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As things turned out, the greatest responsibility fell upon Cook, but he mastered the situation in a wonderful way. Through his practical qualities he finally became indispensable. It cannot be denied that the Belgian Antarctic expedition owes a great debt to Cook.
There was, however, a still brighter illuminant within their reach in the shape of acetylene, but not until it became certain that they would have to spend a second winter in the Antarctic, did their thoughts fly to the calcium carbide which had been provided for the hut, and which they had not previously thought of using.
Apparently we were acclimatized to ordinary Antarctic temperature, though we learned later that we were not immune. All day, with a gentle breeze on our port bow, we sailed and pulled through a clear sea. We would have given all the tea in China for a lump of ice to melt into water, but no ice was within our reach.
But I think Sherlock Holmes would have found it a hard-nut to crack if he had been set down blindfold on the Antarctic Barrier, as I was, so to speak, and asked to explain the situation. It was one of those folding American vapour-baths that Hassel sat in. The bathroom, which had looked so spacious and elegant in the fog, reduced itself to a little snow-hut of insignificant appearance.
"I had placed a specimen of antarctic star-moss in the barrel of my revolver for safe-keeping, and didn't wish to disturb it," explained the professor; "so I thought the best thing to do under the circumstances was to run. I never dreamed the creature would cling on." "Well it did, and like a bull-dog, too," said Billy.
The vessel was equipped at Cowes, England, but made her final start from Lyttleton, New Zealand, New Year's Day, 1908. In order to save her supply of coal for future use she was towed to the antarctic circle. The following winter months, May to September, were spent on Ross Island, near the winter quarters of the Discovery, in McMurdo Bay, about thirty degrees south of New Zealand.
Instead of an antarctic polar star, two clusters of small stars were observed, having a small space between them, in which were two stars of inconsiderable size and lustre, which seemed to be at no great distance from the pole, by the smallness of the circle they described in their diurnal course.
We crossed four sweet-water brooks, which, draining the high banks, flowed fast and clear down cuts of loose, stratified sand, sometimes five feet deep: the mouths opened to the north- west, owing to the set of the current from the south-west, part of the great Atlantic circulation running from the Antarctic to the equator.
In the first hours of the morning if we can so call the vague tint which began to rise over the horizon the "Albatross" was fifteen degrees below Cape Horn; twelve hundred miles more and she would cross the antarctic circle. Where she was, in this month of July, the night lasted nineteen hours and a half.
Weddell had penetrated 240 miles nearer the Pole than any of his predecessors, including Cook. He gave the name of George IV. to that part of the Antarctic Ocean which he had explored.
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