At last daylight came, and with the dawn the weather cleared and the
wind fell to a gentle south-westerly breeze. A magnificent sunrise
heralded in what we hoped would be our last day in the boats. Rose-
pink in the growing light, the lofty peak of Clarence Island told of
the coming glory of the sun. The sky grew blue above us and the crests
of the waves sparkled cheerfully. As soon as it was light enough we
chipped and scraped the ice off the bows and sterns. The rudders had
been unshipped during the night in order to avoid the painters catching
them. We cast off our ice-anchor and pulled the oars aboard. They had
grown during the night to the thickness of telegraph-poles while rising
and falling in the freezing seas, and had to be chipped clear before
they could be brought inboard.
We were dreadfully thirsty now. We found that we could get momentary
relief by chewing pieces of raw seal meat and swallowing the blood, but
thirst came back with redoubled force owing to the saltness of the
flesh. I gave orders, therefore, that meat was to be served out only
at stated intervals during the day or when thirst seemed to threaten
the reason of any particular individual. In the full daylight Elephant
Island showed cold and severe to the north-north-west. The island was
on the bearings that Worsley had laid down, and I congratulated him on
the accuracy of his navigation under difficult circumstances, with two
days dead reckoning while following a devious course through the pack-
ice and after drifting during two nights at the mercy of wind and
waves.
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