Rickinson and the ship's company were then supposed to steam north toward warmer waters to avoid the worst of the Antarctic winter of 1915.
With all of the other members of the expedition, Rickinson was first forced to spend the winter in the depths of the southern Weddell Sea, and then shared the fate of his fellow explorers as castaways when the mother ship was crushed and sunk by the ice.
In April 1916, when the lifeboat party was making a hazardous landing on the shore of Elephant Island off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, Rickinson was stricken while wading ashore in the surf.
Meanwhile, Shackleton and a picked crew of volunteers had separated from the main party to mount a forlorn open-boat attempt to escape from Antarctica and fetch help for the Elephant Island castaways, including Rickinson.
After enduring more than four months of near-starvation rations Rickinson, who was still classified as an invalid, was rescued from Elephant Island with his comrades.
[1] With the coming of World War II, Rickinson rejoined the colours and was assigned to HMS Pembroke, the pseudo-floating naval barracks and training establishment at Chatham in the Medway.