by the plight of one man, who 
had a habit of accumulating bits of food against the day of 
starvation that he seemed always to think was at hand, and 
who was condemned now to watch impotently while hungry 
comrades with undisturbed stomachs made biscuits, rations, 
and sugar disappear with extraordinary rapidity. 
134 
