During the winter the Nimrod had been laid up in Port Lyttelton, and had been thoroughly overhauled so that she should once more be ready to battle with the ice. Captain F. P. Evans had been appointed master of the ship under my power of attorney, Captain England having resigned on account of ill-health, and towards the end of the year sufficient stores were taken on board to provide for a party staying at Cape Royds through the winter, in case one of the sledging-parties had not returned, and also to provide for the ship if she herself was frozen up.

The Nimrod left Lyttelton again on December 1, 1908, and enjoyed fine weather for the voyage southwards, the experience of Captain Evans on this voyage going to show that, under normal conditions, the pack that stretches out from the Barrier to the eastward of the Ross Sea is impenetrable, and that the Discovery was able to push to within sight of King Edward VII Land in 1902 because the ice was unusually open during that season. Twenty-eight miles from Cape Royds fast ice was encountered, and as there seemed to be no immediate possibility of the ship being able to proceed, Captain Evans decided to send Mackintosh with three men to convey a mail-bag to the winter quarters. No very great difficulties were anticipated for this expedition, but as it turned out, not only difficulties but also dangers and almost death were to be met with.

On January 3 Mackintosh set out with McGillan, Riches and Paton, but in the afternoon Riches and Paton returned to the ship and Mackintosh and McGillan proceeded alone.

On the second day their way was blocked by open water with pressure ice floating past, and although they walked for two hours in a westerly direction to see how far the water reached, they did not get to the end of it. The whole of the ice to the southward seemed to be moving, and as the open water seemed to take away any possibility of reaching Cape Royds, they started back to the ship.

Presently Mackintosh discovered that there was also open water ahead of them, blocking the way to the ship, and a survey of the position revealed the unpleasant fact that the floe-ice was breaking up altogether, and that they were in serious danger of drifting out into the Sound. Safety lay only in a hurried dash for the shore to the east, and every two hundred yards or so they had to drag their sledge to the edge of a floe, jump over a lane of water, and then with a big effort pull the sledge after them.

After an hour of this work their hands were cut and bleeding, and their clothes were frozen as stiff as boards, for they had frequently slipped and fallen when crossing from floe to floe. At last, however, they approached the land, and came to a piece of glacier ice that formed a bridge. The floe that they were on was moving rapidly, so they had to make a great effort and drag the sledge over a six-foot breach. They succeeded in doing this and were in a safe position again, but had they been fifteen minutes later they would have been lost, for by that time there was open water where they had gained the land.

Near this spot they decided to camp, and McGillan was almost at once so badly attacked by snow-blindness that his face was badly swollen and his eyes tightly closed. So bad indeed was McGillan that, until Mackintosh could bear the pain no longer in silence, he did not know that his companion was suffering from the same complaint as himself.

For several days they stayed in camp, and when their eyes were better they studied the bird-life of the neighbourhood, until, tired of seeing no sign of the ship. Mackintosh decided that they would leave the heavy mail-bag in their tent and march to Cape Royds. Then followed one of those battles against crevasses and hidden dangers with which those who take part in polar exploration are too intimately acquainted. Once McGillan fell into a yawning chasm and was only held up on a projection of ice, and frequently one slip would have meant the end of all things in this world for both of them.

At last a point was reached at which their way was blocked in every direction by crevasses, ascent was no longer possible, and below them lay a steep slope running down for about 300 ft. What lay at the bottom they could not tell, but their case was desperate and they decided to glissade down.

Their knives, which they attempted to use as brakes, were torn from their grasp, but they managed to keep their heels in the snow and to reach the bottom in safety.

Hunger had seized them for they had practically no food left, but two hours after they had dashed down the slope they could see Cape Royds and hoped soon to be at the winter quarters.

Immediately afterwards, however, such thick snow began to fall that they could not see two yards ahead, and for hours they were stumbling along in the blinding storm. Occasionally they rested for a few minutes, but icicles hung from their faces, and they did not dare to stay still for long.

Heavy snow continued to cut off all view of the surrounding country, and they had been wandering for twenty-seven hours after their glissade, when Day found them in a state of complete exhaustion, and just staggering along because they knew that to stop meant death. Had not Day been outside the hut—to which the travellers had no idea they were close—watching for the return of the ship, that expedition, undertaken so light-heartedly, must almost certainly have been a fatal one to Mackintosh and McGillan.

The two weary men reached the hut on January 12, but a week before that date the Nimrod had arrived at Cape Royds, and had gone north again to search for them. Doomed to disappointment and horror were the men at the hut when they learned that not only were they not to have any letters, but that also Mackintosh and McGillan had left the ship on the 3rd to try to bring the letters more quickly over the sea-ice and over the bay, which even then was filled with loose pack and which a few days before had been open water.

On January 7 the Nimrod left Cape Royds again to seek for the lost men, and in a few hours was beset by ice, and so remained for practically the whole of the time between the 7th and the 15th. On the afternoon of the 16th, however, the ship cleared the ice, and approached the only piece of shore on which there was a chance of finding Mackintosh and McGillan. Near the end of a stretch of beach a small patch of greenish colour was seen, and the telescope revealed the details of a deserted camp and a tent torn to ribbons. A boat was at once sent ashore, and the bag of letters was discovered, and also a note from Mackintosh telling of his risky attempt to cross the mountains.

As Murray, who was on the ship, knew the frightfully crevassed character of the ground which Mackintosh and McGillan had determined to cross, little hope of their safety remained.

Judge, then, the joy of those on board the Nimrod when two men came out to meet the ship on its arrival at Cape Royds, and one of them was seen to be McGillan.