Some members of the scratch crew were played out by the cold and the violent tossing.

The schooner was about seventy feet long, and she responded to the motions of the storm-racked sea in a manner that might have disconcerted the most seasoned sailors.
I took the schooner south at every chance, but always the line of ice blocked the way.

The engineer, who happened to be an American, did things to the engines occasionally, but he could not keep them running, and, the persistent south winds were dead ahead.

It was hard to turn back a third time, but I realized we could not reach the island under those conditions, and we must turn north in order to clear the ship of heavy masses of ice.

So we set a northerly course, and after a tempestuous passage reached Port Stanley once more.