Getting to know each other

3rd March 1924

Photo by N.E. Odell

The dining arrangements on the ship had also been prearranged and Sandy was at a table with Mallory while Beetham and Hazard were sitting together at another table. The seating plan was not changed until the ship arrived in Port Said, so they had plenty of time to get to know the other diners at their table. 

Two days into the journey Mallory wrote to Ruth giving his impressions of his fellow travellers. Beetham he found good-humoured and unselfish, ‘I expect he’ll be very useful altogether’. Of Sandy he wrote: ‘sensible & not at all highly strung he’ll be one to depend on, for everything perhaps except conversation'. If Mallory thought Sandy was short on conversation after just two days at sea, Sandy was equally candid about him, writing 'Mallory is far too energetic for so early in the voyage — he was up and dressed before I had even finished my morning tea & apple.’

The expedition team did make some time for a bit of fun, as this photo of Sandy giving Mallory a push on a local chair ride shows. This moment happened later in the trip and was photographed by Odell, in a village in Sikkim.