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Updated: May 5, 2025
A line of reef stretched between the shore and this pillar, and I thought as we approached that we would have to face the raging sea outside; but a break in the white surf revealed a gap in the reef and we laboured through, with the wind driving clouds of spray on our port beam. The 'Stancomb Wills' followed safely. In the stinging spray I lost sight of the 'Dudley Docker' altogether.
The 'James Caird' and the 'Dudley Docker' had been towing the 'Stancomb Wills' in turn, but my boat now took the 'Stancomb Wills' in tow permanently, as the 'James Caird' could carry more sail than the 'Dudley Docker' in the freshening wind. We were making up for the south-east side of Elephant Island, the wind being between north-west and west.
Peering into the darkness; I could just see the dark figures on the other floe. I hailed Wild, ordering him to launch the 'Stancomb Wills', but I need not have troubled. His quick brain had anticipated the order and already the boat was being manned and hauled to the ice-edge. Two or three minutes later she reached me, and I was ferried across to the Camp.
The swell was slight when the 'Stancomb Wills' was launched and the boat got under way without any difficulty; but half an hour later, when we were pulling down the 'James Caird', the swell increased suddenly. Apparently the movement of the ice outside had made an opening and allowed the sea to run in without being blanketed by the line of pack. The swell made things difficult.
I had decided to take the 'James Caird' myself, with Wild and eleven men. This was the largest of our boats, and in addition to her human complement she carried the major portion of the stores. Worsley had charge of the 'Dudley Docker' with nine men, and Hudson and Crean were the senior men on the 'Stancomb Wills'. Soon after breakfast the ice closed again.
Two days and nights without drink or hot food had played havoc with most of the men, and we could not assume that any safer haven lay within our reach. The 'Stancomb Wills' was the lighter and handier boat and I called her alongside with the intention of taking her through the gap first and ascertaining the possibilities of a landing before the 'James Caird' made the venture.
Then the rest of us pulled out again to pilot the other boats through the channel. The 'James Caird' was too heavy to be beached directly, so after landing most of the men from the 'Dudley Docker' and the 'Stancomb Wills' I superintended the transhipment of the 'James Caird's' gear outside the reef. Then we all made the passage, and within a few minutes the three boats were aground.
This was about three o'clock in the afternoon. We had set sail, and as the 'Stancomb Wills' could not keep up with the other two boats I took her in tow, not being anxious to repeat the experience of the day we left the reeling berg. The 'Dudley Docker' went ahead, but came beating down towards us at dusk. Worsley had been close to the berg, and he reported that it was unapproachable.
There were now four men up on the thwarts of the 'Dudley Docker', and the five sailors and Hussey on those of the 'Stancomb Wills', the remainder disposing themselves on the floor." The floor was at first covered with snow and ice, frozen in amongst the pebbles. This was cleared out, and the remainder of the tents spread out over the stones.
"Rickenson, who was still very weak and ill, but very cheery, obtained a place in the boat directly above the stove, and the sailors having lived under the 'Stancomb Wills' for a few days while she was upside down on the beach, tacitly claimed it as their own, and flocked up on to its thwarts as one man.
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