ANTARCTIC CRUISE. 379 



accomplish that part of the accompanying order, which refers to 

 penetrating to the south. 



I am, respectfully, &c, 



R. F. PlNKNEY, 



Lieutenant- Commandant. 



To Acting Master George T. Sinclair. 

 Passed Midshipman William May. 

 Passed Midshipman George W. Harrison. 



COPY OF REPLY. 



U. S. Schooner Flying-Fish, 

 Lat. 66° S., long. 143° E., Feb. 5th, 1840. 



Sir, — 



Agreeably to your order of this date, we, the undersigned officers, 

 have to express our most thorough conviction, that the condition of 

 this vessel's crew, and the vessel, loudly demand an immediate return 

 to milder latitudes. 



The causes of this opinion are these : that the crew of this vessel, 

 consisting of fifteen persons (four officers and eleven men), even if 

 well, are entirely inadequate to her safe management ; but five are 

 now confined to sick beds (one a servant), one of them is in a very 

 critical state of health, and three others dragging out upon duty, 

 complaining, and under medical treatment. Out of four, nominally 

 performing duty, one of them, the cook, is totally unfit to a turn at 

 the helm, and another cannot be trusted without the closest watch- 

 ing ; indeed, so deficient in force are we, that in the gale of yesterday 

 and the day before, and on a previous occasion, when it became 

 extremely necessary to reef the foresail, the men were so deficient in 

 physical strength as to make it impossible to accomplish it. 



The crew's apartment is in the most deplorable state, leaking like 

 a sieve, all their beds being wet, their clothes on them being so, even 

 to their under flannels, for one week, and without a dry change on 

 hand, and no prospect of having one ; so miserable is their situation, 

 that at length you have been compelled to allot them the cabin, in 

 common with us, for the purpose of cooking, eating, and sleeping. 



Furthermore, sir, in the gale now abating we find that nearly 

 constant application to the pump is barely sufficient to keep the 

 water from flooding the cabin-floor, evidently having started a leak ; 



