As Mackintosh, Joyce and Wild battled on to 80º, the miserable trio of Spencer-Smith, Gaze and Jack headed back to Hut Point. On 18 February, they met the motor tractor team and swapped stories.

Cope’s party explained how the motor tractor had worked perfectly until it was loaded, when it sank into the snow and developed serious mechanical problems. With no dogs, their only choice had been to man-haul two sledges weighing a crushing thousand pounds each. Like the others, they resorted to relaying. When they met Spencer-Smith, Gaze and Jack they had only covered twenty miles and were already short of food. Jack bravely swapped places with the unwell Stevens and headed back south.

Cope’s party carried on relaying stores, but didn’t even reach the first depot at Bluff, dumping 450 pounds of supplies at unplanned depots on the way. One of the party worked out that they used 550 pounds themselves to do that. In the meantime, Spencer-Smith, Gaze and Stevens went back to Hut Point, where they were soon joined by three more of Cope’s men.

The ‘Aurora’ picked up the six men on 11 March and took them back to the much more comfortable hut at Cape Evans. With the ice closing in, Stenhouse couldn’t risk waiting. So when Cope, Hayward and Jack arrived back at Hut Point on 14 March they found the ship had sailed without them. The sea ice wasn’t nearly solid enough to cross. All they could do was wait for Mackintosh, Joyce and Wild to return.