THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



were to be delivered in London by June 15, for the 

 Nimrod was to leave England on June 30. 



At this time I had not finally decided to buy the 

 Nimrod, though the vessel was under offer to me, and 

 before I left Norway I paid a visit to Sandyfjord in 

 order to see whether I could come to terms with Mr. 

 C. Christiansen, the owner of the Bjorn. This ship was 

 specially built for polar work, and would have suited my 

 purposes most admirably. She was a new vessel of about 

 700 tons burthen and with powerful triple-expansion 

 engines, better equipped in every way than the forty- 

 year old Nimrod but I found that I could not afford to 

 buy her, much as I would have wished to do so. 

 Finally, I placed orders with some of the Norwegian 

 food-preserving companies for special tinned foods such 

 as fish balls, roast reindeer and roast ptarmigan, which 

 were very attractive luxuries during the winter night in 

 the south. 



When I returned to London I purchased the Nimrodj 

 which was then engaged on a sealing venture, and was 

 expected to return to Newfoundland within a short 

 time. The ship was small and old, and her maximum 

 speed under steam was hardly more than six knots, 

 but on the other hand, she was strongly built, and 

 quite able to face rough treatment in the ice. Indeed, 

 she had already received a good many hard knocks 

 in the course of a varied career. The Nimrod did not 

 return to Newfoundland as soon as I had hoped, and 

 when she did arrive she proved to be somewhat damaged 

 from contact with the ice, which had overrun her 

 and damaged her bulwarks. She was inspected on my 

 behalf and pronounced sound, and, making a fairly rapid 

 passage, arrived in the Thames on June 15. I must 

 confess that I was disappointed when I first examined 

 the little ship, to which I was about to commit the 



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