 On 24 March 1909, he took the Admiralty-based appointment of naval assistant to the Second Sea Lord which placed him conveniently in London.In December, he was released on half-pay, to take up the full-time command of the British Antarctic Expedition 1910, to be known as the "Terra Nova" expedition from its ship, .It was the expressed hope of the RGS that this expedition would be "scientific primarily, with exploration and the Pole as secondary objects" but, unlike the "Discovery" expedition, neither they nor the Royal Society were in charge this time.