GETTING READY TO LEAVE

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 279, 24 November 1928, Page 10

GETTING READY TO LEAVE

ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.

COMMANDER GOING SOUTH.

GREAT AEROPLANES LOADED,

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, this day.

Members of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition have been working strenuously at the task of loading equipment and stores into the supply steamer Eleanor Boiling, which arrived yesterday from Dunedin.

The loading of the huge crates and cases containing the fuselages, wing sections and engines of the four 'planes into the 600-ton steamer was no small task. The Harbour Board provided every facility, including the use of its floating crane Hikitia. The Eleanor Boiling has a forehatch measuring 40ft long by 22ft wide, to take the bulky packages, but even so their safe stowage presented some nice problems in stevedoring.

Commander Richard E. Byrd, accompanied by Mr. Russell Owen and several officers, is to leave this evening for Christchurch, en route for Dunedin. At Christchurch they will make a pilgrimage to the fine statue of Captain Scott, executed by Lady Scott, and Commander Byrd will lay a wreath at the base of the statue as a tribute to the memory of the great British Antarctic explorer. Commander Byrd was the guest of the Governor-General and Lady Alice Fergusson at luncheon on Wednesday, and with several members of his party he dined at Government House on Thursday. Flags for South Pole. • When he starts fro n the ice barrier in the monoplane Floyd Bennett, on his 1600 mile flight to the South Pole and back, Commander Byrd will cany with him an historic memento in the form of a blue and white pennant which Captain Roald Amundsen, the famous Norwegian explorer (who perished a few months ago when he went in a > p i ane to th rescue of members of the Nobile North Polo expedition), carried to the South Pole in 1911. Amundsen, with four com panions, 52 dogs and four sledges left his base at the Bay of Whales on October 19, 1911, reached the South Polo on December 14, and arrived back at-Pram-

heim on January 25, 1912, the whole journey taking 98 days. On that memorable occasion the pennant was borne on a sledge. This time it will be carried by Conimander Byrd in his great allmetal tri-motored 1000 horse-power monoplane. It is to become the permanent property of the Aero Club of Norway when he brings it back in 1930.

Commander Byrd will, of course, carry the American flag with him to the South Pole. In addition, he will also have the flags of his native State of Virginia, of tho State of California, and that of the American Legion. He has also publicly announced since his arrival at Wellington that he will take with him the British flag and tho New Zealand ensign, the former in honour of the memory of Scott and Shackleton, and the latter in recognition of the Dominion's intimate association with Antarctic exploration expeditions.

Particulars of the issue of holiday excursion tickets and train arrangements in connection with the Whangarei A. and P. Show, to be held at Mair on >28th and 29th inst., are advertised by the Railway Department in another column.