that we could do prevented our gear from becoming sodden.  The searching runnels from the canvas were really more unpleasant than the sudden definite douches of the sprays.  Lying under the thwarts during watches below, we tried vainly to avoid them.  There were no dry places in the boat, and at last we simply covered our heads with our Burberrys and endured the all-pervading water.  The baling was work for the watch.  Real rest we had none.  The perpetual motion of the boat made repose impossible; we were cold, sore, and anxious.  We moved on hands and knees in the semi-darkness of the day under the decking.  The darkness was complete by 6 p.m., and not until 7 a.m. of the following day could we see one another under the thwarts.  We had a few scraps of candle, and they were preserved carefully in order that we might have light at meal-times.  There was one fairly dry spot in the boat, under the solid original decking at the bows, and we managed to protect some of our biscuit from the salt water; but I do not think any of us got the taste of salt out of our mouths during the voyage.

The difficulty of movement in the boat would have had its humorous side if it had not involved us in so many aches and pains.  We had to crawl under the thwarts in order to move along the boat, and our knees suffered considerably.  When watch turned out it was necessary for me to direct each man by name when and where to move, since if all hands had crawled about at the same time the result would have been dire confusion and many bruises.  Then there was the trim of the boat to be considered.  The order of the watch was four hours on and four hours off, three men to the watch.  One man had the tiller-ropes, the second man attended to the sail, and the third baled for all he was worth.  Sometimes when the water in the boat had been reduced to reasonable proportions, our pump could be used.  This pump, which Hurley had made from the Flinder’s bar case of our ship’s standard compass, was quite effective, though its capacity was not large.  The man who was attending the sail could pump into the big outer cooker, which was lifted and emptied overboard when filled.  We had a device by which the water could go direct from the pump into the sea through a hole in the gunwale, but this hole had to be blocked at an early stage of the voyage, since we found that it admitted water when the boat rolled.

While a new watch was shivering in the wind and spray, the men who had been relieved groped hurriedly among the soaked sleeping-bags and tried to steal a little of the warmth created by the last occupants; but it was not always possible for us to find even this comfort when we went off watch.  The boulders that we had taken aboard for ballast had to be shifted continually in order to trim the boat and give access to the pump, which became choked with hairs from the moulting sleeping-bags and finneskoe.  The four reindeer-skin sleeping-bags shed their hair freely owing to the continuous wetting,