All the people, though evidently suffering, were doing
their best to be cheerful, and the prospect of a hot breakfast was
inspiriting. I told all the boats that immediately we could find a
suitable floe the cooker would be started and hot milk and Bovril would
soon fix everybody up. Away we rowed to the westward through open
pack, floes of all shapes and sizes on every side of us, and every man
not engaged in pulling looking eagerly for a suitable camping-place. I
could gauge the desire for food of the different members by the
eagerness they displayed in pointing out to me the floes they
considered exactly suited to our purpose. The temperature was about
10° Fahr., and the Burberry suits of the rowers crackled as the men
bent to the oars. I noticed little fragments of ice and frost falling
from arms and bodies. At eight o'clock a decent floe appeared ahead
and we pulled up to it. The galley was landed, and soon the welcome
steam rose from the cooking food as the blubber-stove flared and
smoked. Never did a cook work under more anxious scrutiny. Worsley,
Crean, and I stayed in our respective boats to keep them steady and
prevent collisions with the floe, since the swell was still running
strong, but the other men were able to stretch their cramped limbs and
run to and fro "in the kitchen," as somebody put it.
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