Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/568

sea to avoid being caught in the cul-de-sac of Lady Newnes Bay.

Fortunately the retreat was open and the wind fair for taking it, and so on the 21st the ship had regained Feb. 21, 1912, 75° 0′ S., 169° 10′ E. her freedom of action, but was no nearer relieving Campbell. That evening the storm eased down and course was again shaped for the Drygalski Barrier, with the hope that the ice which had previously barred her way might have drifted past the end of the Barrier. The pack (now on the starboard hand) was followed south as closely as possible, though snow often shut in everything to a ship's length and compelled her to stop till it was clear enough again to see where she was going. Gradually she was able to alter more to the west and north of west, until in the middle watch (23rd) she had rounded the southern end of the pack, some 20 miles south of the Drygalski Barrier, and was steering north through light pancake ice with, of course, the heavy pack again to the eastward of her. The pancake ice gradually became heavier, but she was able to make two or three knots at sixty revolutions.

Tempted on by what appeared to be water sky ahead, she rather unexpectedly came to a dead stop about Feb. 23, 1912, 75° 43′ S., 164° 20′ E. 4 a.m. and could not even go astern in her wake, as the pack east of her was pressing in towards the coast and so consolidating the pancake ice she was in. At the same time the weather cleared and showed the extremity of the Drygalski Barrier to be fifteen miles due north. The water sky proved to be a myth.