Scott wrote at this time:

"We are not out of the wood, but hope dawns, as indeed it should for me,
when I find myself so wonderfully served. Officers and men are singing
chanties over their arduous work. Williams is working in sweltering heat
behind the boiler to get the door made in the bulkhead. Not a single one
has lost his good spirits. A dog was drowned last night, one pony is dead
and two others in a bad condition--probably they too will go.
Occasionally a heavy sea would bear one of them away, and he was only
saved by his chain. Meares with some helpers had constantly to be
rescuing these wretched creatures from hanging, and trying to find them
better shelter, an almost hopeless task. One poor beast was found hanging
when dead; one was washed away with such force that his chain broke and
he disappeared overboard; the next wave miraculously washed him on board
again and he is fit and well. [I believe the dog was Osman.] The gale has
exacted heavy toll, but I feel all will be well if we can only cope with
the water. Another dog has just been washed overboard--alas! Thank God
the gale is abating. The sea is still mountainously high but the ship is
not labouring so heavily as she was."[47]

The highest waves of which I can find any record were 36 feet high. These
were observed by Sir James C. Ross in the North Atlantic.[48]

On December 2 the waves were logged, probably by Pennell, who was
extremely careful in his measurements, as being 'thirty-five feet high
(estimated).' At one time I saw Scott, standing on the weather rail of
the poop, buried to his waist in green sea. The reader can then imagine
the condition of things in the waist of the ship, "over and over again
the rail, from the fore-rigging to the main, was covered by a solid sheet
of curling water which swept aft and high on the poop."[49] At another