"An exceedingly precarious position"

Macklin's Journal - November 17, 1915

After supper Worsley, Clark, Greenstreet and I held a lengthy discussion on our position and its probabilities. There is not the least doubt that we are in an exceedingly precarious position. Clark and Greenstreet think that we will not have any further W {west] drift. Worsley and I were more optimistic, and we hope that with another good S.E. wind we will again have a good run to the N.W. Our greatest hope lies in the getting of open water and taking to the boats. Then we should be able to make good and persistent progress. Larsen [Norwegian explorer, Carl Anton Larsen] in this latitude got open water much more to the westward, but reported that here he met dense and impenetrable pack. The ice surface round about us is in an awful condition, and renders sledging the boats an impossibility. Practically all we can do is to hold on to this floe and drift with it, hoping that it will carry us N.W. The worst possible thing for us would be if the pack did not open, and we were carried E or N.E. en masse. If we remain without much further drift, until lower temperature at the end of the summer we have a chance of sledging.

The comparative luxury of our present life rather tends to hide the gravity of our situation.

Cheetham has got a badly poisoned hand from a cut by a potted meat tin, and I have been dressing it for him.

#Lifeontheice