Two days before Christmas, 1921, a very calm sea and still, damp air, with the horizon obscured, gave us fears for the future. That these were only too well founded was proved next day, when, with a steadily falling barometer and an equally steadily rising sea, the wind increased from the south. The sky became overcast and intense squalls followed each other in rapid succession. Conditions became worse during the next three days, and on the following two days, December 29th and 30th, the wind blew with hurricane force. Huge seas threatened to swamp the ship, the helm was lashed, and everyone except Sir Ernest and Captain Wild were sent below. Sir Ernest said that never in all his life had he seen such mountainous seas. Oil-bags were hung out, and we ran before the storm. On the fifth day conditions seemed to improve, but it was only a temporary lull, and a storm of equal violence succeeded this, lasting for two days. This gale lasted in all over seven days, and during most of this time it was rarely possible to cook a proper meal or, indeed, keep one’s balance on deck at all; and the mere taking of the observations under these circumstances entailed a pretty thorough soaking. Fortunately a barographic curve was obtained during the whole of this storm, and it shows in a striking way the sudden rapid fall in atmospheric pressure which occurred during this time.
There was not a dry spot left on the ship, and the hydrograph and maximum and minimum thermometers were encrusted with salt from the seas, which even washed over the upper bridge where these instruments were placed.
January, 1922, gave promise of fair weather, and as far as wind was concerned that promise was fulfilled. The voyage from South Georgia down to the pack was marked by one or two gales of moderate severity, with the sky almost continuously overcast. Close, heavy pack seemed nearly always associated with fine, clear weather and southerly winds, while the reverse obtained as the wind veered to the opposite direction. When actually frozen in and drifting with the pack the weather was generally fine.
The lowest temperature experienced was 6°F. on March 15th in latitude 63° 45´ S. and longitude 45° 12´ W., and again on March 16th and 17th in about the same position. At these temperatures—26° below freezing—the water round the wet-bulb was frozen, and so dry-bulb readings alone were obtainable.
From this time onwards gales generally from the south were of much more frequent occurrence than fine weather or even moderate winds, and Elephant Island lived up to its evil reputation by being the centre of such bad weather as to make landing extremely dangerous.
From South Georgia to Tristan da Cunha—May 8th to May 19th—the journey was marked by such bad weather that winds of under gale force occurred on less than half a dozen occasions only. This can to some extent be accounted for by the lateness of the season and the approach of mid-winter.
With the exception of one sharp gale, the weather experienced round Gough Island was a considerable improvement on that which had been our almost daily lot for the previous two months.
Our stay at Tristan was not long enough for us to collect information as to general weather conditions on the island, but the padre who is now there, and who is erecting a meteorological station, will doubtless supply a useful series of observations.
From Gough Island to Cape Town—June 2nd to June 18th, 1922—similar weather was experienced, only about four days not showing gales. Slight, but very slight, improvement in weather conditions occurred on the way up to Ascension from the Cape, but from thence onwards much finer weather was our lot till we were two days off England, when another gale welcomed us home.
As we made clear at first, this memorandum is not intended to be a complete and detailed dissection and analysis of the two thousand odd series of observations that were made during the voyage, but only to indicate how bad weather handicapped all our efforts in the southern hemisphere.