I gave him his first official task even before he landed but after he had entered the territorial waters of the Prince Edwards. While we talked he rubber-stamped for me a handful of letters, dating them and signing them "Allan B. Crawford, Acting Postmaster." Before he reached the shore they were on their way to the Union as Marion Island's first official mail, and they were duly posted in Cape Town and delivered through the normal channel. Already they have become philatelic treasures.

While we were aboard the Good Hope it was reported that Crawford's deputy, Triegaardt, was suffering from suspected peritonitis. He had been confined to his bunk for some days past. Major A.J. Snyman, of the South African Medical Corps, who was travelling in the Good Hope to take charge of the medical supervision of the men ashore and afloat during the frigate's stay, decided that it would be wise to send him back with us in the Natal rather than risk an operation and all its complications down there. Thus, after he had prepared

As the sea was too rough to allow the landing stage to be used, Dike reached the Good Hope for the conference by again sliding down the rope from the cliff into a boat. Finlayson hurried back to his ship as soon as his presence was no longer essential, for he was not happy away from her in the conditions then prevailing. The Natal's party returned to their ship before lunch, and immediately the anchor was weighed and she started homeward. Not one on board was sorry to bid farewell to the islands. None had ever known such temperamental and unpleasant weather. During one 12-hour check the wind had changed direction no fewer than 16 times. In nearly 18 days at the islands the frigate had been able to lie at anchor in all less than 100 hours, spread over nine occasions.

Despite the unfavourable sea conditions the Gamtoos's men strove throughout the day to get all their cargo ashore before their departure, scheduled for nightfall. They had only hutment sections and timber left to unload, and this they could float ashore without using the landing stage.

By the middle of the afternoon they had everything out except thirty hutment sections, and there seemed hope that they would win the race against time and give the island party every item of much-needed equipment that they had brought down for them.

Then disaster came.

The sea had been gradually working up, and the guano boats were experiencing increasing difficulty in preventing themselves being carried ashore each time they approachcd the beach in order to pass across the towing lines of the slats they had brought in. From the Aqua Fourie saw a member of the crew of one of the boats he had just towed in take a turn of the grass guide rope round the after bollard, apparently to help

Of the men who had been in it one was already on the beach. He had been in the bows when he realised what was happening. Quick as thought he stepped on to the prow, and even as the boat went over he hurled himself shoreward. The wave carried him on to the rocks, where willing hands grabbed him and hauled him, bruised and frightened, to safety.

Three heads were bobbing in the water, and from them came cries for help. The boatmen were weighted down with their thick clothing, oilskins and sea-boots. The backwash was giving them no chance of making the shore unaided.

Kinsella, the medical orderly, sized up the situation in a flash, seized a rope lying nearby and started into the water. The rope was too short, and in response to the shouts of Bond and others on the shore he came back for a longer one. As he waded out again Bond threw after him a lifebuoy, the only one on the beach, which he had begged from the Good Hope only that morning. Kinsella swam out with the lifebuoy to the man who was furthest out, and helped him to get hold of it. Then he helped the other two likewise to the buoy. All four clung to it as it was hauled shoreward. Though they had been in the water hardly five minutes, all the men were semi-conscious from cold and shock when they were pulled out.

Now there came a shout from Sergeant Boyer, the look-out man on the cliff top, that he could see another man in the water. Up to now nobody had realised that there had been five men in the boat. The fifth

The other rescued and the two rescuers had meanwhile been carried to the kitchen marquee higher up the beach, where in the warmth of the oil fires their sodden clothing was removed, and they were wrapped in blankets while dry clothes were sought for them. Though the Coloured men by the next morning were little the worse for their experience, the European rescuers still required medical treatment days afterwards. Dike was still having trouble with his back, which the doctors said only a warm climate could cure, when he returned to the Union two months later.

The Aqua retrieved the capsized boat and towed it, still bottom up, to the Gamtoos. It was righted with the aid of the derricks, but before it could be hoisted inboard Powell had to go over the side to remove the sea-cock and let the water out. Although he was in the water for only a few minutes he came up numb and blue with the cold and had to receive treatment before he revived. It seemed clear that nobody could survive long in that water, with a temperature that was only ten degrees above freezing.

All landing operations were suspended when news of the tragedy reached the Gamtoos. She could not now

On the next day the sea was still too rough for boats to use the landing stage. Finlayson could wait no longer, however, and as his boatmen had now recovered and were willing to risk a transfer to their ship by the Dike method they were lowered over the cliff in a bosun's chair into a waiting boat, which put them safely aboard the Gamtoos. Before leaving the island each man was rigged out with a complete new outfit of clothes, including airmen's kapok-lined flying-suits and fur-lined boots, of which they were not a little proud.

As soon as his men were aboard Finlayson weighed anchor and steamed away, ensign at half-mast, for Cape Town. In his holds were still the 30 slats for the island's buildings.

As it was he had a stormy passage home, encountering several gales, one of which, from the south-east, attained a velocity of 100 m.p.h. He crawled into Table Bay with only 30 tons of coal, enough for less than two days' steaming, in his bunkers.