CHAPTER XIV 
WINTERING IN McMURDO SOUND 
The Aurora, after picking up six men at Hut Point on March 11, 
had gone back to Cape Evans. The position chosen for the 
winter quarters of the Aurora was at Cape Evans, immediately 
off the hut erected by Captain Scott on his last Expedition. 
The ship on March 14 lay about forty yards off shore, bows 
seaward. Two anchors had been taken ashore and embedded 
in heavy stone rubble, and to these anchors were attached 
six steel hawsers. The hawsers held the stern, while the bow 
was secured by the ordinary ship's anchors. Later, when the 
new ice had formed round the Aurora, the cable was dragged 
ashore over the smooth surface and made fast. The final 
moorings thus were six hawsers and one cable astern, made fast 
to the shore anchors, and two anchors with about seventy 
fathoms of cable out forward. On March 23 Mr. Stenhouse 
landed a party consisting of Stevens, Spencer-Smith, Gaze, 
and Richards in order that they might carry out routine obser- 
vations ashore. These four men took up their quarters in 
Captain Scott's hut. They had been instructed to kill seals 
for meat and blubber. The landing of stores, gear, and coal 
did not proceed at all rapidly, it being assumed that the ship 
would remain at her moorings throughout the winter. Some 
tons of coal were taken ashore during April, but most of it 
stayed on the beach, and much of it was lost later when the 
sea-ice went out. This shore party was in the charge of Stevens, 
and his report, handed to me much later, gives a succinct 
account of what occurred, from the point of view of the men 
at the hut. 
" Cape Evans, Ross Island, July 30, 1915. 
On the 23rd March, 1915, a party consisting of Spencer- 
Smith, Richards, and Gaze was landed at Cape Evans Hut in 
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