SOUTH 
tew niimites live days' food and six days' fuel were stowed in 
a place of safety among the boulders above high-water mark. 
During this day the cook, who had worked well on the floe and 
throughout the boat journey, suddenly collapsed. I happened 
to be at the galley at the moment and saw him fall. I pulled 
him down the slope to his tent and pushed him into its shelter 
with orders to his tent-mates to keep him in his sleeping-bag 
until 1 allowed him to come out or the doctors said he was 
fit enough. Then I took out to replace the cook one of the 
men who had expressed a desire to lie down and die. The task 
of keeping the galley fire ahght was both difficult and strenuous, 
and it took his thoughts away from the chances of immediate 
dissolution. In fact, I found him a little later gravely con- 
cerned over the drying of a naturally not over-clean pair of 
socks which were hung up in close proximity to our evening 
milk. Occupation had brought his thoughts back to the 
ordinary cares of life. 
There was a lull in the bad weather on April 21, and the 
carpenter started to collect material for the decking of the 
James Caird, lie fitted the mast of the Stancomh Wills fore and 
aft inside the James Caird as a. hog-back and thus strengthened 
the keel with the object of preventing om^ boat hogging " — 
that is, buckling in heavy seas. He had not sufficient wood to 
provide a deck, but by using the sledge-runners and box-lids 
he made a framework extending from the forecastle aft to a 
well. It was a patched-up affair, but it provided a base for 
a canvas covering. We had a bolt of canvas frozen stiff, and 
this material had to be cut and then thawed out over the 
blubber-stove, foot by foot, in order that it might be sewn into 
the form of a cover. When it had been nailed and screwed into 
position it certainly gave an appearance of safety to the boat, 
though I had an uneasy feeling that it bore a strong likeness 
to stage scenery, which may look like a granite wall and is in 
fact nothing better than canvas and lath. As events proved, 
the covering served its purpose well. We certainly could not 
have lived through the voyage without it. 
Another fierce gale was blowing on April 22, interfering 
with our preparations for the voyage. The cooker from No. 5 
160 
