George Hodgson quotes from The Terror

One summer when I was seven, my parents sent me to live with two aunts in Oxfordshire. I did not want to go. The elderly have that effect on children. But they loved me. And I grew to love them. They were papists I came to find. Devout. Each Sunday they would leave me with a housemaid while they attended a Catholic Mass. I was frightened for them. I had been told they were doing some great, unforgivable thing. Then one morning, they took me with them. I was shaking. The service was not the howling spectacle of sin I had imagined, but was beautiful. The singing sounded delivered by angels themselves. When it came time for the Eucharist, I found myself moved to step forward. My aunts were surprised, but pleased, I could see. I took the wafer on my tongue. Drank from the chalice. I felt clean. With the body and blood of Christ within me I felt forgiven of every poor weak or selfish thing within my soul. It was a perfect moment in a whole imperfect life. The next week when it came time to dress, I, I pretended to be ill. They knew I was pretending. To this day, I don't know why I did it. They never asked me to join them again. We never spoke of it. It was the last and only time I stepped into a papist church. But tonight when I close my eyes I'm there. If I were a braver man, I would kill Mr. Hickey. Though it would mean my death, too. But I am hungry. I am hungry and I want to live.

As such, we can expect to finish our full supply of coal by November next, unless we start stepping down the ships' heating plan now, and that's without any future days making way under steam being factored in. Of salt beef, we have a combined total of 750 pounds. Salt pork, 210. Flour, 902. Cheese, 87. Dried fruits, nine pounds, only after making the men Lady Jane's Christmas pudding last week.

Hear, hear.

Of lemon juice... not quite 200 gallons remain, though Dr. McDonald suspects it's lost most of its anti-scurvy properties by now. As for the tins, we've now inspected every one and tossed out the putrid. It's clear now why the Stephan Goldner Tinned Foods Company was the low bidder.

I'd like to run that man through.

What's left number 1,402 tins preserved meats, 1,163 preserved vegetables, 911 preserved soup, 1,182 potatoes.

James Fitzjames

And when is the point of no return?

If we reduce to three-quarter rations, we'll reach the end of our provisions mid-winter next year, if we're stuck in again with no game. That with our current roster of 116 men.

James Fitzjames

Why mention the number of men, Lieutenant? [clears his throat] We've not seen hide nor even a hair of Mr. Teeth-and-Claws. We can be confident that Mr. Blanky here along with Mr. Hodgson killed it or ran it off for good. No, the men will notice that large a reduction in what they eat. They'll begin with four-fifths rations, and we will discuss how to reduce further in a month's time. And finally, advise Mr. Wall and Mr. Diggle that they should emphasize salt meats in their menus now, not the tins. We must... we must start to preserve all things portable now.

I'm not a captain. I'm not made of that.

Cornelius Hickey

You can be whatever you need to be now. Survival is a nasty piece of business. But we do what we have to do. We reconfigure. We reinvent. We rearrange.