We lunched that
day on one biscuit and a quarter of a tin of bully-beef each, frozen
hard.
This new stove, which was to last us during our stay at Ocean Camp,
was a great success. Two large holes were punched, with much labour
and few tools, opposite one another at the wider or top end of the
shoot. Into one of these an oil-drum was fixed, to be used as the
fireplace, the other hole serving to hold our saucepan. Alongside this
another hole was punched to enable two saucepans to be boiled at a
time; and farther along still a chimney made from biscuit-tins
completed a very efficient, if not a very elegant, stove. Later on the
cook found that he could bake a sort of flat bannock or scone on this
stove, but he was seriously hampered for want of yeast or baking-powder.
An attempt was next made to erect some sort of a galley to protect the
cook against the inclemencies of the weather. The party which I had
sent back under Wild to the ship returned with, amongst other things,
the wheel-house practically complete. This, with the addition of some
sails and tarpaulins stretched on spars, made a very comfortable
storehouse and galley. Pieces of planking from the deck were lashed
across some spars stuck upright into the snow, and this, with the
ship's binnacle, formed an excellent look-out from which to look for
seals and penguins.
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