 On the Aurora , Mertz met Belgrave Edward Sutton Ninnis , a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers . Like Mertz , Ninnis was responsible for the expedition 's dogs ; Aurora 's captain , John King Davis , regarded the pair as " idlers " . " I wish we had some one on board who could look after [ the dogs ] , " he wrote in his diary , " it is a great shame that they should suffer from neglect . " On 2 December 1911 , after final preparations and loading were completed in Hobart , the Aurora sailed south ; she stopped briefly at Macquarie Island , where a wireless relay base was established , and reached the site of the expedition 's main base at Cape Denison in Adélie Land , on the Antarctic continent , in early January . 
