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The ship was very steady in the quarterly sea, but certainly did not look as neat and trim as she had done when leaving the shores of England four months earlier. We had filled up with coal at Grytviken, and this extra fuel was stored on deck, where it impeded movement considerably. The carpenter had built a false deck, extending from the poop-deck to the chart-room.

A year and a half later we were to learn that the 'Harpoon', the steamer which tends the Grytviken station, had arrived with mail for us not more than two hours after the 'Endurance' had proceeded down the coast. The bows of the 'Endurance' were turned to the south, and the good ship dipped to the south-westerly swell.

The whaling-vessel that was going round to King Haakon Bay was expected back on the Monday morning, and was to call at Grytviken Harbour, the port from which we had sailed in December 1914, in order that the magistrate resident there might be informed of the fate of the 'Endurance'. It was possible that letters were awaiting us there.

He was a young male and proved very good eating, but when dressed and minus the blubber made little more than a square meal for our twenty-eight men, with a few scraps for our breakfast and tea. The stomach contained only amphipods about an inch long, allied to those found in the whales at Grytviken. The conditions became harder on December 14. There was a misty haze, and occasional falls of snow.

On this island, where a full month was spent, the geologist made very extensive collections, and began the mapping of the country; the magnetician had some of his instruments in working order for a short while; and the meteorologist was able to co-operate with the Argentine observer stationed at Grytviken.