Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
was to tack out of danger but now snow and fog reduced visibility
sometimes to zero. And carrying out the rapid manoeuvres neces-
sary to avoid collision with the great slabs of frozen sea, was a night-
mare. When the men braced themselves to haul on the lines they lost
their footing on the slippery deck and cut their hands on the ice-
crusted ropes. But the ships were sufficiently clear of the worst of
the ice by Christmas Day for Cook to feast his men and allow them a
few hours of drunken roistering and boxing bouts - much to the dis-
approval of Forster.
Cook kept as close as he dared to the icefield and, as it broke
up under the influence of the midsummer sun he made more south-
ing. On 17 January he entered the Antarctic. Scarcely a day passed
which did not reveal some new fact: the sea does not freeze at 32°F
(0°C); icebergs are made up of
fresh
water (a very welcome discov-
ery); the presence of birds in the high latitudes is not evidence of
nearby land. Cook penetrated 75′ within the circle before being ob-
liged to stand away to the north-east. Without knowing it, he had
come within seventy-five miles of the Antarctic continent, a remark-
able feat. It would be another forty-seven years before anyone actu-
ally saw Antarctica.
In thick fog on 8 February Cook lost contact with his consort.
He maintained position for a couple of days, firing the
Resolution's
signal gun at regular intervals but there was no sign of the
Adven-
ture,
which had been carried away by a current and could not bear
back. Cook now made for Queen Charlotte Sound in New Zealand,
the rendezvous point prearranged for just such an emergency, but
not without taking a course as far south as the ice floes would per-
mit. The officers, whom Cook consulted, showed little enthusiasm
for a return towards the bitterly cold latitudes but their captain nev-
er forgot that his first priority was discovery. Sadly, the discomforts
of the next six weeks were not repaid with any fresh significant in-
formation.
Resolution
was now in the Roaring Forties, the band of of-
