long sea-voyage searches out hidden
qualities and defects, not that there were many of the latter, still one
man developed lung trouble and another had a strained heart. One of
these, to our great regret, was forced to leave the expedition before the
ship went south, while the other had to be ruled out of the shore
party--an awful disappointment to them both.

We reached Simon's Town on August 15, and here the Naval authorities gave
us every assistance, lent us working parties and made good our long
defect list. We were disappointed on arriving to find that Captain Scott
was away in Pretoria, but he succeeded in obtaining a grant of 500 pounds
from the South African Government and raised another 500 pounds by
private subscription. When Captain Scott came amongst us again he wrote
of the "Terra Nova" party that we were all very pleased with the ship and
very pleased with ourselves, describing our state of happiness and
overflowing enthusiasm exactly.

Those who could be spared were given leave here; some of us went
up-country for a few days and had a chance to enjoy South African
scenery. Oates, Atkinson, and Bowers went to Wynberg and temporarily
forgot the sea. Oates's one idea was a horse, and he spent his holiday as
much on horse-back as he possibly could. In a letter he expressed great
admiration for the plucky manner in which Atkinson rode to hounds one day
at Wynberg. These two were great friends, but it would be hard to imagine
two more naturally silent men, and one wonders how evident pleasure can
be obtained with a speechless companion.

Scott now changed with Wilson, who went by mail steamer to Australia in
order to organise and finally engage the Australian members of our staff.
Our leader was without doubt delighted to make the longer voyage with us
in the "Terra Nova" and to get away from the hum of commerce and the
small talk of the many people who were pleased to meet him--until the hat
was handed round--that awful fund-collecting.

CHAPTER III

ASSEMBLING OF UNITS--DEPARTURE FROM NEW ZEALAND

The trip from Simon's Town to Melbourne was disappointing on account of
the absence of fair winds. We had a few gales, but finer weather than we
expected, and took advantage of the ship's steadiness to work out the
details for the sledge journeys and depot plans. The lists of those who
were to form the two shore parties were published, together with a
skeleton list for the ship. The seamen had still