am reported to have said, "What a silly ass!" This may have been true,
for coming all the way from Bombay to join us and then immediately
falling down the hatch did seem a bit careless. However, when Campbell
added that Bowers had not hurt himself my enthusiasm returned and I said,
"What a splendid fellow!" Bowers fell nineteen feet without injuring
himself in the slightest. This was only one of his narrow escapes and he
proved himself to be about the toughest man amongst us.

Quite a lot could be written of the volunteers for service with Scott in
this his last Antarctic venture. There were nearly 8000 of them to select
from, and many eligible men were turned down simply because they were
frozen out by those who had previous Antarctic experience. We tried to
select fairly, and certainly picked a representative crowd. It was not an
all-British Expedition because we included amongst us a young Norwegian
ski-runner and two Russians; a dog driver and a groom. The Norwegian has
since distinguished himself in the Royal Air Force--he was severely
wounded in the war whilst fighting for the British and their Allies, but
his pluck and Anglophile sentiments cost him his commission in the
Norwegian Flying Corps.

Dr. Wilson assisted Captain Scott in selecting the scientific staff,
while the choice of the officers and crew was mainly left to myself as
Commander-elect of the "Terra Nova."

Most Polar expeditions sail under the Burgee of some yacht club or other:
We were ambitious to fly the White Ensign, and to enable this to be done
the Royal Yacht Squadron adopted us. Scott was elected a member, and it
cost him 100 pounds, which the Expedition could ill afford. However, with
the "Terra Nova" registered as a yacht we were able to evade those Board
of Trade officials who declared that she was not a well-found merchant