We must be ready to clear out in a week." The news that the schooner was bound for the Antarctic seas had produced some sensation in the Falklands, at Port Egmont, and in the ports of La Soledad.

At that season a number of unoccupied sailors were there, awaiting the passing of the whaling-ships to offer their services, for which they were very well paid in general.

If it had been only for a fishing campaign on the borders of the Polar Circle, between the Sandwich Islands and New Georgia, Captain Len Guy would have merely had to make a selection.

But the projected voyage was a very different thing; and only the old sailors of the _Halbrane_ were entirely indifferent to the dangers of such an enterprise, and ready to follow their chief whithersoever it might please him to go.
In reality it was necessary to treble the crew of the schooner.
Counting the captain, the mate, the boatswain, the cook and myself, we were thirteen on board.

Now, thirty-two or thirty-four men would not be too many for us, and it must be remembered that there were thirty-eight on board the _Jane_.
In this emergency the Governor exerted himself to the utmost, and thanks to the largely-extra pay that was offered, Captain Len Guy procured his full tale of seamen.