... We had now had one hundred and eight hours of toil, tumbling,
freezing, and soaking, with little or no sleep. I think Sir Ernest,
Wild, Greenstreet, and I could say that we had no sleep at all.
Although it was sixteen months since we had been in a rough sea, only
four men were actually seasick, but several others were off colour.
"The temperature was 20° below freezing-point; fortunately, we were
spared the bitterly low temperature of the previous night.
Greenstreet's right foot got badly frost-bitten, but Lees restored it
by holding it in his sweater against his stomach. Other men had minor
frost-bites, due principally to the fact that their clothes were soaked
through with salt water.... We were close to the land as the morning
approached, but could see nothing of it through the snow and spindrift.
My eyes began to fail me. Constant peering to windward, watching for
seas to strike us, appeared to have given me a cold in the eyes. I
could not see or judge distance properly, and found myself falling
asleep momentarily at the tiller. At 3 a.m. Greenstreet relieved me
there. I was so cramped from long hours, cold, and wet, in the
constrained position one was forced to assume on top of the gear and
stores at the tiller, that the other men had to pull me amidships and
straighten me out like a jack-knife, first rubbing my thighs, groin,
and stomach.
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