Expedition members watering ship from an ice floe, shovelling snow into crates for embarkation. The photographer was leaning over the side of the ship looking down the hull towards the men. Two crew are standing on a suspended wooden plank along the side of the hull. Captain Scott wrote of watering the ship on 21 February that "all hands, officers and men, tumbled over the sides and started working like demons to get the ice on board, by 3pm we had finished, and I was sincerely glad, for some of our people were almost dropping with fatigue".

Morning (1871), Discovery (1901), and Terra Nova (1884) were all in Wood Bay on 21 February. The specific ship photographed needs to be identified.