After Filchner's attempts to establish a land base at Vahsel Bay failed, his ship was trapped on 6 March 1912, about 200 miles (320 km) off the coast of Coats Land. Six months later, at latitude 63° 37', the ship broke free, then sailed to South Georgia apparently none the worse for its ordeal. Shackleton thought that a similar experience might allow Endurance to make a second attempt to reach Vahsel Bay in the following Antarctic spring.[1]