IN THE HOLD OF ‘HANS EGEDE?’ 11 
reputation for rolling. The ship, if clumsy, is 
strong; the captain, who is a man of attractive per- 
sonality and thoroughly at home in Arctic seas, 
also inspired confidence. There are small though 
comfortable state rooms for about twenty passen- 
gers. On the return voyage in September, the 
third of the four trips made each summer, nearly 
sixty passengers had to be provided for and 
temporary accommodation was made in the fore- 
hold to which access was gained through a hatch, 
requiring some practice to negotiate with reason- 
able comfort, and a long, steep ladder. It was a 
new and interesting experience to travel as cargo, 
but despite a succession of rough seas our obliging 
and acrobatic steward was always able to carry the 
food along the wave-swept deck. Lying in a bunk 
in the bow of a pitching ship—the thud and swish 
of the waves overhead, the shivering and creaking 
of the timbers, cups swinging noisily on their 
hooks, heavy bodies occasionally careering across 
the floor of the damp hold—these and other im- 
pressions received by a sleepily receptive mind 
made one feel that the traveller in a transatlantic 
‘floating hotel’ misses something which gives 
point to the contrast of a sea voyage to the 
smoothness and peace of one’s normal way of 
life. ‘On certain ships,’ it is written in an ad- 
vertisement recently published by a well-known 
Line of Steamers, ‘one can hardly appreciate the 
fact that one is at sea.’ The ‘Hans Egede’ in this 
respect has the advantage—the sea is obviously 
there. 
