24 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' 



investigated, to supervise the construction of the ship, &c. ; 

 whilst one, the Executive Committee, was to act for and report 

 to the larger body. 



Such was the position of affairs when I received my 

 appointment to command the expedition on June 10, 1900, 

 and therefore, in making my bow to the public, I will digress 

 slightly to show how this had come about. I may as well 

 confess at once that I had no predilection for Polar explora- 

 tion, and that my story is exceedingly tame, but such as it is it 

 shows how curiously the course of one's life may be turned. I 

 suppose the tale really starts in 1887, when Sir Clements 

 Markham, then the guest of his cousin, the Commodore of the 

 Training Squadron, made himself the personal friend of every 

 midshipman in the four ships which comprised it, and when I 

 became one of those midshipmen and first made his acquaint- 

 ance. But there is a long interregnum — until 1899, in fact ; 

 in that year I was serving as first lieutenant of the ' Majestic,' 

 then flagship to the Channel Squadron. Early in June I was 

 spending my short leave in London, and chancing one day to 

 walk down the Buckingham Palace Road, I espied Sir Clements 

 on the opposite pavement, and naturally crossed, and as 

 naturally turned and accompanied him to his house. That 

 afternoon I learned for the first time that there was such a 

 thing as a prospective Antarctic expedition ; two days later I 

 wrote applying to command it, and a year after that I was 

 officially appointed. On June 30, 1900, 1 was promoted to the 

 rank of commander, and a month later my duties in the 

 1 Majestic ' lapsed, and I was free to undertake the work of the 

 expedition. The year which followed was in many respects 

 the busiest I have ever spent, and in view of the novelty and 

 importance of the work this cannot be considered surprising ; 

 but, great as my difficulties were, I have to acknowledge that 

 they would have been much greater had it not been for the 

 numerous acts of kindness and the invariable courtesy which I 

 received from the many persons who were directly or indirectly 

 connected with the expedition. 



The first month after my release from the Navy I spent in 



