Each bannock weighs about one and a half to two ounces, and we are indeed lucky to be able to produce them." A few boxes of army biscuits soaked with sea-water were distributed at one meal.

They were in such a state that they would not have been looked at a second time under ordinary circumstances, but to us on a floating lump of ice, over three hundred miles from land, and that quite hypothetical, and with the unplumbed sea beneath us, they were luxuries indeed.

Wild's tent made a pudding of theirs with some dripping.
Although keeping in mind the necessity for strict economy with our scanty store of food, I knew how important it was to keep the men cheerful, and that the depression occasioned by our surroundings and our precarious position could to some extent be alleviated by increasing the rations, at least until we were more accustomed to our new mode of life.

That this was successful is shown in their diaries.
"Day by day goes by much the same as one another.

We work; we talk; we eat.