ut
those of us who had "sailed the way before" had a slight inkling that we
might meet more ships, and _others_ who would lend us a helping hand in
the matter of Naval stores.

Captain Scott allowed me a sum with which to equip the "Terra Nova"; it
seemed little enough to me but it made quite a hole in our funds. There
were boatswain's stores to be purchased, wire hawsers, canvas for
sail-making, fireworks for signalling, whale boats and whaling gear,
flags, logs, paint, tar, carpenter's stores, blacksmith's outfit,
lubricating oils, engineer's stores, and a multitude of necessities to be
thought of, selected, and not paid for if we could help it. The verb "to
wangle" had not then appeared in the English language, so we just
"obtained."

The expedition had many friends, and it was not unusual to find Petty
Officers and men from the R.N.V.R. working on board and helping us on
Saturday afternoons and occasionally even on Sundays. They gave their
services for nothing, and the only way in which we could repay them was
to select two chief Petty Officers from their number, disrate them, and
take them Poleward as ordinary seamen.

It was not until the spring of 1910 that we could afford to engage any
officers or men for the ship, so that most of the work of rigging her was
done by dock-side workers under a good old master rigger named Malley.
Landsmen would have stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed at Malley's men
with their diminutive dolly-winch had they watched our new masts and
yards being got into place.

Six weeks before sailing day Lieut. Campbell took over the duties of
Chief Officer in the "Terra Nova," Pennell and Rennick also joined, and
Lieut. Bowers came home from the Indian Marine to begin his duties as
Stores Officer by falling down the main hatch on to the pig iron ballast.
I did not witness this accident, and when Campbell reported the matter I
am reported to have said, "What a silly ass!" This may have been true,
for coming all the way from Bombay to join us and then immediately
falling down the hatch did seem a bit careless. However, when Campbell
added that Bowers had not hurt himself my enthusiasm returned and I said,
"What a splendid fellow!" Bowers fell nineteen feet without injuring
himself in the slightest. This was only one of his narrow escapes and he
proved himself to be about the toughest man amongst us.

Quite a lot could be written of the volunteers for service with Scott in
this his last Anta