We had hoped that some steamer from the north would bring news of war
and perhaps letters from home before our departure. A ship did arrive
on the evening of the 4th, but she carried no letters, and nothing
useful in the way of information could be gleaned from her. The captain
and crew were all stoutly pro-German, and the "news" they had to give
took the unsatisfying form of accounts of British and French reverses.
We would have been glad to have had the latest tidings from a
friendlier source. A year and a half later we were to learn that the
'Harpoon', the steamer which tends the Grytviken station, had arrived
with mail for us not more than two hours after the 'Endurance' had
proceeded down the coast.
The bows of the 'Endurance' were turned to the south, and the good
ship dipped to the south-westerly swell. Misty rain fell during the
forenoon, but the weather cleared later in the day, and we had a good
view of the coast of South Georgia as we moved under steam and sail to
the south-east. The course was laid to carry us clear of the island
and then south of South Thule, Sandwich Group. The wind freshened
during the day, and all square sail was set, with the foresail reefed
in order to give the look-out a clear view ahead; for we did not wish
to risk contact with a "growler," one of those treacherous fragments of
ice that float with surface awash.
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