There was nothing to drink on the Sophie Sutherland, and we had fifty-one days of glorious sailing, taking the southern passage in the north-east trades to Bonin Islands.

This isolated group, belonging to Japan, had been selected as the rendezvous of the Canadian and American sealing fleets.

Here they filled their water-barrels and made repairs before starting on the hundred days' harrying of the seal-herd along the northern coasts of Japan to Behring Sea.
Those fifty-one days of fine sailing and intense sobriety had put me in splendid fettle.

The alcohol had been worked out of my system, and from the moment the voyage began I had not known the desire for a drink.

I doubt if I even thought once about a drink.