HEAVY WORK CONTINUES 



both the voyages she made for the relief of the Discovery. 

 He was third mate and boatswain on this expedition. 



When I had gone on board the previous day I found 

 that England was still poorly and that he was feeling the 

 strain of the situation. He was naturally very anxious 

 to get the ship away and concerned about the shrinkage 

 of the coal supply. I also would have been glad 

 to have seen the Nimrod on her way north, but it 

 was impossible to let her leave until the wintering party 

 had received their coal from her. In view of the voyage 

 home, the ship's main topmast was struck to lessen her 

 rolling in bad weather. It was impossible to ballast the 

 ship with rock, as the time needed for this operation 

 would involve the consumption of much valuable coal, 

 and I was sure that the heavy iron-bark and oak hull, 

 and the weight of the engine and boiler filled with 

 water would be sufficient to ensure the ship's safety. 



We found it impossible to continue working at Cliff 

 Point later on in the day, so the ship stood off whilst those 

 on shore went on with the building of the hut. Some 

 of the shore-party had come off in the last boat to finish 

 writing their final letters home, and during the night we 

 lay to waiting for the swell to decrease. The weather 

 was quite fine, and if it had not been for the swell we 

 could have got through a great deal of work. February 

 is by no means a fine month in the latitude we were in, 

 and up till now we had been extremely fortunate, as we 

 had not experienced a real blizzard. 



The following morning, Monday, February 17, the 

 sea was breaking heavily on the ice-foot at the bottom 

 of Cliff Point. The stores that had been landed the 

 previous day had been hoisted up the overhanging cliff 

 and now formed the fourth of our scattered depots of 

 coal and stores. The swell did not seem so heavy in 

 Front Door Bay, so we commenced landing the stores in 



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