4. Januar

The ship came into McMurdo Sound and the hut went up on a black beach under Mount Erebus; the stores were ashore in under a fortnight. One of the three motor sledges broke through the sea ice while it was being landed and sank.

Out of Lyttelton on 26 November and Port Chalmers on the 29th, overloaded with 19 ponies, 33 dogs and three motor sledges. A gale on 2 December nearly foundered her and killed two ponies; then the pack held her for nearly three weeks.

At 87°32′ S Scott sent back Teddy Evans, Lashly and Crean and took five men on instead of four, adding Bowers to a team whose tent, fuel and rations were packed for four. Bowers had left his skis at a depot and walked.

Aimed to hit the Moon, it sailed past about 6,000 km from the surface and became the first spacecraft to escape Earth and circle the Sun. On the way it released a cloud of sodium that observers on the ground could photograph: an artificial comet.