THE RESCUE 
sea seemed to grow silent. I looked over the side and saw a 
thin film of ice. The sea was freezing around us and the ice 
gradually grew thicker, reducing our speed to about five knots. 
Then lumps of old pack began to appear among the new ice. 
I realized that an advance through pack-ice was out of the 
question. The Southern Sky was a steel-built steamer, and her 
structure, while strong to resist the waves, would not endure 
the blows of masses of ice. So I took the ship north, and at 
daylight on Friday we got clear of the pancake-ice. We 
skirted westward, awaiting favourable conditions. The morning 
of the 28th was dull and overcast, with little wind. Again the 
ship's head was turned to the south-west, but at 3 p.m. a definite 
line of pack showed up on the horizon. We were about 70 
miles from Elephant Island, but there was no possibility of 
taking the steamer through the ice that barred the way. North- 
west again we turned. We were directly north of the island 
on the following day, and I made another move south. Heavy 
pack formed an impenetrable barrier. 
To admit failure at this stage was hard, but the facts had 
to be faced. The Southern Sky could not enter ice of even 
moderate thickness. The season was late, and we could not be 
sure that the ice would open for many months, though my 
opinion was that the pack would not become fast in that quarter 
even in the winter, owing to the strong winds and currents. 
The Southern Sky could carry coal for ten days only, and we 
had been out six days. We were 500 miles from the Falkland 
Islands and about 600 miles from South Georgia. So I deter- 
mined that, since we could not w^ait about for an opening, 
I would proceed to the Falklands, get a more suitable vessel 
either locally or from England, and make a second attempt 
to reach Elephant Island from that point. 
We encountered very bad weather on the way up, but in 
the early afternoon of May 31 we arrived at Port Stanley, 
where the cable provided a link with the outer world. The 
harbour-master came out to meet us, and after we had dropped 
anchor I went ashore and met the Governor, Mr. Douglas Young. 
He ofiered me his assistance at once. He telephoned to Mr. 
Harding, the manager of the Falkland Islands station, and I 
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