The Endurance ice-bound in the Weddell Sea with a sledging Party, a tabular berg beyond

The Endurance was trapped by ice in the Weddell Sea on 20 January 1915 just sixty miles short of her destination at Vahsel Bay and remained trapped, drifting slowly northwards for one thousand miles with the ice, until it was crushed on 27 October. For much of the winter, the ship became a shore station with the dogs kennelled in 'dogloos' on the surrounding ice along with a variety of stores and cargo, and to pass the time, sledging teams led by Wild, McIlroy, Hurley, Macklin, Crean and Marston went out onto the ice. 'Life on the ship was varied enough with its duties and exercises. While the light was good enough we played football and hockey on the ice to keep ourselves more or less amused and in good fettle ... The ice-sheet, stretching away a thousand miles to the north, was always changing ... The vessel itself was the connecting link between the vast, lifeless solitudes of the south and the living humanity of the north. It was a symbol to all of us, but to me it had a double interest, for, as a factor in any pictorial composition, it was invaluable, giving point and interest, perspective and comparison, to many a picture ... by daylight, the skies were a sublime spectacle. At times the dome of heaven was iridescent, like a lustrous shell in which the mist-veiled sun reposed like a dazzling pearl. There were times when the sky was rainbow, flaming with radiant mock suns, and one's very heart and soul cried out in rapture, "These things are not earthly; this is heaven."' (F. Hurley, Shackleton's Argonauts, Sydney, 1948, pp. 45-6)