SOUTHWARD 73 
to bank fires, to raise steam or to let fires out, most difficult 
at this time. “‘If one lets fires out it means a dead loss of 
over two tons, when the boiler has to be heated again. 
But this two tons would only cover a day under banked 
fires, so that for anything longer than twenty-four hours it 
is economy to put the fires out. At each stoppage one is 
called upon to decide whether it is to be for more or less 
than twenty-four hours.” 1 Certainly England should have 
an oil-driven ship for polar work. 
The Terra Nova proved a wonderfully fine ice ship. 
Bowers’ middle watch especially became famous for the way 
in which he put the ship at the ice, and more than once 
Scott was alarmed by the great shock and collisions which 
were the result : I have seen him hurry up from his cabin 
to put a stop to it! But Bowers never hurt the ship, and 
she gallantly responded to the calls made upon her. Some- 
times it was a matter of forcing two floes apart, at others 
of charging and breaking one. Often we went again and 
again at some stubborn bit, backing and charging alter- 
nately, as well as the space behind us would allow. If 
suficient momentum was gained the ship rode upon the 
thicker floes, rising up upon it and pressing it down be- 
neath her, until suddenly, perhaps when its nearest edge 
was almost amidships, the weight became too great and 
the ice split beneath us. At other times a tiny crack, no 
larger than a vein, would run shivering from our bows, 
which widened and widened until the whole ship passed 
through without difficulty. Always when below one heard 
the grumbling of the ice as it passed along the side. But 
it was slow work, and hard on the engines. There were 
days when we never moved at all. 
“T can imagine few things more trying to the patience 
than the long wasted days of waiting. Exasperating as it is 
to see the tons of coal melting away with the smallest mile- 
age to our credit, one has at least the satisfaction of active 
fighting and the hope of better fortune. To wait idly is the 
worst of conditions. You can imagine how often and how 
restlessly we climbed to the crow’s nest and studied the 
1 Scott's Last Expedition, vol. i. p. 56. 
