She had extensive alterations made by the Government authorities in Australia to fit her for Dr.Mawson's Expedition, and is now at Hobart, Tasmania, where the Ross Sea party will join her in October next." I started the preparations in the middle of 1913, but no public announcement was made until January 13, 1914.

For the last six months of 1913 I was engaged in the necessary preliminaries, solid mule work, showing nothing particular to interest the public, but essential for an Expedition that had to have a ship on each side of the Continent, with a land journey of eighteen hundred miles to be made, the first nine hundred miles to be across an absolutely unknown land mass.
On January 1, 1914, having received a promised financial support sufficient to warrant the announcement of the Expedition, I made it public.
The first result of this was a flood of applications from all classes of the community to join the adventure.

I received nearly five thousand applications, and out of these were picked fifty-six men.
In March, to my great disappointment and anxiety, the promised financial help did not materialize, and I was now faced with the fact that I had contracted for a ship and stores, and had engaged the staff, and I was not in possession of funds to meet these liabilities.

I immediately set about appealing for help, and met with generous response from all sides.

I cannot here give the names of all who supported my application, but whilst taking this opportunity of thanking every one for their support, which came from parts as far apart as the interior of China, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia, I must particularly refer to the munificent donation of ｣24,000 from the late Sir James Caird, and to one of ｣10,000 from the British Government.