A British Army Antarctic Expedition was turning into a disaster today after a yacht became marooned in the ice.

The latest set back came just days after the expedition's leader was saved from certain death by North Yorkshireman Captain Harry Scrope when he fell into a crevasse.

Pack ice surrounded the 72ft yacht as it moored for the night at Waterboat Point, on the Danco Coast, Antarctic Peninsula.

It is 85 years since Sir Ernest Shackleton made his legendary escape after his boat Endurance was trapped and crushed by ice off the Antarctic Peninsula.

He and his crew lived for months on the snow before one of the most extraordinary rescues of all time in which Shackleton and a small team sailed 800 miles in a tiny boat to find help.

But unlike the Endurance, the Army expedition's yacht, the Southampton-registered John Laing, is steel-hulled.

Meanwhile, the expedition's mission - to send a ski-mountaineering team to explore the Forbidden Plateau and carry out scientific surveys along the Danco Coast - is on hold until the ice clears.

Expedition spokesman Lt Col Andy Bristow said: "We have taken John Laing to the very limits of the choke ice that has yet to disperse following the Antarctic winter.

"The John Laing does not have an ice-breaking capability so we will not be attempting to take any risks by continuing south just yet. We will just have to sit it out."

The 16 members of the trip, which set sail from the Falkland Islands 17 days ago, have enough provisions on board to last the expected three months of the voyage.

Captain Scrope isn't the only North-East man in the team. He is accompanied by Sgt Steve Ayers, 29, from the Eastbourne area of Darlington.

* Progress reports on the expedition can be found on its website, www.baae.org.uk.