“Marston, our affable artist, repairs all our boots, sewing new soles on them in quite a professional manner. He is wonderfully handy at certain things, once he gets started, but he is inclined to be a little lethargic and takes a bit of starting at times. He, Wild, Captain Worsley and Tom Crean live in the original upper deck ward room, just above the hold. They have divided the space up into four cubicles and so have one each, quite a luxury. They look like little horse-boxes, so are always alluded to as The Stables.

“Marston has ideas of his own, mainly artistic, and so has fixed up a sort of opium den settee about 4ft by 4 1/2ft which really occupies almost the entire available space of the cubicle. It is covered with fine reindeer skins which he as clothing officer is in charge of and really it is a delightful nest, but how he manages to curl up on it at night is a puzzle. He is by no means tall, which is lucky, and so he probably fits in diagonally and draws his knees up a bit for the rest.”

— Thomas Orde-Lees