They could not lie astern of us in a line, since cakes of ice came drifting round the floe and gathering under its lee.

As it was we spent the next two hours poling off the drifting ice that surged towards us.

The blubber-stove could not be used, so we started the Primus lamps.

There was a rough, choppy sea, and the 'Dudley Docker' could not get her Primus under way, something being adrift.

The men in that boat had to wait until the cook on the 'James Caird' had boiled up the first pot of milk.
The boats were bumping so heavily that I had to slack away the painter of the 'Stancomb Wills' and put her astern.