There was very much pumping to be done and there were plenty of men to do
it, but the handles were not long enough to allow more than four men to
each handle. Also they gave no secure purchase when the ship was rolling
heavily, and when a big roll came there was nothing to do but practically
stop pumping and hold on, or you found yourself in the scuppers.

At Cape Town a great improvement was made by extending the crank handles
right across the decks, the outside end turning in a socket under the
rail. Fourteen men could then get a good purchase on the handles and
pumping became a more pleasant exercise and less of a nuisance.

Periodically the well was sounded by an iron rod being lowered on the end
of a rope, by which the part that came up wet showed the depth of water
left in the bilge. When this had been reduced to about a foot in the
well, the ship was practically dry, and the afterguard free to bathe and
go to breakfast.

Meanwhile the hands of the watch had been employed on ropes and sails as
the wind made necessary, and, when running under steam as well as sail,
hoisting ashes up the two shoots from the ash-pits of the furnaces to the
deck, whence they went into the ditch.

It is eight bells (8 o'clock) and the two stewards are hurrying along the
decks, hoping to get the breakfast safely from galley to wardroom. A few
naked officers are pouring sea-water over their heads on deck, for we are
under sail alone and there is no steam to work the hose. The watch
keepers and their snotties of the night before are tumbling out of their
bunks, and a great noise of conversation is coming from the wardroom,
among which some such remarks as: "Give the jam a wind, Marie"; "After
you with the coffee"; "Push along the butter" are frequent. There are few