380 siege of the south pole 
perseverance, courage and originality, whose genius had 
grappled with the problem of killing the hitherto invul- 
nerable blue whale or tinner, and the creator by that 
achievement of a great fortune for himself and a new 
industry for Norway. When his countryman, Mr. H. J. 
Bull, who had been captivated by the fascination of the 
Antarctic, had tried and failed to induce Australian capi- 
talists to invest money in an attempt to renew Antarctic 
whaling, he left Melbourne, returned to Europe, and 
applied at once to Commander Foyn. The veteran was 
eighty-four years old, and his life had been spent in per- 
fecting the whale fishing off his native coasts and in the 
Arctic seas, but he was willing to help a new enterprise in 
the other hemisphere ; and, entering keenly into the plans, 
he placed a vessel at the disposal of Mr. Bull. 
For this purpose he purchased the whaler Cap Nor, 
built at Drammen in 1871, a vessel similar in build to the 
Balaena and Active. For her new work she was re- 
christened Antarctic, and sailed under the command of 
Captain Leonard Kristensen, with Mr. Bull on board, in 
September, 1893. On her way out she spent some time 
sealing at Kerguelen, and reached Melbourne at the end 
of January, 1894. Mr. W. S. Bruce, fresh from his ex- 
perience on the Balaena, applied to Commander Foyn for 
permission to accompany the Antarctic, and the Director 
of the firm publicly expressed his regret that the quick 
despatch of the ship made it impossible for Mr. Bruce 
to reach Melbourne in time to join the vessel. 
Amongst others bitten by the fever of adventure was 
a young colonist of Norwegian birth, though partly Eng- 
lish in ancestry, Carstens Egeberg Borchgrevink, who 
had had some experience of land-surveying and proved 
himself of the most irrepressible persistency in gratifying 
