The trip to the Ross Ice Shelf was an endless series of different sorts of monotony. Storms were incredibly difficult and very long. Other days were filled with any sort of pastime possible. The storm of 23 October was particularly bad, lasting all day. It ended abruptly in a fantastically beautiful sunset. It would be the last the expedition members saw.

The majestic white of large icebergs started to appear on the 25th of October. They transformed the sea into an alien landscape; smooth water, dotted with large blocks of ice. At around 9AM on the 26th of October, a trapped whaling vessel was spotted. Starkweather planned a rescue mission, taking Gilmore, Sorenson, Sykes, Winslow, Cole, Van Buren, Lehey, and Milford. Those climbing up onto the deck of the SS Wallaroo were treated to a gruesome sight: around two dozen corpses, neatly arranged in a march along the deck. They were frozen to the deck in pools of their own juices...the wind had shorn the skin from their bones. They were all grinning.

Further inspection of the boat showed holds full of whale meat, and a strong-box with around twelve bottles of alcohol (which Starkweather confiscated). All beds in crew quarters were neatly made, and everything in the mess hall was secured in place. The captains quarters were small but luxurious. They contained four bodies which look...mummified. One was missing an arm. One body was in Captain's uniform on the bed. The wall next to his head was dark and splattered; a pistol lay near the right hand. Log books indicated that in a squall, the boiler had exploded, killing many men. Some remaining men set off North in life-rafts, leaving only four alive on the ship. The Captain wrote to god for forgiveness for what he was about to do.

The bodies on deck were immovable, but the four inside were given a proper sea burial.

Around an hour after the Gabrielle made her way again, the life-raft was spotted to the south.

The storm of 2 November took the Gabrielle crew by surprise. The barometer was lower than most had ever seen; waves were 30 to 40 feet; winds were greater than 60MPH. The metal of the ship screamed with the pressure. The dogs joined in.

This persisted for hours and hours before (at around 6:00PM) a loud pounding could be heard all over the ship. Fearing something loose in the holds, an investigative party formed, and the Sorensons, Greene, Colt, Gilmore, Sykes, Starkweather, Lehey, and Van Buren dressed for the weather and headed down into the holds.

At least they tried to. Despite ropes lining the deck to aid walking, Catherine fell underwater and had to go back, suffering from a mild case of hypothermia.

Reconnaissance led the team to the #2 hold, where the Boeing, dynamite, and kerosene were kept. Starkweather and Colt were the first to descend, and eventually everyone followed. The smell of kerosene was VERY strong. Flashlights in hand, the group discovered that two of the engines were loose and rolling back and forth along the floor of the hold, crushing the airplane wings and the kerosene barrels. With Rachel and Pierce holding flashlights from above, the remainder of the crew tried to catch the engines with loops of rope. This proved more difficult than it seemed; the floor was slippery and moving, and the 1-ton engines were fast. When Nils saw Green fall directly in the path of one of the engines, he threw himself on the doctor, hoping to spare the only person who could heal the ill. He succeeded, and Green escaped with compound fractures to the arm. Nils was not so lucky.

Gunnar, his brother, became hysterical, refusing to believe what he saw. Green and the body were lifted up the ladders and quickly tended to, while Colt remained below, lasso-ing the engine closest to the kerosene. Starkweather and Gilmore went back down to help, and managed to get one rope around the other engine as Colt quickly lassoed the first twice more. He then attached the other ends of the lasso to the cleats on the wall, and the first engine was mostly under control. Moving to help Starkweather and Gilmore with the second engine, he got yet another lasso around the first before falling. The second engine crushed his skull.

With the infusion of more men, the engines are eventually secured with ropes, and those still living made their way back to the deck-house.

The next morning, the expedition members were told of the deaths of Nils and Colt under a sky so perfectly clear it seemed as though the previous night could not have happened. The men were given a sea burial.

The hold was checked for the cause of the destruction, and Henning had his last laugh--all 6 cleats holding the engines had broken clean; the pieces were pitted and corroded. Nothing of the plane was salvageable; worse, nearly half of the kerosene was no longer usable.

The journey proceeded with the members in low spirits. On 4 November, the ocean turned to icy slush and the Gabrielle was forced to head West. Eventually, that way too was blocked, and the ship had to turn around. On the 7th, an opening finally occurred in the SE and the ship made 20 miles by sundown.

For most of the ship, the weeks after the untimely deaths of Colt and Nils were a period of mourning. Cliques formed by profession, and didn't mix. The piloting crew was withdrawn without Colt; the scientific crew spent much of the time together, with Griffith and Porter spending much time alone even within the scientific group. The perceptive among the expedition members caught that when alone, they spoke an unrecognizable language. Green kept up a good face, but also stayed alone much of the time. Gunnar remained visibly upset, and spent much of his time on deck staring into the sea. In other words, things were flying apart.

Showing his leadership ability again, Starkweather organized a broom hockey game. With help from Moore and Betsy, every day brought a new social activity. Mini-Olympics (sandbag-put and crowbar toss followed by the 2 ship-length dash), performances, and other sports slowly brought spirits higher. Pierce nervously began courting Catherine, teaching her to play chess and sharing his tea. Giles began slowly courting Rachel, who saw through his ploy and immediately propositioned him. They spent much time in the dog hold, "rehearsing".

On the 8th of November, another storm hit the ship. Though the expedition and crew were nervous and quiet, the Gabrielle survived and when the sky cleared, the pack had been broken up, allowing further travel. On the morning of 9 November, the radio operator got word that Lexington's "Tallahassee" was trapped in the ice around 300 miles to the east.

On 14 November, the Gabrielle got trapped herself. With careful dynamite application, she got through half-dozen such spots, making painstaking progress. Starkweather's mood darkened as word arrived that Lexington established her base camp on the Ross Ice Shelf on 20 November.

On the 23rd of November, the Gabrielle slid into the Ross Sea, to cheering of the crew. On the 24th land was sighted, and they reached Ross Island a few days later. In the last few days, a rivalry for Catherine's affections sprang up between Pierce and Meyer. The dog handlers discreetly let Rachel know that rumors are flying.

The Gabrielle was anchored to the ice with hooks, and unloading quickly proceeded. Dog teams were used both to explore the ice shelf, looking for a good base camp site, and to move things off of the ship. The plane was also used as soon as possible. A temporary camp was set up on the ice, with plans for a final base camp on the ice shelf itself after exploration and assembly.

The mood is jovial as things got unpacked and the expedition members met penguins for the first time. The dogs were especially excited about the penguins (who weren't afraid of anything), and settled in for a hot meal. A base camp was located quickly, a few miles from the Lexington camp. Work immediately started and continued around the clock, to get all base camp supplies air-lifted into place. Since this task left much of the expedition without a job, the girls took Pierce and Giles to check out huts left by earlier expeditions on Ross Island. Most contained trinkets, food supplies, lists of expedition members, cold-weather gear, and so on. The Shackleton Expedition had left a hut, among others; the Miskatonic Expedition left only a cairn containing trinkets, a card, and a yearbook.

On 28 November, the good mood is broken yet again, this time by a large fissure in the ice, separating the temporary camp from the supplies (mostly jet fuel) being offloaded from the Gabrielle. Though valiant efforts saved much equipment, by the time a fissure went across the runway at 6PM around 1/3 of the supply of aircraft fuel (around 100 drums) permanently slid into the cold water. Thankfully, no life was lost.

Work continued on the Ice Shelf base camp, preparing for exploration. Just as everyone was sitting down for a hot meal, word came in via Morse code on the radio that the Lexington expedition was under attack!!

[cue more ominous music]