A LONG DRIFT.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19622, 18 May 1929, Page 9

A LONG DRIFT.

ACROSS NORTH POLE. CAPTAIN BARTLETT*S PLANS. (ntOM OCR SrECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) VANCOUVER, April 17. Captain Robert Bartlett, who was with Peary in his days to within two degrees of the North Pole, and who rescued his thirte#c companions when they were crushed in the ice near Wrangell Island in 1914, plans to drift across the North Pole in an ice-proof ship of oak, which will leave Seattle next autumn. Bartlett's plan is to freeze in the ice pack and drift over the Pole, or as close to it as the ice pack will go. He expects it will take two years. The boat will have a saucer bottom, so that she cannot be crushed, as the Karluk was on his previous trip. She will have a crew of ten hardy young scientists, together with Eskimos and dogs. There will be two planes, and runways will be built on the ice pack. Bartlett will build a house on the.pack and roof it over; kennels will be built for the dogs. They wift nave a radio, to keep in touch with the world. The drift ship will be a schooner with a Diesel engine for auxiliary power. Bartlett "says she, will be so strong and po built as to withstand the pressure of Vthe ice. He even believes she cannot be Tolled over. Sailing from Seattle, she will go through the Yuminak Pass to the Aleutians, and the Behring Sea, north to the Behring Straits. Then Bartlett will : wateh for an opening north, put her in the ice, let her freeze in and drift. He expects to be kept busy for two or three years, taking soundings and meteorological, tions, as well as studying sea and animal life, till he reaches Spitzbergtii or Greenland. Asked as to the hardships of such a venture, Captain Bartlett observed: "No—not for me. The elements are kinder than things you meet in the city. The winds, the storms, the ice—• I know how to get along with them." Experienced Explorer. If the suggestion to drift in the ice pack across the North Pole came from anyone but Bartlett, it would get scant attention. But Bartlett knows the pack better than any man living or dead. He was only 22 when he wintered with Peary at D'Urville, Kan9 Basin, on a hunting expedition in 1897-8; , From 1901 he captained a sealer for four years, then he commanded the Roosevelt from 1905 to 1909, taking", an active part in Peary's expedition to the Pole, and reaching the 88th.parallel. On a private hunting expedition he again went to Kane Basin in 1910. He was with the Canadian Government Arctic Expedition of 1913-14, as captain of the Karluk, which was crushed by the ice. With seventeen persons he reached Wrangell Island. Leaving fifteen there, with one eskimo he crossed the ice to Siberia and returned with, a lrescue party, reaching Wrangell eight months after. A year later he reached Nome with thirteen survivors. In 1917, he commanded the Croker land relief expedition to Northern Greenland. In 1925, he was sent by the National Geographical Society to locate bases for aircraft in Northwest Alaska, and on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, also recording tides and currents, and dredging for flora and fauna. In 1926, he went to North Greenland and Ellesmere Land; in 192% to Fox Basin and the western shores o± Baffin Land; last year, to Siberia.