CLEARING UP OYSTER ALLEY 



completed we signalled the Koonya to go ahead and 

 we were soon in the open sea. There was a slight breeze 

 and a small choppy sea. Before we had been under 

 way for an hour water began to come in at the scupper 

 holes and through the wash ports. This looked ominous 

 to us, for if the Nimrod was going to be wet in such fine 

 weather, what was she going to be like when we got a 

 southerly gale! She moved through the water astern 

 of the Koonya like a reluctant child being dragged to 

 school; she seemed to have no vitality of her own. This 

 was due to her deeply loaded condition, and more espe- 

 cially to the seven tons of cable and the weight of the wire 

 on her bows dragging her nose down into the sea. No 

 Antarctic exploring ship had been towed to the ice before, 

 but it meant the saving of coal to us for a time when the 

 tons saved in this manner might prove the salvation of 

 the expedition. 



Night came down on us, and the last we saw of New 

 Zealand was a bold headland growing fainter and fainter 

 in the gathering gloom. The occupants of Oyster Alley, 

 after a somewhat sketchy meal in the wardroom, were 

 endeavouring to reduce the chaos of their quarters to 

 some sort of order. The efforts of some of the scientific 

 staff were interrupted at times by sudden attacks of sea- 

 sickness, and indeed one would not have been surprised 

 if the seafaring portion of the staff had also succumbed, 

 for the atmosphere of the alley, combined with the pecu- 

 liar motion of the ship, was far from pleasant. A few of 

 the members of the party preferred to sleep on deck in any 

 odd corner they could find, and one man in particular 

 was so overcome by the sea that for three days and nights 

 he lay prostrate amongst the vegetables and cases of 

 butter and carbide, on the unused fore-bridge of the ship. 

 He seemed to recover at meal-times, and as his lair was 

 just above the galley, he simply appeared from under his 



43 



