The gale from the south-west blew all night and moderated during the afternoon of the 2nd to a stiff breeze.  The pressure had almost ceased.  Apparently the gale had driven the southern pack down upon us, causing congestion in our area; the pressure had stopped when the whole of the pack got into motion.  The gale had given us some northing, but it had dealt the ‘Endurance’ what might prove to be a severe blow.  The rudder had been driven hard over to starboard and the blade partially torn away from the rudder-head.  Heavy masses of ice were still jammed against the stern, and it was impossible to ascertain the extent of the damage at that time.  I felt that it would be impossible in any case to effect repairs in the moving pack.  The ship lay steady all night, and the sole sign of continuing pressure was an occasional slight rumbling shock.  We rigged shelters and kennels for the dogs inboard.

The weather on August 3 was overcast and misty.  We had nine hours of twilight, with good light at noon.  There was no land in sight for ten miles from the mast-head.  The pack as far as the eye could reach was in a condition of chaos, much rafted and consolidated, with very large pressure-ridges in all directions.  At 9 p.m. a rough altitude of Canopus gave the latitude as 71° 55´ 17´´ S. The drift, therefore, had been about 37 miles to the north in three days.  Four of the poorest dogs were shot this day.  They were suffering severely from worms, and we could not afford to keep sick dogs under the changed conditions.  The sun showed through the clouds on the northern horizon for an hour on the 4th.  There was no open water to be seen from aloft in any direction.  We saw from the masthead to west-south-west an appearance of barrier, land, or a very long iceberg, about 20 odd miles away, but the horizon clouded over before we could determine its nature.  We tried twice to make a sounding that day, but failed on each occasion.  The Kelvin machine gave no bottom at the full length of the line, 370 fathoms.  After much labour we made a hole in the ice near the stern-post large enough for the Lucas machine with a 32-lb. lead; but this appeared to be too light.  The machine stopped at 452 fathoms, leaving us in doubt as to whether bottom had been reached.  Then in heaving up we lost the lead, the thin wire cutting its way into the ice and snapping.  All hands and the carpenter were busy this day making and placing kennels on the upper deck, and by nightfall all the dogs were comfortably housed, ready for any weather.  The sun showed through the clouds above the northern horizon for nearly an hour.