Daily log entries for December, covering the Resolution’s first Antarctic sweep. The weather quickly worsened and Wales reports sightings of whales, penguins and many islands of ice, which he often describes the shape of. In an entry on 14 December Wales records that he went with the master [Joseph Gilbert] to ‘try the current & heat of the sea’ and were almost lost in thick fog, ‘after rowing some time backward & forward, hallowing & listening, we were lucky enough to find the Adventure’ [RGO 14/58: 12]. The following night, in fog and snow, the ship's guns had to be sounded for much of the night to enable the Adventure to keep company, and Wales notes that they experienced great difficulty as the rigging was encumbered with ice. On 17 December, they found themselves surrounded by low ice on every side, and got free only with great difficulty [RGO 14/58: 12v]. An entry on 19 December records that wort was brewed for crew members who had begun to show symptoms of the scurvy [RGO 14/58: 13]. Wales also makes observations on the movements of penguins underwater, noting that some of the crew had managed to draw them close to the sides of the ship by imitating their calls [RGO 14/58: 15]. On 30 December, he records seeing ice stretching from nearly north-east to south-west, and while some of the men thought that they had sighted land beyond it, others disagreed.