in cash as well as in kind.  Indeed, were it not for the generosity of such firms it is doubtful whether we could have started.  The services of Paymaster Lieut.  Drake, R.N., were obtained as secretary to the Expedition.  Offices were taken and furnished in Victoria Street, S.W., and Sir Edgar Speyer kindly consented to act as Honorary Treasurer—­without hesitation I may say we owe more to Sir Edgar than ever we can repay.

We were somewhat limited in our choice of a ship, suitable for the work contemplated.  The best vessel of all was of course the “Discovery,” which had been specially constructed for the National Antarctic Expedition in 1900, but she had been acquired by the Hudson Bay Company, and although the late Lord Strathcona, then High Commissioner for Canada, was approached, he could not see his way to obtaining her for us in view of her important employment as supply ship for the Hudson Bay Trading Stations.  There remained the “Aurora,” “Morning,” “Bjorn,” “Terra Nova,” Shackleton’s stout little “Nimrod,” and one or two other old whaling craft.  The “Bjorn,” a beautiful wooden whaler, would have served our purpose excellently, but, alas! she was too small for the enterprise and we had to fall back on the “Terra Nova,” an older ship but a much larger craft.  The “Terra Nova” had one great defect—­she was not economic in the matter of coal consumption.  She was the largest and strongest of the old Scotch whalers, had proved herself in the Antarctic pack-ice and acquitted herself magnificently in the Northern ice-fields in whaling and sealing voyages extending over a period of twenty years.  In spite of her age she had considerable power for a vessel of that type.

After a preliminary survey in Newfoundland, which satisfied us as to her seaworthiness in all respects, the “Terra Nova” was purchased for the Expedition by Messrs. David Bruce & Sons for the sum of 12,500 pounds.  It seems a high price, but this meant nothing more than her being chartered to us for 2000 pounds a year, since her owners were ready to pay a good price for the ship if we returned her in reasonably good condition at the conclusion of the Expedition.

Captain Scott handed her over to me to fit out, whilst he busied himself more with the scientific programme and the question of finance.  We had her barque-rigged and altered according to the requirements of the expedition.  A large, well-insulated ice-house was erected on the upper deck which held 150 cascases of frozen mutton, and, owing to the position of the cold chamber, free as it was from the vicinity of iron, we mounted here our standard compass and Lloyd Creek pedestal for magnetic work.  Our range-finder was also mounted on the ice-house.  A new stove was put in the galley, a lamp room and paraffin store built, and store-rooms, instrument, and chronometer rooms were added.  A tremendous alteration was made in the living spaces both for officers and men.  Twenty-four bunks were fitted around the saloon accommodation, whilst