The 'Dudley Docker'
ran down to me at dusk and Worsley suggested that we should stand on
all night; but already the 'Stancomb Wills' was barely discernible
among the rollers in the gathering dusk, and I decided that it would be
safer to heave to and wait for the daylight. It would never have done
for the boats to have become separated from one another during the
night. The party must be kept together, and, moreover, I thought it
possible that we might overrun our goal in the darkness and not be able
to return. So we made a sea-anchor of oars and hove to, the 'Dudley
Docker' in the lead, since she had the longest painter. The 'James
Caird' swung astern of the 'Dudley Docker' and the 'Stancomb Wills'
again had the third place. We ate a cold meal and did what little we
could to make things comfortable for the hours of darkness. Rest was
not for us. During the greater part of the night the sprays broke over
the boats and froze in masses of ice, especially at the stern and bows.
This ice had to be broken away in order to prevent the boats growing
too heavy. The temperature was below zero and the wind penetrated our
clothes and chilled us almost unbearably. I doubted if all the men
would survive that night. One of our troubles was lack of water. We
had emerged so suddenly from the pack into the open sea that we had not
had time to take aboard ice for melting in the cookers, and without ice
we could not have hot food.
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