NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE 



65 



It was a real relief to settle down to our ocean routine. The 

 hectic past months gave place to as simple a life as possible. 

 Meal hours were so arranged that in spite of their various duties, 

 the staff could eat together. The radio-operator and atmospheric 

 electric observers occasionally kept irregular schedules which 

 made this not always possible. The watch-officers and the 

 Engineer had their mess in the wardroom forward; and the fore- 

 castle was served from the same galley. The deck-force was 

 separated into two watches, as is usual on a sailing ship ; the men 

 spending four hours on and four off, with two "dog-watches" of 

 two hours each between four and eight in the evening. 



Scientific Staff Waving Good-bye 

 On departure from Newport News, Virginia, for the three-year voyage. 



Our first morning out. May 11, was chosen for the first magnetic 

 station. The ship was now fifty miles off the coast and away from 

 local disturbances ashore. At sunrise the officer on watch calls 

 the observers to the bridge for the declination-observation. When 

 they are assembled the ship's course is changed, if necessary, to 

 keep the foresail from hiding the sun. Captain Ault and Torreson 

 make readings of the marine collimating-compass; Erickson meas- 

 ures altitudes of the sun with his sextant; and Scott enters each 

 reading on special forms, with a time-record for each observation. 



