20 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD ' 
next minute the boat flew out on the back-wash with the 
seaman absolutely dry, and I was of course enveloped in 
foam and blackness two seconds later by a following wave. 
Twice the day before this had happened, but this time for 
a moment I thought, ‘ Where will my head strike?’ as I 
was like a feather in a breeze in that swirl. When I banked 
it was about 1 5 feet above, and, very scratched and winded, 
I clung on with my nails and scrambled up higher. The 
next wave, a bigger one, nearly had me, but I was just too 
high to be sucked back. Atkinson and I then started get- 
ting the gear down, Evans having taken my place in the 
pram. By running down between waves we hove some 
items into the boat, including the guns and rifles, which I 
went right down to throw. These were caught and put 
into the boat, but Evans was too keen to save a bunch of 
boots that Atkinson threw down, and the next minute the 
pram passed over my head and landed high and dry, like 
a bridge, over the rocks between which I was wedged. I 
then scrambled out as the next wave washed her still higher, 
right over and over, with Evans and Rennick just out in 
time. The next wave—a huge one—picked her up, and 
out she bumped over the rocks and out to sea she went, 
water-logged, with the guns, fortunately, jammed under 
the thwarts. She was rescued by the whaler, baled out, and 
then Gran and one of the seamen manned her battered 
remains again, and we, unable to save the gear otherwise, 
lashed it to life-buoys, threw it into the sea and let it drift 
out with the back-wash to be picked up by the pram. 
‘Clothes, watches and ancient guns, rifles, ammuni- 
tion, birds (dead) and all specimens were, with the basket 
of crockery and food, soaked with salt water. However, 
the choice was between that or leaving them altogether, as 
anybody would have said had they seen the huge rollers 
breaking among the rocks and washing 30 to 40 feet up 
with the spray; in fact, we were often knocked over and 
submerged for a time, clinging hard to some rock or one 
of the ropes for dear life. Evans swam off first. Then I 
was about half an hour trying to rescue a hawser and some 
lines entangled among the rocks. It was an amusing job. 
