NEW SOUTH WALES. 275 



Captain James Ross. They inquired, whether we had compartments 

 in our ships to prevent us from sinking 1 How we intended to keep our- 

 selves warm 1 What kind of antiscorbutic we were to use 1 and where 

 were our great ice-saws 1 To all of these questions I was obliged to 

 answer, to their great apparent surprise, that we had none, and to agree 

 with them that we were unwise to attempt such service in ordinary 

 cruising vessels ; but we had been ordered to go, and that was enough ! 

 and go we should. This want of preparation certainly did not add to 

 the character for wisdom of our government, with this community ; 

 but they saw us all cheerful, young, and healthy, and gave us the 

 character, that I found our countrymen generally bear, of recklessness 

 of life and limb. The tender Flying-Fish excited their astonishment 

 more than the ships, from her smallness and peculiar rig ; and, altoge- 

 ther, as a gentleman told me, most of our visiters considered us doomed 

 to be frozen to death. I did not anticipate such a fate, although I 

 must confess I felt the chances were much against us, in case we were 

 compelled to winter within the Antarctic. From every calculation, 

 we could not stow quite twelve months' provision, even upon short 

 allowance ; our fuel was inadequate to last us more than seven months, 

 and the means of protecting ourselves in the ships for winter quarters, 

 were any thing but sufficient. My mind naturally suffered a great 

 deal of anxiety on all these points, and I felt myself not a little de- 

 pressed by it, particularly when I considered the state of the Peacock. 

 The carpenter of that ship, shortly after our arrival at Sydney, had 

 reported to her commander, Captain Hudson, that the whole of her 

 upper-works were rotten, and required a survey. The vessel was 

 quietly examined into without holding one, and her state was found 

 even worse than represented. I had many long consultations with 

 Captain Hudson, and found it was impossible to put upon her the 

 necessary repairs, without her giving up the southern cruise. We 

 made up our minds that it was absolutely necessary for the credit of 

 the Expedition and the country for her to perform it ; for we were 

 well satisfied that improper imputations and motives, would be 

 ascribed to us, if she did not, and was detained undergoing repairs, 

 in a state of inactivity, during the season for operations in the high 

 southern latitudes. The necessity I felt of subjecting so many lives in 

 so unworthy a ship, caused me great anxiety during the whole cruise. 

 The official papers forwarded to the Secretary of the Navy, upon this 

 subject, will be found in Appendix XXI. 



All the vessels underwent the necessary repairs of calking, &c, and 

 the Flying-Fish was furnished with two new masts of the Kaurie pine 

 of New Zealand, some feet shorter and larger in diameter than her 

 former ones. 



