The ice was packed heavily and firmly all round the 'Endurance' in every direction as far as the eye could reach from the masthead.

There was nothing to be done till the conditions changed, and we waited through that day and the succeeding days with increasing anxiety.

The east-north-easterly gale that had forced us to take shelter behind the stranded berg on the 16th had veered later to the north-east, and it continued with varying intensity until the 22nd.

Apparently this wind had crowded the ice into the bight of the Weddell Sea, and the ship was now drifting south-west with the floes which had enclosed it.

A slight movement of the ice round the ship caused the rudder to become dangerously jammed on the 21st, and we had to cut away the ice with ice-chisels, heavy pieces of iron with 6-ft.