seemed to be actually lifting the poor little ponies to their feet as the
ship lurched heavily to leeward and a great sea would wash the legs of
his charges from under them. One felt somehow, glancing into the ponies'
stalls, which Captain Scott and I frequently visited together, that
Oates's very strength itself inspired his animals with confidence. He
himself appeared quite unconscious of any personal suffering, although
his hands and feet must have been absolutely numbed by the cold and wet.

In the middle watch Williams, the Chief Engineer, reported that his pumps
were choked and that as fast as he cleared them they choked again, the
water coming into the ship so fast that the stoke-hold plates were
submerged and water gaining fast. I ordered the watch to man the
hand-pump, but that was soon choked too. Things now looked really
serious, since it was impossible to get to the pump-well while terrific
seas were washing over the ship and the afterhatch could not be opened.
Consequently we started to bail the water out with buckets and also
rigged the small fire-engine and pumped with this as well.

The water in the engine room gradually gained until it entered the ashpit
of the centre furnace and commenced to put the fires out. Both Williams
and Lashly were up to their necks in water, clearing and re-clearing the
engine room pump suctions, but eventually the water beat them and I
allowed Williams to let fires out in the boiler. It could not be
otherwise. We stopped engines, and with our cases of petrol being lifted
out of their lashings by the huge waves, with the ponies falling about
and the dogs choking and wallowing in the water and mess, their chains
entangling them and tripping up those who tried to clear them, the
situation looked as black and disheartening as it well could be.

When dawn broke the greater part of the lee bulwarks had been torn away