SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 



CHAPTER I 

 THROUGH STORMY SEAS 



The Final Preparations in New Zealand 



The first three weeks of November have gone with such a 

 rush that I have neglected my diary and can only patch it up 

 from memory. 



The dates seem unimportant, but throughout the period the 

 officers and men of the ship have been unremittingly busy. 



On arrival the ship was cleared of all the shore party stores, 

 including huts, sledges, &c. Within five days she was in dock. 

 Bowers attacked the ship's stores, surveyed, relisted, and re- 

 stowed them, saving very much space by unstowing numerous 

 cases and stowing the contents in the lazarette. Meanvv^hile our 

 good friend Miller attacked the leak and traced it to the stern. 

 We found the false stem split, and in one case 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 re- 



VOL. 1 — I 



