the bridge, and he wants all his wits to let go the halyard from the
belaying-pins and jump clear of the rope tearing through the block as the
topsail yard comes sliding down the mast.

"Clew up" is the next order, and then "All hands furl fore and main upper
topsails," and up we go out on to the yard. Luckily the dawn is just
turning the sea grey and the ratlines begin to show up in relief. It is
far harder for the first and middle watches, who have to go aloft in
complete darkness. Once on the yard you are flattened against it by the
wind. The order to take in sail always fetches Pennell out of his
chart-house to come and take a hand.

The two sodden sails safely furled--luckily they are small ones--the men
reach the deck to find that the wind has shifted a little farther aft and
they are to brace round. This finished, it is broad daylight, and the men
set to work to coil up preparatory to washing decks--not that this would
seem very necessary. Certainly there is no hose wanted this morning, and
a general kind of tidying up and coiling down ropes is more what is done.

The two stewards, Hooper, who is to land with the Main Party, and Neale,
who will remain with the Ship's Party, turn out at six and rouse the
afterguard for the pumps, a daily evolution, and soon an unholy din may
be heard coming up from the wardroom. "Rouse and shine, rouse and shine:
show a leg, show a leg" (a relic of the old days when seamen took their
wives to sea). "Come on, Mr. Nelson, it's seven o'clock. All hands on the
pumps!"

From first to last these pumps were a source of much exercise and hearty
curses. A wooden ship always leaks a little, but the amount of water
taken in by the Terra Nova even in calm weather was extraordinary, and