We had, fortunately, on board a considerable quantity of bulk stores in the way of biscuits, flour, Brazilian meal, beans, etc., which had been kept in reserve in view of the possibility of our being frozen in and compelled to winter in the Antarctic. These Commander Wild offered to Glass, with as much as could be spared from our stores of a wide variety of foods, such as tea, sugar, coffee, cocoa, dried milk, Quaker oats, lentils, split peas, jam, chocolate, cheese, tinned meats, tinned fish, salt beef, candles, matches and soap. We gave them also from the deck stores a quantity of planking, rope, wire, nails, paint, canvas, and two good spars.
In addition to this we had brought with us in the ship a large letter and parcel mail and numerous packages sent privately for the islanders, including several sent in gratitude by a sailor who had been shipwrecked there and who had been very kindly treated. We had a busy day getting all these goods out of the hold and stacking them along the ship’s side ready to be placed in the boats. When all was ready we signalled the return of the others, who, as soon as they had approached to within a measurable distance of the ship, started shouting innumerable questions to Bob Glass. The purport of them all was: “What are they going to give us?”
Glass clambered on to the gunwale of the ship and started shouting back in a high, piping voice. We saw their faces, which had worn a look of anxiety, suddenly break into smiles when they heard what we could do, and they became like a lot of schoolboys informed of a holiday, shouting gleefully to each other and singing snatches of song. Indeed, these people are very childlike in many of their ways.
The loading was an awkward job. Everything had to be lowered slowly and carefully over the side and placed gently in the boats, for, being made of canvas and frail craft at best, anything dropped into them with a bump would assuredly have gone through the bottom. The difficulty was increased by the swell and the rolling of the Quest, which caused the boats to rise and fall and surge in and out in the most awkward manner. We were interested to note that many of the islanders who came aboard were sea-sick, but recovered when they clambered back into their own boats. Evidently they were used to the short, quick motion of the smaller boats, whilst the more pronounced roll of the Quest upset them. They plied to and fro till everything was ashore, where it was stacked in an imposing pile at the top of the beach.
Photo: Dr. Macklin
NIGHTINGALE ISLAND
