HOW WE REACHED THE FROZEN LAND.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 599, 3 September 1913, Page 7

HOW WE REACHED THE FROZEN LAND.

THE OPENING OF SCOTT'S OWN STORY. The September Jsslia of the Australian magsizus., "Lfe," is a notable one. In it begins Captain Scott's actual story, and the opening chapters are given oJ' a strong new serial story by Jack London, enlitlsd "The Valley of the Moon " These two features alone make September "Life" a fine sixpenny worth, but the 160 ■wellillustrated pages of the magazine are founded out with many other articles, short stories and departments that make the issue doubly attractive. "Captain Scott's Own Story" runs through 23 pages, including eighteen pictures of rare interest, such as the interior of a cave in an iceberg, the members of the expedition at dinner on the Terra Nova, a fine picture of Captain Oates with the pomes, and Scott himself on snow shoes and in his cabin. An actual photorgaph is given of a page of Scott's diary, found beside him, and written [when he knew death was inevitable. The first portion of the diary—entitled "How We' Reached the Frozen Land"—must be read in "Life," but by arrangement with the publisher We print the following, told by Captain Scott himself:—

NEARLY WRECKCED IN A GALE 1 At four p.m. on December Ist the S storm came on. "Soon," writes i Scott, "we were plunging heavily and • taking much water over the lee rail. Cases of petrol, forage, etc , began to break loose on the upper deck. The principal trouble was caused by the loose coal bags, which were bodily lifted by the seas and swung against the lashed cases they acted like battering ram 3. It was hard work moving these bags to places of better security. "The night wore on, the sea and wind ever rising, and the ship ever plunging more distractedly. We shortened sail to maintopsail and staysail, stopped engines, and hove to, but to little purpose. Tales of ponies down came frequently from forward, where Oates and Atkinson laboured through the entire night. Worse was to follow—much worse; a report from the engine room that the pumps had choked and the water risen over the gratings. From this moment, about four a.m., the engine room became the centre of interest the water gained in spite of every effort. La3hley,_ to his neck in rushing water, stuck grimly to the work of clearing suctions. For a time, with donkey engine and bilge pump sucking, it looked as though the water would be got under, but the hope was short-lived five minutes of pumping invariably led to the same result—a general choking of the pumps. THE PUMPS FAIL.

"The outlook appeared grim; the hand pump produced only a dribble, and its suction could not be got at; as the water Crept higher it got in contact with the boiler and grew warmer—so hot at last that no one could work at the suctiona. Williams had to confess he was beaten and must draw fires. What was to be done? The sea appeared higher than ever; it came over the rail and poop, a rush of green water; the ship walled in it. A great piece of the bulwarks carried clean away. "The bilge pump is dependent on the main engine. To use this pump it was necessary to go ahead. It was at such times that the heaviest seas swept in over the lee rail; over and over the rail from the forerigging to the main was covered by:a solid sheet of curling water, which swept aft and high on the poop. On one occasion I was waist deep when standing on the rail of the poop. "The afterguard (i.e., the twentyfour officers) was organised in two parties by Lieut. Evans to work buckets, the men were kept steadily 20' ing on the choked hand-pumps. . . What a measure to count as the sole safeguard of the ship from sinking—practically an attempt to bale her out! Yet, strange as it may seem the effort has not been wholly fruitless; the string of buckets, which nas now been kept going for four hours, together with the dribble from the pump, has kept the water under—if anything, there is a small decrease. PLUCKY LIEUT. EVANS.

"Meanwhile, we have been thinking of a way to get at the suction of the pump. A hole is being made in the engine room bulkhead; the coal between this and the pump shaft will be removed, and a hole made in the shaft. With so much water coming in on board it is impossible to open the hatch over the shaft. "We are not out of the wood, bat hope dawns, as indeed it should, for me when I find myself so wonderfully served. Officors and men are singing chanties over their arduous work; Williams is working in sweltering heat behind the boiler to get the door made in the bulkhead not a anigle one has lost his good spirits. "Slowly the gale abated, and though the sea was still mountainous--3y high, the ship laboured less heavily, and took in lesa water. Bailing continued in two-hour shifts. By ten p.m. the hols in the engine room bulkead was complstod, and Lieut. Evans, wriggHntr <>ver the __ coal, found his way to the pump shaft and down it. He soon cleared the suction, and to the joy of all a good scream of water cams from the

-ouinp for the first time. "Though the pump choked agSin several times, doubt had ended; and with no second gale to follow immediately, the ship wen? on her way with the loss of two ponies, one dog, sixty-iive gallons of patvol. and a "case u.i' the biologist's alcohol. Thence it was a matter of 'fighting her way south' through heavy seas and another gale till the ice was sighted on December 9th and the pack entered on December 10th." The story of the early days in the Frozen Land, as told in September "Life," covers such incidents as laying depots, adventures with killer whales, the dogs drop in a chasm, adrift on sea. ice, etc.