“A.  Stevens.”

The men ashore did not at once abandon hope of the ship returning before the Sound froze firmly.  New ice formed on the sea whenever the weather was calm, and it had been broken up and taken out many times by the blizzards.  During the next few days eager eyes looked seaward through the dim twilight of noon, but the sea was covered with a dense black mist and nothing was visible.  A northerly wind sprang up on May 8 and continued for a few hours, but it brought no sign of the ship, and when on May 10 the most violent blizzard yet experienced by the party commenced, hope grew slender.  The gale continued for three days, the wind attaining a velocity of seventy miles an hour.  The snowdrift was very thick and the temperature fell to -20° Fahr.  The shore party took a gloomy view of the ship’s chances of safety among the ice-floes of the Ross Sea under such conditions.

Stevens and his companions made a careful survey of their position and realized that they had serious difficulties to face.  No general provisions and no clothing of the kind required for sledging had been landed from the ship.  Much of the sledging gear was also aboard.  Fortunately, the hut contained both food and clothing, left there by Captain Scott’s Expedition.  The men killed as many seals as possible and stored the meat and blubber.  June 2 brought a welcome addition to the party in the form of the men who had been forced to remain at Hut Point until the sea-ice became firm.  Mackintosh and those with him had incurred some risk in making the crossing, since open water had been seen on their route by the Cape Evans party only a short time before.  There were now ten men at Cape Evans—­namely, Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith, Joyce, Wild, Cope, Stevens, Hayward, Gaze, Jack, and Richards.  The winter had closed down upon the Antarctic and the party would not be able to make any move before the beginning of September.  In the meantime they overhauled the available stores and gear, made plans for the work of the forthcoming spring and summer, and lived the severe but not altogether unhappy life of the polar explorer in winter quarters.  Mackintosh, writing on June 5, surveyed his position: 

“The decision of Stenhouse to make this bay the wintering place of the ship was not reached without much thought and consideration of all eventualities.  Stenhouse had already tried the Glacier Tongue and other places, but at each of them the ship had been in an exposed and dangerous position.  When this bay was tried the ship withstood several severe blizzards, in which the ice remained in on several occasions.  When the ice did go out the moorings held.  The ship was moored bows north.  She had both anchors down forward and two anchors buried astern, to which the stern moorings were attached with seven lengths of wire.  Taking all this into account, it was quite a fair judgment on his part to assume that the ship would be secure here.  The blizzard that took the ship and the ice out of the bay was by no means as severe as others she had weathered.  The accident proves again the uncertainty of conditions in these regions.  I only pray and trust that the ship and those aboard are safe.  I am sure they will have a thrilling story to tell when we see them.”