He needed to get out of London. No matter what, he couldn't stay there any more. He needed to leave by any means necessary.

Plus, there's the whole 'planning to desert in the Sandwich Islands' thing. Hickey's smart enough to keep that to himself right now.

"Have you ever been to London? Boring as all hell. I wanted to get out of there, wanted to see anything different. The Arctic might not have been ideal but the thought was once we got out of there, we'd swing back down to the tropics. I'd have liked to see that."