Melbourne, Australia
Pictured above, Victoria Docks in Melbourne, Australia
After six days in Melbourne, the expedition is ready to set sail. The new equipment is aboard, and the latest weather reports are promising. The police have given their consent to let the Gabrielle go on its way. Expedition team members are instructed to be back aboard ship by midnight on October 17th.
Loading of the SS Gabrielle at Victoria Docks
The final provisions and crated equipment are loaded in the early evening. The activity is reminiscent of New York City. Professor Moore is everywhere with his clipboard, watching and worrying. For once, the expedition members have the luxury of leaning on the rail, simply watching.
As they take their ease, three battered autos come speeding up to the berth, disgorging a dozen reporters and photographers. As if on queue, with lots of gestures and shouts, James Starkweather collars a couple of dockhands and urges them on to more rapidly load the ship. In between directing the loading, Starkweather strikes poses for the photographers and feeds the press whatever it seems to want to hear.
Once the loading of the ship seems well under way, Starkweather makes his way up the gangway. Stopping at the top to give the reporters a farewell salute, he shouts, "Thank you, lads! We'll be back in a few months!"
The S.S. Gabrielle looses her lines and slips free of the dock at 3:30 a.m. under command of a local pilot. The trip to the open ocean is uneventful. Passing through the Rip, a small launch pulls away from the Queenscliff and follows after the Gabrielle. Safely through the passage and in the open ocean, the pilot takes his leave, and returns to the lighthouse aboard the launch.
With a blast of the whistle Captain Vredenburgh turns the Gabrielle to the south--and the Ice.
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Job. (the tortured one)
