56 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY 



Squadron before joining the expedition ; consequently, when 

 the Admiralty gave permission for naval men to serve in the 

 1 Discovery,' I had friends in each ship of this fleet to whom I 

 could write asking them to select one or two men from those 

 who volunteered for the service. It was a simple plan, and 

 relieved me of the difficulty of picking out names from the very 

 long list which would have resulted had volunteers been 

 generally called for. I knew well that amongst British blue- 

 jackets there would be no lack of good men to volunteer for a 

 voyage that promised to be so adventurous. Our men, there- 

 fore, came to us singly or by twos and threes from various 

 ships ; Evans, Allan, and Quaitley came from my old ship the 

 ' Majestic,' Cross and Heald from the ' Jupiter,' Smythe from 

 the ' St. Vincent,' and so on. 



All brought with them that sense of naval discipline which 

 they displayed so noticeably throughout the voyage. It must 

 be understood that the ' Discovery,' not being in Government 

 employment, had no more stringent regulations to enforce 

 discipline than those which are contained in the Merchant 

 Shipping Act, and however adequate these may be for com- 

 mercial purposes, they fail to provide that guarantee for strict 

 obedience and good behaviour which I believe to be a neces- 

 sity for such exceptional conditions as exist in Polar service. 

 Throughout our three years' voyage in the 'Discovery' the 

 routine of work, the relations between officers and men, and 

 the general ordering of matters were, as far as circumstances 

 would permit, precisely such as are customary in His Majesty's 

 ships. We lived exactly as though the ship and all on board 

 had been under the Naval Discipline Act ; and as everyone 

 must have been aware that this pleasing state of affairs was a 

 fiction, the men deserve as much credit as the officers, if not 

 more, for the fact that it continued to be observed. 



Since the return of our expedition it has been acknowledged 

 that our labours met with a large measure of success, and it 

 has been recognised that each officer in his particular depart- 

 ment has added something to the advancement of scientific 

 knowledge j and they, as well as I, will be the last to forget 



