Sea.

The members of the Board were stirred by what they heard, and it was
decided to send a ship across the Atlantic. It was necessary that the
man in command be a doctor understanding the work to be done. It was
also necessary that he should be a man of high executive and
administrative ability, capable of organizing and carrying it on
successfully. The man that has made good is the man always looked for
to occupy such a post. Grenfell had made good in the North Sea. His
work there indeed had been a brilliant success. He was the one man the
Board thought of, and he was asked to go.

He accepted. Here was a new field of work and adventure offering ever
greater possibilities than the old, and he never hesitated about it.

He began preparations for the new enterprise at once. The _Albert_, a
little ketch-rigged vessel of ninety-seven tons register, was
selected. Iron hatches were put into her, she was sheathed with
greenhart to withstand the pressure of ice, and thoroughly refitted.
Captain Trevize, a Cornishman, was engaged as skipper. Though Doctor
Grenfell was himself a master mariner and thoroughly qualified as a
navigator, he had never crossed the Atlantic, and in any case he was
to be fully occupied with other duties. There was a crew of eight men
including the mate, Skipper Joe White, a famous skipper of the North
Sea fleets.

On June 15, 1892, the _Albert_ was towed out of Great Yarmouth Harbor,
and that day she spread her sails and set her course westward. The
great work of Doctor Grenfell's life was now to begin. All the years
of toil on the North Sea had been but an introduction to it and a