It was the end of October before we were back in London again, and had begun our preparations for the expedition to which I had pledged myself. Crum gave me no financial excuse for departing from my promise. In his management things had looked up during my uncle’s tenure of the title, and I was a deal better off than I had believed possible. Farms were in good condition and well let. Bog and heather in Ireland had found tenants for shooting, if not for grazing. Investments of accumulations had prospered marvellously. And above all was the wonderful collection of coins which was to be sold as soon as it could be accurately catalogued. I was well to do, it seemed, when all I had expected was a bare escape from penury.
“Your lordship need have no fear of lack of funds,” said the old man, as he finished listening to the tale which I had to tell on our return from America. “The twentieth part of what the collection will fetch in the open market will be ample to meet every expense. And if your lordship will permit me, I should be glad to help you in your choice of a ship. This is no case for a mere yacht.”
“You, Mr. Crum!” I questioned amazedly, “pardon my surprise; but the practice of the law does not as usual induce experience in ship-rigging or building.”
“No,” said the old fellow meekly, “not as a rule. But in this particular instance it has been one old lawyer’s hobby. My pleasure all my life has been yachting, my lord, and I have many friends who go down to the sea in ships.”
This was a bolt from the blue and no mistake, and a blessing which I was not slow to avail myself of. I gave Crum a free hand with the greatest delight, and the result was in every way admirable. Not only did he bring to his task a wealth of finicky little details such as are dear to the yachtsman’s heart, but took to him retired master mariners and other sea-going veterans of his acquaintance, who possessed more than his amateur capacity for judging good lines and fittings. And thus did they bring their kindly toil to a conclusion.
The Racoon, formerly of the American whaling trade, barque built, and with stout timbers and bulkheads to resist ice, was for sale. With cautious advances Crum became her purchaser. She was of five hundred tons burden, had an auxiliary screw with one hundred and eighty indicated horse-power, and was reputed a first-class sea-boat. We had the greasy try-works swept from her decks, and a skylight fixed therein, which gave light to a spacious saloon partitioned out of the barrel deck below. Aft this we fashioned a cosy smoke-room, round which were four cabins for ourselves and the captain. Other cabins below the main-deck housed the mates and the engineer, while forward the crew and stokers had the best of quarters. We took aboard much provision, supplied us by a famous firm of caterers, together with liquid in due proportion. Coal we took a large stock of; not that we expected to steam more than we could help, but we wished to be independent of coaling stations. Mr. Waller of the R.N.R. and the merchant marine came with many certificates of various sorts to be our captain, and Mr. Janson of the same service to be his second in command. Mr. Rafferty, sometime of Cork City, was boatswain, and the engineer, stokers, and deck-hands were all British; the first whole-colored, single-tongued crew that Waller had ever commanded, as he feelingly remarked.
Under these favorable auspices we sailed from Southampton on November 22nd, and thus the adventure to the Great South Wall was fairly started.
I am not going to give you the wearisome repetitions which my log shows as indications of what monotonous things we did during the next six weeks. We had the usual toss as we threshed our way across the Bay, we took the usual pleasure in sighting the Canaries and Madeira, and we shipped the usual turtle at Ascension. After the fogs we had left in England, we found the eternal heat of the line bearable for about six hours, and then cursed it with the usual malevolence after experiencing it for six hours more. We got very much bored with each other’s company, and found conversation languish after the first week. We got huffy with one another more than once, and finally settled down to the voyage, shaking, each of us, into his allotted place automatically. And we grew fat and bilious.
Lessaution was by far the most energetic. His curiosity was abnormal, and he left no inquiry unmade that would tend to satisfy it. He was as sick as it is possible for a full-bodied Frenchman to be sick for the first three or four days, and after that seemed to renew his youth. Not that he was by any means daunted during the period named. He crawled about the deck in paroxysms of the most terrible description, interrupting the crew with queries on every and any conceivable subject; he attempted to mount the bridge, and was hurled back disconsolate as a green sea thundered aboard; he ventured into the cook’s department and endeavored to complete that worthy’s education during the height of a gale; finally he was rescued from imminent death on the bed-plates of the engine-room, where he was explaining the superiority of French boilers to the contemptuous chief, Eccles. When the winds and the sea had calmed down, he proceeded to bring out his gear which he had accumulated for the adventure, and overhaul it with pardonable pride.
He had certainly not forgotten anything that was likely to be of any possible use. Ice-axes there were in profusion. Climbing-irons, portable ladders, ropes, chisels. These to be used in the attack upon the precipice of rock or ice which he convinced himself would lie between us and our desire. He had also provided for further feats when the first difficulties had been surmounted. Toboggans or sleds he had two or three of; no less than six pairs of snow-shoes, and, wonder of wonders, a pair of skates!