be taken on this part of the expedition, but something like forty samples
of plankton were taken with a full-speed net. We were unable to trawl on
the bottom until we reached Melbourne, when a trawl was made in Port
Phillip Harbour to try the gear and accustom men to its use. It was not a
purpose of the expedition to spend time in deep-sea work until it reached
Antarctic seas.

For four days the wind, such as there was of it, was dead ahead; it is
not very often in the Forties that a ship cannot make progress for want
of wind. But having set all plain sail on October 2 with a falling glass
we got a certain amount of wind on the port beam, and did 158 miles in
the next twenty-four hours. Sunday being quiet Scott read service while
the officers and men grouped round the wheel. We seldom had service on
deck; for Sundays became proverbial days for a blow on the way out, and
service, if held at all, was generally in the ward-room. On one famous
occasion we tried to play the pianola to accompany the hymns, but, since
the rolls were scored rather for musical effect than for church services,
the pianola was suddenly found to be playing something quite different
from what was being sung. All through the expedition the want of some one
who could play the piano was felt, and such a man is certainly a great
asset in a life so far removed from all the pleasures of civilization.
As Scott wrote in The Voyage of the Discovery, where one of the officers
used to play each evening: "This hour of music has become an institution
which none of us would willingly forgo. I don't know what thoughts it
brings to others, though I can readily guess; but of such things one does
not care to write. I can well believe, however, that our music smooths
over many a ruffle and brings us to dinner each night in that excellent
humour, where all seem good-tempered, though 'cleared for action' and
ready for fresh argument."