Scotts Last Expedition Volume I | Page 6

a
hole bored for a long-stem through-bolt which was much too large for
the bolt. Miller made the excellent job in overcoming this difficulty
which I expected, and since the ship has been afloat and loaded the leak
is found to be enormously reduced. The ship still leaks, but the amount
of water entering is little more than one would expect in an old wooden
vessel.
The stream which was visible and audible inside the stern has been
entirely stopped. Without steam the leak can now be kept under with
the hand pump by two daily efforts of a quarter of an hour to twenty
minutes. As the ship was, and in her present heavily laden condition, it
would certainly have taken three to four hours each day.

Before the ship left dock, Bowers and Wyatt were at work again in the
shed with a party of stevedores, sorting and relisting the shore party
stores. Everything seems to have gone without a hitch. The various
gifts and purchases made in New Zealand were collected--butter,
cheese, bacon, hams, some preserved meats, tongues.
Meanwhile the huts were erected on the waste ground beyond the
harbour works. Everything was overhauled, sorted, and marked afresh
to prevent difficulty in the South. Davies, our excellent carpenter,
Forde, Abbott, and Keohane were employed in this work. The large
green tent was put up and proper supports made for it.
When the ship came out of dock she presented a scene of great industry.
Officers and men of the ship, with a party of stevedores, were busy
storing the holds. Miller's men were building horse stalls, caulking the
decks, resecuring the deckhouses, putting in bolts and various small
fittings. The engine-room staff and Anderson's people on the engines;
scientists were stowing their laboratories; the cook refitting his galley,
and so forth--not a single spot but had its band of workers.
We prepared to start our stowage much as follows: The main hold
contains all the shore party provisions and part of the huts; above this
on the main deck is packed in wonderfully close fashion the remainder
of the wood of the huts, the sledges, and travelling equipment, and the
larger instruments and machines to be employed by the scientific
people; this encroaches far on the men's space, but the extent has been
determined by their own wish; they have requested, through Evans, that
they should not be considered: they were prepared to pig it anyhow,
and a few cubic feet of space didn't matter--such is their spirit.
The men's space, such as it is, therefore, extends from the fore hatch to
the stem on the main deck.
Under the forecastle are stalls for fifteen ponies, the maximum the
space would hold; the narrow irregular space in front is packed tight
with fodder.
Immediately behind the forecastle bulkhead is the small booby hatch,

the only entrance to the men's mess deck in bad weather. Next comes
the foremast, and between that and the fore hatch the galley and winch;
on the port side of the fore hatch are stalls for four ponies--a very stout
wooden structure.
Abaft the fore hatch is the ice-house. We managed to get 3 tons of ice,
162 carcases of mutton, and three carcases of beef, besides some boxes
of sweetbreads and kidneys, into this space. The carcases are stowed in
tiers with wooden battens between the tiers--it looks a triumph of
orderly stowage, and I have great hope that it will ensure fresh mutton
throughout our winter.
On either side of the main hatch and close up to the ice-house are two
out of our three motor sledges; the third rests across the break of the
poop in a space formerly occupied by a winch.
In front of the break of the poop is a stack of petrol cases; a further
stack surmounted with bales of fodder stands between the main hatch
and the mainmast, and cases of petrol, paraffin, and alcohol, arranged
along either gangway.
We have managed to get 405 tons of coal in bunkers and main hold, 25
tons in a space left in the fore hold, and a little over 30 tons on the
upper deck.
The sacks containing this last, added to the goods already mentioned,
make a really heavy deck cargo, and one is naturally anxious
concerning it; but everything that can be done by lashing and securing
has been done.
The appearance of confusion on deck is completed by our thirty-three
dogs_1_ chained to stanchions and bolts on the ice-house and on the
main hatch, between the motor sledges.
With all these stores on board the ship still stood two inches above her
load mark. The tanks are filled with compressed forage, except one,
which contains 12 tons of fresh water, enough, we hope, to take us