SOUTH 
feet were very badly frost-bitten. This was unfortunate, but 
nothing could be done. Most of the people were frost-bitten to 
some extent, and it was interesting to notice that the " old- 
timers," Wild, Crean, Hurley, and I, were all right. Apparently 
we were acclimatized to ordinary Antarctic temperature, though 
we learned later that we were not immune. 
All day, with a gentle breeze on our port bow, we sailed 
and pulled through a clear sea. We would have given all the 
tea in China for a lump of ice to melt into w^ater, but no ice 
was within our reach. Three bergs were in sight and we pulled 
towards them, hoping that a trail of brash would be floating 
on the sea to leeward ; but they were hard and blue, devoid 
sf any sign of cleavage, and the swell that surged around them 
AS they rose and fell made it impossible for us to approach 
closely. The wind was gradually hauling ahead, and as the day 
wore on the rays of the sun beat fiercely down from a cloud- 
less sky on pain-racked men. Progress was slow, but gradually 
Elephant Island came nearer. Always while I attended to 
the other boats, signalling and ordering, Wild sat at the 
tiller of the James Caird. He seemed unmoved by fatigue and 
unshaken by privation. About four o'clock in the afternoon 
a stiff breeze came up ahead and, blowing against the current, 
soon produced a choppy sea. During the next hour of hard 
pulling we seemed to make no progress at all. The James 
Caird and the Dudley Docker had been towing the Stancomh 
Wills in turn, but my boat now took the Stancomh Wills in 
tow permanently, as the James Caird could carry more sail 
than the Dudley Docker in the freshening wind. 
We were making up for the south-east side of Elephant Island, 
the wind being between north-west and "west. The boats, held 
as close to the wind as possible, moved slowly, and when dark- 
ness set in our goal was still some miles away. A heavy sea 
was running. We soon lost sight of the Stancomh Wills, astern 
of the James Caird at the length of the painter, but occasionally 
the white gleam of broken water revealed her presence. When 
the darkness was complete I sat in the stern with my hand 
on the painter, so that I might know if the other boat broke 
away, and I kept that position during the night. The rope 
138 
