The last time the jib-sheet broke there was a strong breeze from the south-west with a heavy sea; all sail was set with the exception of the spanker, as the ship would not steer with that.  There was an extra preventer on the double jib-sheet, but in spite of that the sheets broke and the jib was split with a fearful crack.  Within a minute the mainsail and gaff-topsail were hauled down, so that the ship might fall off, and the jib hauled down.  This was instantly unbent and a new one bent.  The man at the helm, of course, got the blame for this, and the first thing he said to me was “I couldn’t help it, she was twisting on the top of a wave.”  We were then making ten knots, and more than that we shall not do.

The Fram rolled well that day.  A little earlier in the afternoon, at two o’clock, when the watch had gone below to dinner and were just eating the sweet, which on that occasion consisted of preserved pears, we felt that there was an unusually big lurch coming.  Although, of course, we had fiddles on the table, the plates, with meat, potatoes, etc., jumped over the fiddles, which they didn’t care a button for, into Beck’s cabin.  I caught one of the pears in its flight, but the plate with the rest of them went on its way.  Of course there was a great shout of laughter, which stopped dead as we heard a violent noise on deck, over our heads; I guessed at once it was an empty water-tank that had broken loose, and with my mouth full of pear I yelled “Tank!” and flew on deck with the whole watch below at my heels.  A sea had come in over the after-deck, and had lifted the tank up from its lashings.  All hands threw themselves upon the tank, and held on to it till the water had poured off the deck, when it was again fixed in its place.  When this was done, my watch went below again and lit their pipes as if nothing had happened.

On November 13 we passed the northernmost of the Prince Edward Islands, and on the 18th close to Penguin Island, the most south-westerly of the Crozets.  In the neighbourhood of the latter we saw a great quantity of birds, a number of seals and penguins, and even a little iceberg.  I went close to the land to check the chronometers, which an observation and bearings of the islands showed to be correct.

Our course was then laid for Kerguelen Island, but we went too far north to see it, as for two weeks the wind was south-easterly and southerly, and the leeway we made when sailing close-hauled took us every day a little to the north of east.  When we were in the same waters in 1910, there was gale after gale; then we did not put in at Kerguelen on account of the force of the wind; this time we could not approach the island because of the wind’s direction.  In no respect can the second trip be compared with the first; I should never have dreamed that there could be so much difference in the “Roaring Forties” in two different years at the same season.  In the “Foggy Fifties” the weather was calm and fine, and we had no fog until lat. 58deg.  S.