EQUIPMENT OF BOAT PARTY. 
315 
relief experienced everywhere. I told them that I did 
not choose to call a council or connect any of them 
with the responsibilities of the measure, for it involved 
only the personal safety of those who chose to share 
the risk. Full instructions were then left for their 
guidance during my absence. 
“It was the pleasantest interview I ever had with 
my associates. I believe every man on board would 
have volunteered, but I confined myself to five active 
men: James McGary, William Morton, George Riley, 
Hans Christian, and Thomas Hickey, make up my 
party.” 
Our equipment had been getting ready for some 
time, though without its object being understood or 
announced. The boat was our old “Forlorn Hope,” 
mended up and revised for her new destinies. She was 
twenty-three feet long, had six-feet-and-a-half beam, 
and was two feet six inches deep. Her build was the 
characteristic one of the American whaleboats, too flat- 
bottomed for ordinary use, but much improved by a 
false keel, which Ohlsen had given her throughout her 
entire length. After all, she was a mere cockle-shell. 
Her great fault was her knife-like bow, which cut 
into the short seas most cruelly. To remedy this in 
some degree, and to make up for her want of height, 
I devised a sort of half-deck of canvas and gum-elastic 
cloth, extending back beyond the foremast, and con¬ 
tinued along the gunwale; a sort of weather-cloth, 
which might possibly add to her safety, and would 
certainly make her more comfortable in heavy weather. 
