At midnight, as I was sitting in the ‘tub’ I heard a clamorous noise down on the deck, with ringing of bells, and realized that it was the New Year.”  Worsley came down from his lofty seat and met Wild, Hudson, and myself on the bridge, where we shook hands and wished one another a happy and successful New Year.  Since entering the pack on December 11 we had come 480 miles, through loose and close pack-ice.  We had pushed and fought the little ship through, and she had stood the test well, though the propeller had received some shrewd blows against hard ice and the vessel had been driven against the floe until she had fairly mounted up on it and slid back rolling heavily from side to side.  The rolling had been more frequently caused by the operation of cracking through thickish young ice, where the crack had taken a sinuous course.  The ship, in attempting to follow it, struck first one bilge and then the other, causing her to roll six or seven degrees.  Our advance through the pack had been in a S. 10° E. direction, and I estimated that the total steaming distance had exceeded 700 miles.  The first 100 miles had been through loose pack, but the greatest hindrances had been three moderate south-westerly gales, two lasting for three days each and one for four and a half days.  The last 250 miles had been through close pack alternating with fine long leads and stretches of open water.

During the weeks we spent manoeuvring to the south through the tortuous mazes of the pack it was necessary often to split floes by driving the ship against them.  This form of attack was effective against ice up to three feet in thickness, and the process is interesting enough to be worth describing briefly.  When the way was barred by a floe of moderate thickness we would drive the ship at half speed against it, stopping the engines just before the impact.  At the first blow the ‘Endurance’ would cut a V-shaped nick in the face of the floe, the slope of her cutwater often causing her bows to rise till nearly clear of the water, when she would slide backwards, rolling slightly.  Watching carefully that loose lumps of ice did not damage the propeller, we would reverse the engines and back the ship off 200 to 300 yds.  She would then be driven full speed into the V, taking care to hit the centre accurately.  The operation would be repeated until a short dock was cut, into which the ship, acting as a large wedge, was driven.  At about the fourth attempt, if it was to succeed at all, the floe would yield.  A black, sinuous line, as though pen-drawn on white paper, would appear ahead, broadening as the eye traced it back to the ship.  Presently it would be broad enough to receive her, and we would forge ahead.  Under the bows and alongside, great slabs of ice were being turned over and slid back on the floe, or driven down and under the ice or ship.  In thus way the ‘Endurance’ would split a 2-ft. to 3-ft. floe a square mile in extent.  Occasionally the floe, although cracked across, would be so held by other floes that it would refuse to open wide, and so gradually would bring the ship to a standstill.  We would then go astern for some distance and again drive her full speed into the crack, till finally the floe would yield to the repeated onslaughts.