« 
CHAPTER VI 
QCTOBER 6tk — Lat. 30.30 ; long. 204. Old Horse day. 
The cat's wind has held fair, and the Balaena, with a 
white feather in her teeth, bowls merrily southward. 
The Old Horse came out in great style. The sailors 
consider that they do their first month's work at sea for 
nothing, having received the month's pay in advance 
when they signed articles, and the old horse is made an 
emblem of this month, and is hanged. I fail to see the 
analogy between an old horse and an unpaid month's 
work, but I am told that it is quite evident. However, I 
relate the incident as I saw it. It may be a custom of the 
past in a few years, for the reason that men are now 
trying to have their wages paid weekly. They would like 
to have a portion of their first pay handed them in 
advance, and would like their wives to receive their half 
pay in weekly, instead of in monthly, instalments. There 
are several other regulations they wish to have formed as 
to their pay ; for instance, that in case of shipwreck, 
they should receive pay up to date of reaching home, 
or at least till they make land, or a port. If we were to 
lose this ship in the Antarctic and lived in the boats or on 
the ice for a month or so, and then had the good fortune 
to be picked up by one of our companion vessels and 
brought home alive, the men would only be entitled to 
claim pay up to the moment the ship went down, and 
74 
