i 9 o2] 'WATERING SHIP' 95 



will lie deeper than in other parts. At first we were rather 

 inclined to scorn floes that were not very irregular in surface, 

 but we soon found that what meant a great deal of snow to us 

 made a very small hole in their burden, and that we could 

 easily satisfy our requirements from comparatively insignificant 

 ice-floes. After the first few occasions, therefore, as soon as 

 we had decided on ' watering ship,' it took us very little time 

 to select our floe and to run the ship alongside it, when ready 

 men would leap out with the ice-anchors, and after planting 

 them securely would attach our ropes ; directly the ship was 

 secured the digging party would swarm over the side with picks 

 and shovels and boxes, a few would dig away with the picks 

 whilst others bore the filled boxes or large blocks across the 

 floe, and others again stood ready to transport these over the 

 side and on to the deck ; the heap that was thus made was 

 reduced as fast as the tanks could be fed, but generally the 

 work was so vigorously carried on that the supply exceeded the 

 immediate demand and a large deck-heap had to be gauged to 

 determine the moment at which it would be wise to say, ' Hold, 

 enough ! ' These words spoken, all would troop on board, 

 the ice-anchors would be uprooted, the engines revolved, and 

 we would push on through the pack once more ; in this 

 systematic manner we could provide ourselves with many tons 

 of water with a halt of one or two hours. 



We made better progress again with both boilers, and as 

 we ground through and overturned broken fragments, it was 

 astonishing to see the extent to which the under- ice was honey- 

 combed. Many of the overturned blocks showed under-strata 

 of a reddish yellow colour due to the presence of diatoms ; it 

 was surprising to find that these microscopic plants could be 

 caught in the freezing water in such vast quantities, although 

 our surface tow-nets at this time were producing large hauls. 



Tow-netting had been a very great source of interest to 

 many of us throughout our voyage from England ; our original 

 tow-nets were designed for use only when the ship was drifting ; 

 constructed of very fine meshed silk, they were intended to 

 capture the microscopic plants which inhabit the surface waters 



