on came on board. The event of
the inspection was Nigger, the black ship's cat, distinguished by a white
whisker on the port side of his face, who made one adventurous voyage to
the Antarctic and came to an untimely end during the second. The seamen
made a hammock for him with blanket and pillow, and slung it forward
among their own bedding. Nigger had turned in, not feeling very well,
owing to the number of moths he had eaten, the ship being full of them.
When awakened by the Admiral, Nigger had no idea of the importance of the
occasion, but stretched himself, yawned in the most natural manner,
turned over and went to sleep again.

This cat became a well-known and much photographed member of the crew of
the Terra Nova. He is said to have imitated the Romans of old, being a
greedy beast, by having eaten as much seal blubber as he could hold, made
himself sick, and gone back and resumed his meal. He had most beautiful
fur. When the ship was returning from the Antarctic in 1911 Nigger was
frightened by something on deck and jumped into the sea, which was
running fairly rough. However, the ship was hove to, a boat lowered, and
Nigger was rescued. He spent another happy year on board, but disappeared
one dark night when the ship was returning from her second journey to the
South in 1912, during a big gale. He often went aloft with the men, of
his own accord. This night he was seen on the main lower topsail yard,
higher than which he never would go. He disappeared in a big squall,
probably because the yard was covered with ice.

Wilson rejoined the ship at Melbourne; and Scott left her, to arrange
further business matters, and to rejoin in New Zealand. When he landed I
think he had seen enough of the personnel of the expedition to be able to
pass a fair judgment upon them. I cannot but think that he was pleased.
Such enthusiasm and comradeship as prevailed on board could bear only
good fruit. It would certainly have been possible to find a body of men
who could work a sailing ship with greater skill, but not men who were
more willing, and that in the midst of considerable discomfort, to work
hard at distasteful jobs and be always cheerful. And it must have been
clear that with all the energy which was being freely expended, the
expedition came first, and the individual nowhere. It is to the honour of
all concerned that from the time it left London to the time it returned
to New Zealand after three years, this spirit always p