The position then
was lat. 70° 28? S., long. 20° 16? W., and the run had been 62 miles S.
62° W. At 8 a.m. there had been open water from north round by west to
south-west, but impenetrable pack to the south and east. At 3 p.m. the
way to the south-west and west-north-west was absolutely blocked, and
as we experienced a set to the west, I did not feel justified in
burning more of the reduced stock of coal to go west or north. I took
the ship back over our course for four miles, to a point where some
looser pack gave faint promise of a way through; but, after battling
for three hours with very heavy hummocked ice and making four miles to
the south, we were brought up by huge blocks and floes of very old
pack. Further effort seemed useless at that time, and I gave the order
to bank fires after we had moored the 'Endurance' to a solid floe. The
weather was clear, and some enthusiastic football-players had a game on
the floe until, about midnight, Worsley dropped through a hole in
rotten ice while retrieving the ball. He had to be retrieved himself.
Solid pack still barred the way to the south on the following morning
(January 6). There was some open water north of the floe, but as the
day was calm and I did not wish to use coal in a possibly vain search
for an opening to the southward, I kept the ship moored to the floe.
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