I spent the middle watch in the crow’s-nest, Bowers being up there with me talking over the Expedition, his future and mine.  He was a wonderful watch companion, especially when he got on to his favourite subject, India.  He had some good tales to tell of the Persian Gulf, of days and weeks spent boat-cruising, of attacks made on gun-running dhows and kindred adventure.  He told me that one dhow was boarded while he was up the Gulf, when the Arabs, waiting until most of the boat’s crew of bluejackets were on board, suddenly let go the halyards of their great sail and let it down crash over the lot, the boom breaking many heads and the sail burying our seamen, while the Arabs got to work and practically scuppered the crowd.

Soon after 4 a.m.  I went below and turned in, confident that we were nearing the southern extreme of the pack.  Captain Scott awoke when I went into the cabin, pleased at the prospect, but after so many adverse ice conditions he shook his head, unwilling to believe that we should get clear yet awhile.  I bet him ten sardine sandwiches that we should be out of the pack by noon on the 30th, and when I turned out at 8 o’clock I was delighted to find the ship steaming through thin floes and passing into a series of great open water leads.  By 6 p.m. on the 29th a strong breeze was blowing, snow was falling, and we were punching along under steam and sail.  Sure enough we got out of the pack early on the 30th and, cracking on all our canvas, were soon doing eight knots with a following wind.

Later in the day the wind headed us with driving snow, fine rain, and, unfortunately, a considerable head swell.  This caused the ship to pitch so badly that the ponies began to give trouble again.  Oates asked for the speed to be reduced, but we got over this by setting fore and aft sail and keeping the ship’s head three or four points off the wind.  New Year’s Eve gave us another anxious time, for we encountered a hard blow from the S.S.E.  It was necessary to heave the ship to most of the day under bare poles with the engines just jogging to keep the swell on her bow.  A thin line of pack ice was sighted in the morning and this turned out to be quite a blessing in disguise, for I took the ship close to the edge of it and skirted along to leeward.  The ice formed a natural break-water and damped the swell most effectually.  The swell and sea in the open would have been too much for the ponies as it must be remembered that they had been in their stalls on board for five weeks.

We had now reached the Continental Shelf, the depth of water had changed from 1111 fathoms on the 30th to 180 fathoms this day.  The biologists took advantage of our jogging along in the open water to trawl, but very few specimens were obtained.  At midnight the “youth of the town” made the devil of a din by striking sixteen bells, blowing whistles on the siren, hooting with the foghorn, cheering and singing.  What children we were, but what matter!