SOUTH 
a lot of attention. Her head must be pointed between floee 
by means of ice-anchors and warps, or by mooring to a floe 
and steaming round it. We kept a fairly good course between 
two bergs to our northward and made about five miles northing 
before, darkness coming on, the men could no longer venture 
on the floes with safety to fix the anchors/' 
The next three days were full of anxiety. The Aurora was 
held by the ice, and subjected to severe buffeting, while two 
bergs approached from the north. On the morning of the 10th 
the nearest berg was within three cables of the ship. But the 
pack had opened and by 9.30 a.m. the ship was out of the 
danger zone and headed north-north-east. The pack continued 
to open during the afternoon, and the Aurora passed through 
wide stretches of small loose floes and brash. Progress was 
good until darkness made a stop necessary. The next morning 
the pack was denser. Stenhouse shipped a preventer jury- 
rudder (the weighted spanker gaff), but could not get steerage 
way. Broad leads were sighted to the north-west in the after- 
noon, and the ship got within a quarter of a mile of the nearest 
lead before being held up by heavy pack. She again bumped 
severely during the night, and the watch stood by with fenders 
to ease the more dangerous blows. 
Early next morning Stenhouse lowered a jury-rudder, with 
steering-pennants to drag through the water, and moved north 
to north-west through heavy pack. He made sixteen miles 
that day on an erratic course, and then spent an anxious night 
with the ship setting back into the pack and being pounded 
heavily. Attempts to work forward to an open lead on the 
morning of the 13th were unsuccessful. Early in the afternoon 
a little progress was made, with all hands standing by to fend 
ofi high ice, and at 4.50 p.m. the Aurora cleared the main pack. 
An hour was spent shipping the jury-rudder under the counter, 
and then the ship moved slowly northward. There was pack 
still ahead, and the bergs and growlers were a constant menace 
in the hours of darkness. Some anxious work remained to be 
done, since bergs and scattered ice extended in all directions, 
but at 2 p.m. on March 14 the Aurora cleared the last belt of 
pack in lat, 62^ 27*5' S., long. 157° 32' E. " We ' spliced the 
332 
