232-233.

[27] Priestley, _Antarctic Adventure_, pp. 236-237.

[28] Priestley, _Antarctic Adventure_, p. 243.

[29] Atkinson has no doubt that the symptoms of the Northern Party
were those of early scurvy. Conditions of temperature in the
igloo allowed of decomposition occurring in seal meat. Fresh
seal meat brought in from outside reduced the scurvy
symptoms.

[30] This tenderness of gums and tongue is additional evidence of
scurvy.

[31] Published by Fisher Unwin, 1914.

[32] Vol. ii., Narrative of the Northern Party.

[33] A. A. Milne.

CHAPTER I

FROM ENGLAND TO SOUTH AFRICA

Take a bowsy short leave of your nymphs on the shore,
And silence their mourning with vows of returning,
Though never intending to visit them more.
_Dido and Aeneas._

Scott used to say that the worst part of an expedition was over when the
preparation was finished. So no doubt it was with a sigh of relief that
he saw the Terra Nova out from Cardiff into the Atlantic on June 15,
1910. Cardiff had given the expedition a most generous and enthusiastic
send-off, and Scott announced that it should be his first port on
returning to England. Just three years more and the Terra Nova, worked
back from New Zealand by Pennell, reached Cardiff again on June 14, 1913,
and paid off there.

From the first everything was informal and most pleasant, and those who
had the good fortune to help in working the ship out to New Zealand,
under steam or sail, must, in spite of five months of considerable
discomfort and very hard work, look back upon the voyage as one of the
very happiest times of the expedition. To some of us perhaps the voyage
out, the three weeks in the pack ice going South, and the Robinson Crusoe
life at Hut Point are the pleasantest of many happy memories.

Scott made a great point that so far as was possible the personnel of the
expedition must go out with the Terra Nova. Possibly he gave
instructions that they were to be worked hard, and no doubt it was a good
opportunity of testing our mettle. We had been chosen out of 8000
volunteers, executive officers, scientific staff, crew, and all.

We differed entirely from the crew of an ordinary merchant ship both in
our personnel and in our methods of working. The executive officers were
drawn from the Navy, as were also the crew. In addition there w