FROM ENGLAND TO SOUTH AFRICA 5 
affairs of the expedition, but he joined the ship from 
Simon’s Bay to Melbourne. 
The voyage itself on the sailing track from Madeira to 
the Cape was at first uneventful. We soon got into hot 
weather, and at night every available bit of deck space was 
used on which to sleep. The more particular slung ham- 
mocks, but generally men used such deck space as they 
could find, such as the top of the icehouse, where they were 
free from the running tackle, and rolled themselves into 
their blankets. So long as we had a wind we ran under sail 
alone, and on those days men would bathe over the side 
in the morning, but when the engines were going we could 
get the hose in the morning, which was preferred, espe- 
cially after a shark was seen making for Bowers’ red breast 
as he swam. 
The scene on deck in the early morning was always in- 
teresting. All hands were roused before six and turned on 
to the pumps, for the ship was leaking considerably. Nor- 
mally, the well showed about ten inches of water when the 
ship was dry. Before pumping, the sinker would show any- 
thing over two feet. The ship was generally dry after an 
hour to an hour and a half’s pumping, and by that time we 
had had quite enough of it. As soon as the officer of the 
watch had given the order, “ Vast pumping,” the first 
thing to do was to strip, and the deck was dotted with men 
trying to get the maximum amount of water from the sea 
in a small bucket let down on a line from the moving ship. 
First efforts in this direction would have been amusing had 
it not been for the caustic eye of the ‘ Mate’ on the bridge. 
If the reader ever gets the chance to try the experiment, 
especially in a swell, he will soon find himself with neither 
bucket nor water. The poor Mate was annoyed by the loss 
of his buckets. 
Everybody was working very hard during these days; 
shifting coal, reefing and furling sail aloft, hauling on the 
ropes on deck, together with magnetic and meteorological 
observations, tow-netting, collecting and making skins 
and so forth. During the first weeks there was more cargo 
stowing and paintwork than at other times, otherwise the 
