Shackleton.

“As a rule when a sea wets a sailor through he swears at it comprehensively, and impartially curses everything in sight beginning with the ship & ‘the old man’—if he’s not within hearing, but on this trip we said nothing when a sea hit us in the face. It was grin & bear it, for it was Sir Ernest’s theory that by keeping our tempers… we each helped to keep one another up. We all lived up to this to the best of our ability, but McCarthy was a marvel.”

— Frank Worsley

“In steering a small boat before a heavy gale, don’t look back, it may disconcert you. Fix your eye with a glassy glare on a cloud or breaking sea right ahead & keep her straight, if you can. When you hear a roaring Bull of Bashan with a wet nose galloping up behind you, keep your head well forward & your shoulders hunched up to your ears—till you get it.”

— Frank Worsley

“So we all took it in turns to crawl out with an axe & chop it off. What a job! The boat leaping & kicking like a mad mule & a great fifteen inch thick slippery casing of ice over her like a turtle back with slush all over where the last sea was freezing. First you chopped a handhold, then a kneehold & then went on chopping ice for dear life while an occasional sea leapt over you. After four or five minutes you slid back into the boat — fed up or frostbitten & the next man took up the work, in doing which it was “One hand for yourself & one for the King” because if a man had gone overboard then it would have been goodbye.”

— Frank Worsley

“A sea-anchor is a cone-shaped canvas bag attached by a line at its mouth to the bows. The apex, which has a small hole, points away from the ship, and the effect is to act as a drag in the water, around which the vessel swings to keep head to wind. This is essential for a small boat to survive in a seaway.”

— Roland Huntford, Shackleton

“If a boat is overweighted, she jerks, will not sail fast & does not heel away from the wind & so constantly takes seas over her & is at all times wet… If ballast is too low it makes vessels stiff & they roll heavily & jerkily. Again if it is spread all along the bottom as in the Caird instead of being piled up in the centre, it makes her pitch very heavily.”

— Frank Worsley

“Navigation is an art, but words fail to give my efforts a correct name. Dead reckoning or DR—the seaman’s calculation of courses and distance—had become a merry jest of guesswork… The procedure was: I peered out from our burrow—precious sextant cuddled under my chest to prevent seas falling on it. Sir Ernest stood by under the canvas with chronometer pencil and book. I shouted “Stand by,” and knelt on the thwart—two men holding me up on either side. I brought the sun down to where the horizon ought to be and as the boat leaped frantically upward on the crest of a wave, snapped a good guess at the altitude and yelled, “Stop,” Sir Ernest took the time, and I worked out the result… My navigation books had to be opened page by page till the right one was reached, then opened carefully to prevent utter destruction.”

— Frank Worsley