Part III Summary and Analysis

Part III consists of six enumerated chapters. In brief, Part III describes how the men survive for several weeks at a place called Patience Camp. They undergo various hardships and face starvation for a period; as the food situation improves so the ice situation becomes critical and Patience Camp is finally abandoned for the boats as the floe disintegrates in the warming, heaving ocean.

The second camp is named Mark Time Camp by Worsley. After five days of striving they have covered less distance on the sledges than they drifted on the ice—far less. The men grasp their own inadequacy to the task for the first time; their fate will be determined by external elements. Instead of covering 200 miles to land they cover nine miles in five days of brutal exhaustion. Food dwindles along with good humor...