42 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
While the Royal Observatory at Greenwich was 
and is very intimately associated with the Royal Navy, 
it was not to be expected that the head of the Observatory 
could at a moment’s notice take command of a ship of 
war. In those days of course the navy was not so spe- 
cialised a profession as it is now, and captaincies and even 
higher posts could then be bestowed without scandal on 
persons who were not qualified to exercise the duties 
attached to their office. It was in fact a convenient way 
in which a leading politician could reward his friends to 
place them on the books of a ship or of a regiment. Such 
appointments were even given to children and served 
merely as an excuse for an annuity from the public funds. 
But Halley was called upon not only to draw the pay 
but to exercise the executive duties of a captain in com- 
mand of a crew engaged upon uncongenial and to them 
incomprehensible work. It is not astonishing that dif- 
ficulties arose and that the rough sailors of those days 
resented the efforts of their amateur captain to main- 
tain discipline. The wonder is that any scientific work 
was possible in the circumstances. Halley succeeded in 
making excellent magnetic observations, he landed at St. 
Helena and repeated his experiments there, and then 
steered southward. In January, 1700, he met with float- 
ing ice in latitude 52 0 S. and longitude 167° W. of 
Ferro. The vessel was not prepared for ice-navigation 
and got into a position of considerable danger so that it 
became necessary to return northward immediately. No 
new land was seen, but some indications of land appeared 
in latitude 43 0 12' S. and longitude 49 0 32' W., while 
the presence of birds in 43 0 51' S., 25 0 50' W., suggested 
the possibility of land existing in that neighbourhood. 
As one result of this voyage Halley was able to con- 
