the voyage will be
long, difficult, and dangerous; that's all stated in our instructions;
it's well to know beforehand what one undertakes to do; probably it's
to try all that men can possibly do, and perhaps even more. So, if you
haven't got a bold heart and a strong body, if you can't say you have
more than twenty chances to one of staying there, if, in short, you
are particular about leaving your body in one place more than another,
here rather than there, get away from here and let some bolder man
have your place!"

"But, at least," said the confused sailor,--"at least, you know the
captain?"

"The captain is Richard Shandon, my friend, until we receive another."

Now it must be said that was what the commander thought; he allowed
himself to think that at the last moment he would receive definite
instructions as to the object of the voyage, and that he would remain
in command of the _Forward_. He was fond of spreading this opinion
about, either in conversation with his officers or in superintending
the building of the brig, of which the timbers were now rising in the
Birkenhead ship-yard like the sides of a huge whale.

Shandon and Johnson conformed strictly with the recommendation about
the health of the crew; they all looked hardy and possessed enough
animal heat to run the engines of the _Forward_; their elastic limbs,
their clear and ruddy skin, showed that they were fit to encounter
intense cold. They were bold, determined men, energetic and stoutly
built; they were not all equally vigorous. Shandon had even hesitated
about accepting some of them; for instance, the sailors Gripper and
Garry, and the harpooner Simpson, who seemed to him too thin; but, on
the other hand, they were well built, they were earnest about it, and
they were shipped.

All the crew were members of the same church; in their long voyage
their prayers and the reading of the Bible would call them together
and console them in the hours of depression; so that it was advisable
that there should be no diversity on this score. Shandon knew from
experience the usefulness of this practice and its good influence on
the men, so valuable that it is never neglected on board of ships
which winter in the polar seas.

When all the crew had been engaged, Shandon and his two officers
busied themselves with the provisions; they followed closely the
captain's instructions, which were definite, precise, and detailed, in
which the quality and quantity of