nine in the morning of the 6th July
* * * * * The _ Boreal , _ I found , contained sufficient provisions , untouched by the dust , in cases , casks , & c. , to last me , probably , fifty years . After two days , when I had partially scrubbed and boiled the filth of fifteen months from my skin , and solaced myself with better food , I overhauled her thoroughly , and spent three more days in oiling and cleaning the engine . Then , all being ready , I dragged my twelve dead and laid them together in two rows on the chart-room floor ; and I hoisted for love the poor little kayak which had served me through so many tribulations . At nine in the morning of the 6th July , a week from my first sighting of the _ Boreal _ , I descended to the engine-room to set out . The screws , like those of most quite modern ships , were driven by the simple contrivance of a constant stream of liquid air , contained in very powerful tanks , exploding through capillary tubes into non-expansion slide-valve chests , much as in the ordinary way with steam : a motor which gave her , in spite of her bluff hulk , a speed of sixteen knots . It is , therefore , the simplest thing for one man to take these ships round the world , since their movement , or stopping , depend upon nothing but the depressing or raising of a steel handle , provided that one does not get blown to the sky meantime , as liquid air , in spite of its thousand advantages , occasionally blows people . At any rate , I had tanks of air sufficient to last me through twelve years ' voyaging ; and there was the ordinary machine on board for making it , with forty tons of coal , in case of need , in the bunkers , and two excellent Belleville boilers : so I was well supplied with motors at least .