for the seamen and warrant officers hammock space or bunks were provided.  It was proposed to take six warrant officers, including carpenter, ice-master, boatswain, and chief steward.  Quite good laboratories were constructed on the poop, while two large magazines and a clothing-store were built up between decks, and these particular spaces were zinc-lined to keep them damp-free.  The ship required alteration rather than repair, and there were only one or two places where timber had rotted and these were soon found and reinforced.

I shall never forget the day I first visited the “Terra Nova” in the West India Docks:  she looked so small and out of place surrounded by great liners and cargo-carrying ships, but I loved her from the day I saw her, because she was my first command.  Poor little ship, she looked so dirty and uncared for and yet her name will be remembered for ever in the story of the sea, which one can hardly say in the case of the stately liners which dwarfed her in the docks.  I often blushed when admirals came down to see our ship, she was so very dirty.  To begin with, her hold contained large blubber tanks, the stench of whale oil and seal blubber being overpowering, and the remarks of those who insisted on going all over the ship need not be here set down.  However, the blubber tanks were withdrawn, the hold spaces got the thorough cleansing and whitewashing that they so badly needed.  The bilges were washed out, the ship disinfected fore and aft, and a gang of men employed for some time to sweeten her up.  Then came the fitting out, which was much more pleasant work.

Scott originally intended to leave England with most of the members of the Expedition on August 1, 1910, but he realised that an early start from New Zealand would mean a better chance for the big depot-laying journey he had planned to undertake before the first Antarctic winter set in.  Accordingly the sailing date was anticipated, thanks to the united efforts of all concerned with the fitting out, and we made June 1 our day of departure, which meant a good deal of overtime everywhere.

The ship had to be provisioned and stored for her long voyage, having in view the fact that there were no ship-chandlers in the Polar regions, but those of us who had “sailed the way before” had a slight inkling that we might meet more ships, and others who would lend us a helping hand in the matter of Naval stores.

Captain Scott allowed me a sum with which to equip the “Terra Nova”; it seemed little enough to me but it made quite a hole in our funds.  There were boatswain’s stores to be purchased, wire hawsers, canvas for sail-making, fireworks for signalling, whale boats and whaling gear, flags, logs, paint, tar, carpenter’s stores, blacksmith’s outfit, lubricating oils, engineer’s stores, and a multitude of necessities to be thought of, selected, and not paid for if we could help it.  The verb “to wangle” had not then appeared in the English language, so we just “obtained.”