the pack laden with stores and provisions that were badly needed for the winter and also to enable the shore parties to lay the depots for those walking across the continent via the pole. Little did any of the men in the Ross Sea area know that by now Shackleton's party and the Endurance were enduring an enforced winter stuck in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea, pack ice that was to eventually crush and sink the ship. No-one would ever come to collect the supplies from the depots that they were to so diligently lay at a great cost of life and limb. The Aurora was low on coal and drifting with the sea ice, the days were very short and midwinter was approaching. The best those on board could hope for was to drift towards the North East and push through the pack towards New Zealand. There was an intensity and desperation to get back to laying the depots across the continent for the South Pole Party who were never to come. There was little that could be accomplished however, attempts were made to radio Macquarie Island so that messages could be passed but with no success. Contingency plans were made in case the ship were nipped in the ice. The 18 men on board planned to take to sledges with rations and set off across the ice to reach the nearest land. On June the 8th 1915 the ship's log says "Made our latitude 75 59'S.