CHAPTER I 



THE GEOLOGISTS VISIT THE NEW ZEALAND GLACIERS 



On the morning of the 4th of November the Australian 

 contingent reached Lyttelton. The first ship we saw was the 

 Terra Nova snugly berthed alongside the wharf, and separated 

 by a few feet from the shed No. 5 in which most of the gear 

 was stored. She was readily recognizable by her characteristic 

 rigging surmounted by the crow's nest. The funnel is painted 

 a rather vivid yellow, and is decidedly abaft of the centre of 

 the ship, a feature which is usually represented wrongly in the 

 models of the ship displayed in some of the Dominion's shops. 



Technically the Terra Nova is a barque equipped with an 

 auxiliary screw. She was built at Dundee, and carries three 

 masts (two square-rigged), of which the mizen, for reasons 

 explained later, is rarely used. Socially she is a Royal Yacht, 

 which means that she may fly the white ensign, a privilege 

 only accorded to certain favoured vessels of the Empire. In 

 fact, I think, apart from our barque, all the units of the Royal 

 Yacht Squadron are on pleasure bent ; and certainly no other 

 is frozen in the Antarctic Pack as we are at the time of writing. 

 Originally she was used as a whaler, and differs little in general 

 arrangement from the Nimrod (Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship), 

 though she is approximately twice as powerful a vessel. Almost 

 the only wooden vessels now built are those used in the polar 

 seas, and as no steel vessel could stand the wear and tear 

 caused by the constant collision with ice, it follows that an 

 exploring expedition usually makes use of a converted whaling 

 vessel. 



When I first saw her in the West India Docks at London, 

 she had a wide and spacious poop and a distinctly narrow and 

 confined saloon. Now the proportions are reversed. The 

 poop-deck consists merely of the space around the wheel and 



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