During the two "Zaca" expeditions Beebe was accompanied by his longtime assistant John Tee-Van as well as Jocelyn Crane, a young carcinologist who had first worked for Beebe at Nonsuch Island in 1932, and who would subsequently be among Beebe's most cherished associates for the rest of his life. Like Hollister before her, Crane would eventually become Beebe's lover during the long expeditions that Beebe made without Elswyth's companionship. During this time Beebe was also forming a close friendship with Winnie-the-Pooh's creator A. A. Milne, who wrote of "Half Mile Down" "I don't know which I envy you most: all those moral and physical qualities which you have and I lack, or all that wonder of a new world. [...] One of the few things in the world of which I am really proud is that I know Will Beebe."