I rather grudged the two pounds
allowance per man, owing to my keen anxiety to keep weights at a
minimum, but some personal belongings could fairly be regarded as
indispensable. The journey might be a long one, and there was a
possibility of a winter in improvised quarters on an inhospitable coast
at the other end. A man under such conditions needs something to
occupy his thoughts, some tangible memento of his home and people
beyond the seas. So sovereigns were thrown away and photographs were
kept. I tore the fly-leaf out of the Bible that Queen Alexandra had
given to the ship, with her own writing in it, and also the wonderful
page of Job containing the verse:
Out of whose womb came the ice?
And the hoary frost of Heaven, who hath gendered it?
The waters are hid as with a stone,
And the face of the deep is frozen. [Job 38:29-30]
The other Bible, which Queen Alexandra had given for the use of the
shore party, was down below in the lower hold in one of the cases when
the ship received her death-blow. Suitcases were thrown away; these
were retrieved later as material for making boots, and some of them,
marked "solid leather," proved, to our disappointment, to contain a
large percentage of cardboard. The manufacturer would have had
difficulty in convincing us at the time that the deception was anything
short of criminal.
Pages:
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159