The break-up of our floe came suddenly on Sunday, August 1, just one year after the ‘Endurance’ left the South-West India Docks on the voyage to the Far South.  The position was lat. 72° 26´ S., long. 48° 10´ W. The morning brought a moderate south-westerly gale with heavy snow, and at 8 a.m., after some warning movements of the ice, the floe cracked 40 yds. off the starboard bow.  Two hours later the floe began to break up all round us under pressure and the ship listed over 10 degrees to starboard.  I had the dogs and sledges brought aboard at once and the gangway hoisted.  The animals behaved well.  They came aboard eagerly as though realizing their danger, and were placed in their quarters on deck without a single fight occurring.  The pressure was cracking the floe rapidly, rafting it close to the slip and forcing masses of ice beneath the keel.  Presently the ‘Endurance’ listed heavily to port against the gale, and at the same time was forced ahead, astern, and sideways several times by the grinding floes.  She received one or two hard nips, but resisted them without as much as a creak.  It looked at one stage as if the ship was to be made the plaything of successive floes, and I was relieved when she came to a standstill with a large piece of our old “dock” under the starboard bilge.  I had the boats cleared away ready for lowering, got up some additional stores, and set a double watch.  All hands were warned to stand by, get what sleep they could, and have their warmest clothing at hand.  Around us lay the ruins of “Dog Town” amid the debris of pressure-ridges.  Some of the little dwellings had been crushed flat beneath blocks of ice; others had been swallowed and pulverized when the ice opened beneath them and closed again.  It was a sad sight, but my chief concern just then was the safety of the rudder, which was being attacked viciously by the ice.  We managed to pole away a large lump that had become jammed between the rudder and the stern-post, but I could see that damage had been done, though a close examination was not possible that day.

After the ship had come to a standstill in her new position very heavy pressure was set up.  Some of the trenails were started and beams buckled slightly under the terrific stresses.  But the ‘Endurance’ had been built to withstand the attacks of the ice, and she lifted bravely as the floes drove beneath her.  The effects of the pressure around us were awe-inspiring.  Mighty blocks of ice, gripped between meeting floes, rose slowly till they jumped like cherry-stones squeezed between thumb and finger.  The pressure of millions of tons of moving ice was crushing and smashing inexorably.  If the ship was once gripped firmly her fate would be sealed.