HOW WE REACHED THE LAND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1141, 2 September 1913, Page 4

HOW WE REACHED THE LAND.

the; opening of scott’s

OWN STORY

The September issue ot the Australian magazine, Life, is a notable one. In it begins Captain Scott’s actual story, and the opening chapters are given of a strong new serial story by Jack London entitled, “The Valley of the Moon.” These two features alone make September Life a fine sixpennyworth, but the x6o well-illustrated pages of the magazine are rounded 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 ponies, and Scott himself on snow shoes and in his cabin. An actual photograph is given of a page of Scott’s Diary, found beside him, and written when he knew death was inevitable.

The first section of the dairy—- “ How We Reached the Frozen Land” —must be read in Life, but by arrangement with the publisher we print the following story told by Captain Scott himself: — NEARLY WRECKED IN A GALE. At four p.m. on December Ist, the storm came on, “Soon,” writes 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 rams. 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 ot 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 4 a.m,, the engine room became the centre of interest; the water gained in spite of every effort. Lashley. to his neck in rushing water, stuck grimly to the work of clearing suctions. For a time, with donkey engine and bilge-purap 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 coaid work at the suctions. 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 a poop, a rush of green water ; the ship wallowed in it. A great piece of the bulwarks carried clean away. “The bilge-purap 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 fore-rigging 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 twenty-four officers) was organised in two parties by Lieutenant Evans to work buckets, the men were kept steadily going on the choked hand pump. . . 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 has 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 LIEUTENANT 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 on board it is impossible to open the hatch ever the shaft.

“We are not out of the wood, but hope dawns, as indeed it should, for men when I find myself so wonderfully served. Officers and men are singing chanties over their arduous work ; Williams is working in sweltering heat behind the boiler to get the door made in bulkhead ; not a single one has lost his good spirits.” Slowly the gale abated, and though the sea was still mountainously high, the ship laboured less heavily, and took in less water. Baling continued in two-hour shifts. By ten p.m, the hole in the engine room bulkhead was completed, “and Lieutenant Evans wriggling over 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 stream of water came from the pump for the first time.”

Though the pump choked again several times, doubt had ended ; and with no second gale to follow immediately, the ship went on her way with the loss of two ponies, one dog, sixty-five gallons of petrol, and a case of biologists’ 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 Laud, as told in September Life, covers such incidents as Laying Depots, Adventures with Killer Whales, The Dogs Drop in a Chasm, Adrift ou Sea Ice, etc.

Any reader who cannot secure Life locally may subscribe lor a year by sending a postal note for 6s (cheque 6s 6d) to T. Shaw Fitchett, 376 Swanston Street, Melbourne. As a receipt the publisher will send the subscriber two really fine pictures of Captains Scott and Oates (15 x 20 inches each), printed on art paper and worth framing.