ARRANGEMENT OF WATCHES 117 



where, who had eaten and drunk well in the course of 

 the day. But after a time the oaths gave way to jokes. 

 There is nothing in the world that custom does not 

 help us to get over. 



It is the universal practice on board ship to divide 

 the day and night into watches of four hours; the two 

 watches into which the crew is divided relieve each 

 other every four hours. But on vessels that sail to the 

 Arctic Ocean, it is customary to have watches of six 

 hours. We adopted the latter plan, which, on its being 

 put to the vote, proved to have a compact majority in 

 its favour. By this arrangement of watches we only 

 had to turn out twice in the course of twenty-four hours, 

 and the watch below had had a proper sleep whenever 

 it turned out. If one has to eat, smoke, and perhaps 

 chat a little during four hours' watch below, it does not 

 leave much time for sleeping; and if there should be a 

 call for all hands on deck, it means no sleep at all. 



To cope with the work of the engine-room, we had 

 from the beginning the two engineers, Sundbeck and 

 Nodtvedt ; they took watch and watch, four hours each. 

 When the motor was in use for a long time continu- 

 ously, this was a rather severe duty, and on the whole 

 it was just as well to have a man in reserve. I therefore 

 decided to have a third man trained as reserve engineer. 

 Kristensen applied for this post, and it may be said in 

 his praise that he accomplished the change remarkably 

 well. Thorough deck-hand as he was, there might have 



