LABRADOR I7 



entrance to Port Manvers was jammed solid with ice, and there 

 was nothing for it but to turn round and go back down the run 

 to an island about eight miles from Nain, which had been noted 

 as a possible base measurement site. 



Navigation 'down north' by the inshore route has been des- 

 cribed at some length to show the risks which had to be run in 

 1932, and in the following two summers, in order to get to the 

 survey ground as soon as it was sufficiently clear of ice for survey 

 work in the very short season, which lasted only from mid- July 

 until early November. 



The base site having been chosen, the survey went forward in 

 earnest. On the evening before a day of surveying, the Captain 

 makes his plans, stating broadly in his surveying order book what 

 work is to be done and which surveying officers are to do it. 

 The First Lieutenant then assesses how many men and what 

 boats will be required for the various tasks, and then, with the 

 Coxswain, he details the men for each party; these are not con- 

 fined to any particular branch in the ship — seamen, stokers, the 

 sick bay attendant, the officers' stewards or even the ship's cooks 

 may be sent on this work if they volunteer for it. To an outsider 

 there appears to be a certain degree of chaos in the early stages 

 of a survey; parties go off every morning after an early breakfast, 

 taking with them their dinner, together with a quantity of gear, 

 such as poles, flags, calico, rope, hammers, spades, mauls, bolt 

 staves and axes, maps, charts, binoculars and prismatic compasses. 



A surveying ship usually carries about six or eight boats of 

 various types and sizes, and all these may be away on any one day. 

 It is an animated scene in the mornings, particularly when a strong 

 wind is blowing and the boats alongside are heaving up and down, 

 as the assorted equipment is handed down and passed into the 

 boats, the petty officer or leading seaman in charge seeing that 

 the gear of each party is not irretrievably muddled with that of 

 another party. At the appointed hour, 7.30 or 8 o'clock, the 

 boats, with their crews clad in many assorted rigs, each man 

 wearing what he thinks most appropriate to the weather con- 

 ditions prevailing, and towing dinghies or dories for landing on 

 the coast, cast off and head away towards different points on the 

 horizon. As they become smaller and smaller and finally become 

 a tiny dot in a white flicker of foam the Coxswain heaves a sigh 



