THE BOAT JOURNEY 
darkness an hour later, but the pack lay behind, and with a 
fair wind swelling the sails we steered our little craft through 
the night, our hopes centred on our distant goal. The swell 
was very heavy now, and when the time came for our first 
evening meal we found great difficulty in keeping the Primus 
lamp alight and preventing the hoosh splashing out of the 
pot. Three men were needed to attend to the cooking, one 
man holding the lamp and two men guarding the aluminium 
cooking-pot, which had to be lifted clear of the Primus when- 
ever the movement of the boat threatened to cause a disaster. 
Then the lamp had to be protected from water, for sprays 
were coming over the bows and our flimsy decking was by 
no means water-tight. All these operations were conducted in 
the confined space imder the decking, where the men lay or 
knelt and adjusted themselves as best they could to the angles 
of our cases and ballast. It was uncomfortable, but we found 
consolation in the reflection that without the decking we could 
not have used the cooker at all. 
The tale of the next sixteen days is one of supreme strife 
amid heaving waters. The sub-Antarctic Ocean lived up to its 
evil winter reputation. I decided to run north for at least two 
days while the wind held and so get into warmer weather before 
turning to the east and laying a course for South Georgia. We 
took two-hourly spells at the tiller. The men who were not 
on watch crawled into the sodden sleeping-bags and tried to 
forget their troubles for a period ; but there was no comfort 
in the boat. The bags and cases seemed to be alive in the 
unfailing knack of presenting their most uncomfortable angles 
to our rest-seeking bodies. A man might imagine for a moment 
that he had found a position of ease, but always discovered 
quickly that some unyielding point was impinging on muscle 
or bone. The first night aboard the boat was one of acute 
discomfort for us all, and we were Heartily glad when the dawn 
came and we could set about the preparation of a hot breakfast. 
This record of the voyage to South Georgia is based upon 
scanty notes made day by day. The notes dealt usually with 
the bare facts of distances, positions, and weather, but our 
memories retained the incidents of the passing davs in a period 
165 
