The wind was gradually hauling ahead, and as the day wore on the rays of the sun beat fiercely down from a cloudless sky on pain- racked men.

Progress was slow, but gradually Elephant Island came nearer.

Always while I attended to the other boats, signalling and ordering, Wild sat at the tiller of the 'James Caird'.

He seemed unmoved by fatigue and unshaken by privation.

About four o'clock in the afternoon a stiff breeze came up ahead and, blowing against the current, soon produced a choppy sea.