It extends some
two miles in length and one mile in breadth.
The following day all the afterguard were turned on to shift coal. It
should be explained that up to this time the bunkers, which lay one on
the port and the other on the starboard side of the furnaces, had been
entirely filled as required by two or more officers who volunteered from
day to day.
We took on board 450 tons of Crown Patent Fuel at Cardiff in June 1910.
This coal is in the form of bricks, and is most handy since it can be
thrown by hand from the holds through the bunker doors in the boiler-room
bulkhead which after a time was left higher than the sinking level of the
coal. The coal to be landed was this patent fuel, and it was now decided
to shift farther aft all the patent fuel which was left, and stack it
against the boiler-room bulkhead, the coal which was originally there
having been fed to the furnaces. Thus the dust which was finding its way
through the floorboards, and choking the pumps, could be swept up, and a
good stow could be made preparatory to the final fit-out in New Zealand,
while the coal which was to be taken on board at Lyttelton could be
loaded through the main hatch.
In the meantime the gale which had sprung up six days before and
prevented us landing had died down. After leaving St. Paul we had let the
fires out and run under sail alone, and the following two days we ran 119
and 141 miles respectively, being practically becalmed at times on the
following day, and only running 66 miles.
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