Erebus: One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time

by Michael Palin

Sophy made little secret of her much stronger attraction to the glamorous Ross than to the decent, steadfast Crozier, whom she described with disdain as ‘a horrid radical and an indifferent speller’.

He went on to complain that the ship’s cat got into his drawer and tore up six of his charts, but the cat was soon forgiven, for on the 19th she presented them with three kittens. ‘Such an event as that you may think nothing of, but to us it is a great deal, for a kitten tends to relieve the monotony of such a cruise as this.’ The next day ‘they were shown on a warmed clean plate to Captain Ross’.