152 FROM MADEIRA TO THE BARRIER 



we raced to the eastward. An intended call at Gough 

 Island had to be abandoned; the sea was running too 

 high for us to venture to approach the narrow little 

 harbour. The month of October had put us a good 

 deal behindhand, but now we were making up the 

 distance we had lost. We had reckoned on being south 

 of the Cape of Good Hope within two months after 

 leaving Madeira, and this turned out correct. The day 

 we passed the meridian of the Cape we had the first 

 regular gale; the seas ran threateningly high, but now 

 for the first time our splendid little ship showed what 

 she was worth. A single one of these gigantic waves 

 would have cleared our decks in an instant if it had 

 come on board, but the Fram did not permit any such 

 impertinence. When they came up behind the vessel, 

 and we might expect at any moment to see them break 

 over the low after-deck, she just raised herself with an 

 elegant movement, and the wave had to be content 

 with slipping underneath. An albatross could not have 

 managed the situation better. It is said that the Fram 

 was built for the ice, and that cannot, of course, be 

 denied; but at the same time it is certain that when 

 Colin Archer created his famous masterpiece of an ice 

 boat, she was just as much a masterpiece of a sea boat a 

 vessel it would be difficult to match for seaworthiness. 

 To be able to avoid the seas as the Fram did, she had to 

 roll, and this we had every opportunity of finding out. 

 The whole long passage through the westerly belt was 



