During December 6 the ‘Endurance’ made good progress on a south-easterly course.  The northerly breeze had freshened during the night and had brought up a high following sea.  The weather was hazy, and we passed two bergs, several growlers, and numerous lumps of ice.  Staff and crew were settling down to the routine.  Bird life was plentiful, and we noticed Cape pigeons, whale-birds, terns, mollymauks, nellies, sooty, and wandering albatrosses in the neighbourhood of the ship.  The course was laid for the passage between Sanders Island and Candlemas Volcano.  December 7 brought the first check.  At six o’clock that morning the sea, which had been green in colour all the previous day, changed suddenly to a deep indigo.  The ship was behaving well in a rough sea, and some members of the scientific staff were transferring to the bunkers the coal we had stowed on deck.  Sanders Island and Candlemas were sighted early in the afternoon, and the ‘Endurance’ passed between them at 6 p.m.  Worsley’s observations indicated that Sanders Island was, roughly, three miles east and five miles north of the charted position.  Large numbers of bergs, mostly tabular in form, lay to the west of the islands, and we noticed that many of them were yellow with diatoms.  One berg had large patches of red-brown soil down its sides.  The presence of so many bergs was ominous, and immediately after passing between the islands we encountered stream-ice.  All sail was taken in and we proceeded slowly under steam.  Two hours later, fifteen miles north-east of Sanders Island, the ‘Endurance’ was confronted by a belt of heavy pack-ice, half a mile broad and extending north and south.  There was clear water beyond, but the heavy south-westerly swell made the pack impenetrable in our neighbourhood.  This was disconcerting.  The noon latitude had been 57° 26´ S., and I had not expected to find pack-ice nearly so far north, though the whalers had reported pack-ice right up to South Thule.

The situation became dangerous that night.  We pushed into the pack in the hope of reaching open water beyond, and found ourselves after dark in a pool which was growing smaller and smaller.  The ice was grinding around the ship in the heavy swell, and I watched with some anxiety for any indication of a change of wind to the east, since a breeze from that quarter would have driven us towards the land.  Worsley and I were on deck all night, dodging the pack.  At 3 a.m. we ran south, taking advantage of some openings that had appeared, but met heavy rafted pack-ice, evidently old; some of it had been subjected to severe pressure.  Then we steamed north-west and saw open water to the north-east.  I put the ‘Endurance’s’ head for the opening, and, steaming at full speed, we got clear.  Then we went east in the hope of getting better ice, and five hours later, after some dodging, we rounded the pack and were able to set sail once more.  This initial tussle with the pack had been exciting at