I doubted if all the men would survive that night.

One of our troubles was lack of water.

We had emerged so suddenly from the pack into the open sea that we had not had time to take aboard ice for melting in the cookers, and without ice we could not have hot food.

The 'Dudley Docker' had one lump of ice weighing about ten pounds, and this was shared out among all hands.

We sucked small pieces and got a little relief from thirst engendered by the salt spray, but at the same time we reduced our bodily heat.