Chapter Text
Captain's Log of Francis R. M. Crozier, lately of the H.M.S. Terror, passenger abord the Jenny lee
Tuesday, Third of October, 1848, winds SE by S
Lent my spyglass to Lieutenant Little taking the air who spotted land late this morning Captain Folger confirms we shall make port in Nantucket perhaps as early as the afternoon though with these winds I believe it shall be the evening.
I have never felt so strongly the need to have my feet on land before. We are close says Folger but
The crew of the Jenny Lee have been kind to us, cutting their season short and sacrificing their own comfort so that they may ferry us poor souls away. Hammocks strung so thick below a man can hardly breathe two officers to each bed rations cut so that every mouth is fed. Though I have been informed there is a prize to be had in our discovery so perhaps Surely, without them we would have perished on the shores of Repulse Bay. Captain Folger deserves all due honor.
We are made sadly redundant on this ship, but I do not know how much help we could be otherwise sick wretches we have become. As I write, fourty-three men and five officers now remain of the Terror and Erebus crews including myself. I worry that number may change come morning, some are in serius condition and may not last the night Commander Fitzjames and Lieutenant Jopson among them. Commander Fitzjames has lost his—I am afraid Commander Fitzjames will The ship’s doctor Cooper has tended to them as best he can but only time will tell and so I wait and-I sit with my hand at James’s brow and I count the heat by degrees and I pray though to who I do not know anymore
There is medicine in Nantucket.
We are close.