on in the same year Mr. Balfour expressed his sympathy with the
objects of the undertaking, and it was entirely due to him that
the Government eventually agreed to contribute £45,000, provided
that a similar sum could be raised by private subscriptions.

In March, 1900, the keel of the new vessel, that the
[Page 17]
special Ship Committee had decided to build for the expedition,
was laid in the yard of the Dundee Shipbuilding Company. A definite
beginning, at any rate, had been made; but very soon after Scott had
taken up his duties he found that unless he could obtain some control
over the various committees and subcommittees of the expedition, the
only day to fix for the sailing of the ship was Doomsday. A visit
to Norway, where he received many practical suggestions from Dr.
Nansen, was followed by a journey to Berlin, and there he discovered
that the German expedition, which was to sail from Europe at the same
time as his own, was already in an advanced state of preparation.
Considerably alarmed, he hurried back to England and found, as
he had expected, that all the arrangements, which were in full
swing in Germany, were almost at a standstill in England. The
construction of the ship was the only work that was progressing,
and even in this there were many interruptions from the want of
some one to give immediate decisions on points of detail.

A remedy for this state of chaos had to be discovered, and on November
4, 1900, the Joint Committee of the Royal Society and the Royal
Geographical Society passed a resolution, which left Scott practically
with a free hand to push on the work in every department, under a
given estimate of expenditure in each. To safeguard the interests
of the two Societies the resolution provided that this expenditure