In the furtherance of his plans, Stackhouse bought Scott's old ship "Discovery" from the Hudson's Bay Company for £9,500 – a fraction of its original cost of £51,000 – and paid a deposit of £1,000. Stackhouse announced that during the expedition "Discovery" was to be captained by Arthur Harbord, who had been second officer on the "Nimrod" in Shackleton's 1907–09 expedition. All officers and scientists would serve without pay. Stackhouse released several names who had volunteered for his expedition: Lieut. Richard Garsden of the Royal Indian Marine would be first officer; Lieut. R. Beatty, also from the RIM and a cousin of Admiral Beatty, would be navigating officer; Lord Congleton and the pioneer aviator William Forbes-Sempill (known as the Master of Sempill) would join the scientific staff. Stackhouse was hoping to obtain the services as boatswain of Tom Crean, who had served with Scott on both his Antarctic expeditions. Crean, however, had committed himself to Shackleton. The expedition received significant support from Sir Clements Markham, the still-influential RGS former president; according to Markham, "All who have at heart the continuance of the best traditions of British discovery will join in wishing all possible success to this enterprise". The RGS secretary, John Scott Keltie, was less impressed; he did not consider Stackhouse's plans to be viable, and withheld the Society's official endorsement.