THE TERRA NOVA GOES SOUTH 43 



a relief to be done with that one for a brief space. At the 

 hatchway, luckily on the lee side, the end man held the empty 

 buckets to prevent them washing overboard. He was kept 

 moderately warm by the water from the emptying buckets, 

 since being in the line of fire he received most of it amid- 

 ships, whence it trickled down inside his boots, forming a 

 novel mode of keeping the feet warm. 



Now and again would come a welcome cry of " Spell 

 Ho ! " and those below would climb into the cool air, and 

 those outside dive inside to thaw themselves. Then to it 

 again till five minutes before the watch ended, when some 

 one would be sent off" to warn the relief. The relieved watch 

 turned in, into bunks soaking wet in many cases, and by the 

 time one had warmed up and snoozed a few minutes, there 

 came a cry of" Turn out ; your watch ! ' However, by Friday 

 night we were holding our own and gaining slightly on the 

 water. Meanwhile the engineers were working double tides 

 to cut a hole through the bulkheads so as to get at the lower 

 end of the hand-pumps. This was accomplished after many 

 hours' work, and with the aid of a rat-trap the pumps were 

 brought into use again. This humble implement was shaped 

 to cover the end of the pipe, and served admirably to keep 

 the coal-balls from clogging the valves. Soon sixteen men — 

 eight on each long crank handle — were clanking away despite 

 the incoming waves, and as the sea moderated the outrush 

 from the hand-pumps assisted the steam-pumps so that on 

 Saturday afternoon the ship was practically dry. 



The toll of the gale was fairly heavy. Two of the ponies 

 in the foc'sle stalls had died of the buffeting and exhaustion ; 

 one dog had been washed overboard ; and the port bulwarks 

 the whole length of the waist (about thirty feet) had been 

 badly damaged. The after-portion for two panels (to use a 

 landlubber's term) had been torn out bodily, while for'ard of 

 that the planking was washed away, leaving only the frame- 

 work. Personal gear suffered greatly. Books and diaries in 

 my bunk had been pulped, a camera so warped as to be nearly 

 useless, and several surveying instruments, which I had placed 

 in a canvas rucksack on the wall, ruined or badly damaged. 

 During the gale I had felt that the rucksack was quite dry, 

 but on clearing out the bunk a little later 1 found the bag 

 contained half a bucketful of a sort of " hoosh " — consisting 



