MEN OF MARK IN THE WORLD TO-DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1938, Page 31 (Supplement)

MEN OF MARK IN THE WORLD TO-DAY

No. Xll:—Under The Polar Ice In A Submarine; SIR H. WILKINS, Famous Explorer

orty years ago in the vast drought-ravaged plains of South Australia there lived a bo}) named eorge Hubert fVill(ins. His family endured many hardships, mainly through the trying eat and lack of water. He saw thousands of sheep and cattle die of thirst. He saw the farmers crops shrivelled up and ruined. He saw men fling themselves on the mud in thanf(\u ntS j ?v en ram f e U- ... So the boy decided to become a Polar explorer. What has at decision to do with the droughts of Australia? you may asl(. Here, then, is his story.

TJUBERT WILKINS vu bora to farm lif« in Australia. Ht spent much of his boyhood in the saddle and many a time he worked without ceaeing in what waa often a vain attempt to save the liveg of his father's sheep and cattle in time of drought. Like all who lived in that sun-baked land he dreaded and hated the drought. He saw in it Australia's greatest enemy. If only, young Wilkins thought, the farmers seuld know when droughts were coming and how long they would have to wait for rain. Then they could be prepared. He wondered if there was any way in which men could learn more about the weather so that they could be more certain of foretelling it with accuracy. He studied this problem and he learned that the polar ice caps influenced the weather of the whole earth

Wilkine realised that a careful, scientific examination of weather condition* at the poles would help in forecasting weather all over the world. So he decided to become an explorer. Much, however, vie to happen before he made hi* first journey to the lands of ice and snow. His love of adventure took him all over the world.

From 1912 to 1913 he wa« a war correspondent and photographer for a London paper during the Balkan War, and eo great wa« his daring th*t the Turks called him "the mad Englishman." His pictures were so good that they attracted the attention of a great explorer named Stefaneson, who invited him to join a Canadian expedition to the Arctic a« second-in-eoinmand.

The party set out in 1913 and the Great War was half over before the explorers even knew it v«« on. Wilkin* gat back as goon a* he con Id and wm appointed official photographer and air observer to the Australian forces in Flanders. A member of the High Command described him a« "the most coolly intrepid man in the Australian Army."

Immediately after the war Wilkins •et out on an attempt to fly to Australia, but crashed at an early atage of the journey. In the following year he vu second-in-command of the British Imperial Antarctic expedition, while in 1921 he aocompanied ?hackelton on his last expedition to the Antarctic.

Between 1926 and 1927.Wilkin« made a number of flight* into the Arctic and on eeveral occasions had to endure terrible hardships in struggling back to his base aft«r his aeroplanes had crashed. In 1928 he and a companion flow 20.000 miles over the Arctic ice cap. Aft«r this achievement he wa« knighted. Sir Hubert was soon off again, this time to the South Pole, where hp accomplished the first flight ever made in Antarctic regions. He made on aerial survey of 3000 miles of unknown coastline and the re«u't was & number oi important di»* •overiea.

On hia return to civilisation the explorer met a man called Simon Lake, famous for being the first to make a voyage in a submarine. This meeting wa« the beginning of Sir Hubert's greatest adventure. Lake suggested that it would be possible to go to the North Pole in a submarine.

idea fired Sir Hubert's imagination. Here wa« a new world to be explored, the ice-cold regions beneath the polar weans. It was decided to make a submarine voyage from Spitzbergen to Alaska by'way of the North Pole, a distance Jf 3000 miles. Sir Hubert obtained a submarine from the American Government and L«ke planned alterations that would

make tliie amazing journey ]>t»s*ib]e. The conning tower wa« made so that it could be withdrawn into the submarine while the vessel was under the ice. An ice drill was fitted 60 that holes could be cut in the ice from below and the vessel could come up for air and to recharge batteries.

The designer's idea was that the submarine should move along the underside of the ice, like a tlv walking on a ceiling. For this reason the top deck was fitted with steel runners like sledge skids. Sir Hubert called hi* submarine the Nautilus and when the alterations were completed it wa« one of the queerest craft ever seen on the sea.

When the great Australian paeeed through Auckland a few weeks a fso on his way to join Mr. Lincoln Ellsworth for another Antarctic expedition. he paid that on his return lie intended to complete the building of a new submarine und would attempt further explorations in the north polar rejrion. Sir Hubert 5r no lonjjer " boy. He is in liis fiftieth year, but the tpirit of a<lventure die** hard in euch intrepid men. and he will m.t readily abandon hk wonderful work is the service of mankind.

In the e«rly autumn of 1931 the Nuutilllri fcot Oll*t to cruris the AtliiUtic and it was not lonsr before Sir Hubert experienced the first of the bud luck which wag to dog him on thin voyage. Engine trouble developed and the Xautilus had to put into the Norwegian port of Tromsoe for repairs.

After gome delay the Xa*utilus wai under way ugain, bound for Spitsbergen, which was to be the starting point for the moist daring journey ever conceived by man. Unfortunately the submarine'* diving rudders were. damaged a« «he travelled tlirough ice on the surface. Repairs could not be mode and It was dangerous to take the disabled tmmcl beneath the ice.

These daring men refused to be daunted. They decided to take the risk and the N'autilue dived under the k-e. Fate had not finished with them, however. The propellere were bent and torn by great chunks of ice. The ice drill was smashed and although the Xautilu* carried on for a week it wa« evident that the journey to Alaska could sot he made—— this time at lea«t. So the explorerg returned to Spitsbergen. The Xautilue was 00 badly damaged that it could not be taken back across the Atlantic and Sir Hubert was compelled to have it scuttled. Many important discoveriee were made during the journey under the ice and those who saw Sir Hubert'* wonderful film when he was in Xewr Zealand a few years ago on a lecture tour will' remember the marrelloue pictures of the ice from below which had been taken through special observation windows in the Nautilus. Actually the great adventure of" the Nautilus, although it* daring, won the admiration of the world, was doomed to failure. Such a venture had never been made before and it wa« impossible to foresee the perils which had to be faced. TTie explorer* learned by bitter experience, however, and it may be that such a journey can be made some day. Sir Hubert believes so.