EQUIPPED FOR AN ARCTIC CRUISE 43 



everything much more seriously and been a ''kill-joy," 

 but he left the navigation to the captain and mate, 

 and asserted himself only a few times when things looked 

 threatening to his interests. He was a force that lay 

 in the background, and yet carried the responsibility. 



All the rest of the men drew up stools to the table. 

 At the opposite end to Born was Captain Larsson, a 

 tall man, rather bulky at the belt, from vigorous absti- 

 nence from exercise, with mild, blue eyes, and a sandy 

 moustache. He was dehberate in movement and very 

 scrupulous in performing the legal requirements which 

 enmesh the procedure of a ship entering and clearing 

 port. He was born in Sweden and educated as a 

 mechanical engineer, but early ran away to sea and 

 worked up to the rank of master. Among other things 

 he had been a salt trader between Portugal and Brazil, 

 a yachting captain in southern California, a sealer in 

 Bering Sea, and proprietor of a machine shop in Seattle. 

 A more polite man never drank whisky. 



Ed Born's brother Frank was assistant engineer. 

 Dark Uke Ed, Frank was smaller and slighter. He 

 had a short leg, which had been broken when he was 

 a boy and badly set. Frank always had a hearty laugh 

 ready, and never carried anybody's troubles except those 

 of his own watch below in the engine room. An eve- 

 ning in port would make him open his soul to his friends. 



At Captain Larsson's right hand, figuratively and 

 literally, sat Mate Carl Hansen. Born in Norway, the 

 mate had spent thirty of his forty-six years at sea. He 

 had been counted dead of yellow fever at Santos, Brazil, 

 had been caught in a tidal wave at Shanghai, and had 

 been stabbed in the head at Singapore. On the Pacific 

 coast somewhere he had been a successful pugilist: an 



