The Endurance crew was listening to a Sunday evening gramaphone concert when...
Orde-Lees Journal, October 24, 1915
"...a terrific crash shook the ship with a prolonged shiver like an earthquake & she listed over about 8 degrees to starboard.
We finished the tune and then went up on deck to see if anything unusual had occurred. By this time Sir Ernest had been out on the floe and one could judge by his grave look that something really was amiss, & it soon proved to be even more serious than any of us had anticipated for within five minutes we were all hard at work preparing to abandon the ship as she had had her sternpost almost wrenched out and water was pouring in through the crack.
There was little time to ask questions or to comment at all upon the damage for we were working like demons getting up all possible provisions and clothing, navigation instruments, sledging gear, dog food & miscellaneous impedimenta with a view to quitting ship and sledging over the ice to Graham's Land.
It is surprising what an enormous amount of work can be got through in a given time when one realizes thoroughly that dear life depends on it.
Marston, James & I were working down in the after hold extracting cases close by where the water was coming in down there & we could plainly hear the ominous rush of running water
below us, meanwhile the noise of the ship breaking up was deafening.
That Sir Ernest had decided to fill up the boiler some days ago was a piece of miraculous foresight though it was probably more with a view to steaming than to pumping out that he determined upon it.
... the two engineers worked desperately, piling on seal's blubber & coal like fiends in hell. ...
Lt. Hudson and Greenstreet went down below and dug away the coal from around the suction pipe of the pump. This was no small job in the short time available, especially as much of it and the bottom of the pipe were well below the water. ...
Twice between 7 p.m. and midnight we were all out on the floe digging trenches along the port side of the ship, the first trench about ten feet from the ship, the second one as many yards away. The first one soon collapsed and enabled the ice to bend up and rise up along the ship's side, the second one partially collapsed & there was no doubt that this time that they eased the pressure very considerably.
We all dressed up in plenty of underclothing and in Burberry suits & everyone got ready on deck their special properties in case of abandoning ship.
I was writing the above words when I was cut short by the recommencement of heavy pressure which resulted in our finally abandoning the ship.
We spent an uneasy night but slept on board in our respective cabins. I alone in the hold. It was a little gruesome in the hold by myself with the noise of the water in the ship & pressure groaning outside but I was one of the very few who slept well.