All trace of
the severe frost-bites suffered in the boat journey had disappeared,
though traces of recent superficial ones remained on some. All were
naturally weak when rescued, owing to having been on such scanty
rations for so long, but all were alive and very cheerful, thanks to
Frank Wild.
August 30, 1916, is described in their diaries as a "day of wonders."
Food was very short, only two days' seal and penguin meat being left,
and no prospect of any more arriving. The whole party had been
collecting limpets and seaweed to eat with the stewed seal bones.
Lunch was being served by Wild, Hurley and Marston waiting outside to
take a last long look at the direction from which they expected the
ship to arrive. From a fortnight after I had left, Wild would roll up
his sleeping-bag each day with the remark, "Get your things ready,
boys, the Boss may come to-day." And sure enough, one day the mist
opened and revealed the ship for which they had been waiting and
longing and hoping for over four months. "Marston was the first to
notice it, and immediately yelled out 'Ship O!' The inmates of the hut
mistook it for a call of 'Lunch O!' so took no notice at first. Soon,
however, we heard him pattering along the snow as fast as he could run,
and in a gasping, anxious voice, hoarse with excitement, he shouted,
'Wild, there's a ship! Hadn't we better light a flare?' We all made
one dive for our narrow door.
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