Up steam!
Round go the screws, churning up a frothy white wake, slowly move the ships away, slowly, and apparently reluctantly.
But, in a few hours’ time, those sturdy ships are merrily bobbing and curtseying to each advancing wave, as if they really know that, at long, long last, they are homeward bound.
And now nothing reigns aboard, fore or aft, except happiness and general jollity, in which even the dogs themselves take part.
Homeward bound! Hurrah!
* * * * *
When, in about two months’ time, the Walrus and Sea Elephant came quietly to anchor inside the breakwater of Plymouth, people gazed and wondered what these two strange ships could be.
But when the truth was rumoured abroad that they were the Antarctic voyagers, the wild welcome they received was enough to have turned the heads of any sailors on this earth.
* * * * *
Parting!