THE ANDREE RELICS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20024, 4 September 1930, Page 11

THE ANDREE RELICS.

IDENTIFICATION WORK. COMMISSION OP EXPERTS. (tJHTTED P8893 ASSOCIATION—BT BLECTBIC TELBOBAPB—COPYBI3HT.) ' (Received September 3rd, 11.38 p.m.) LONDON, September 3. A Commission of Experts spent the day in examining the Andree relics, being assisted by a relative ol Andree's companion, Fraenkel, named VVahlstroen, who arrived to facilitate identification. The logbook and the diary will be sent to Stockholm, where the Swedish authorities shall decide as to publication. Experts have definitely identified two bodies as that of Andree and Strindberg, the diary being on Andree's body. FIRST REPORTS EXAGGERATED. (N.A.N.A. Copyright.) LONDON, September 2. A mossage from the North American Newspaper Alliance states that it is now clear that the first reports of the Andree discoveries were much exaggerated. Dr. Horn declares that only the bones and clothes are left. There is no doubt that the discovery is genuine. Andree's skull was not found, and the body was identified by the diary in the pocket. It is difficult to say who is who of the others. A ship has been dispatched to make a further search. The steamer Bratvaag has arrived at Tromsoc, and a hearse conveyed the romains to an infirmary, pending examination. The party evidently had plenty of food, as some was found near Andree's body. The logbook suggests a balloon journey. For the last few days the writing is almost illegible. [M. Andreo, who was an experi enced balloonist after preliminary tebts, presented, in 1895, the Swedish Academy with a mature project for exploring the North Pole regions by means of a balloon at a cost of about £7200. A national subscription was opened and completed in four days by generous donors. The balloon was to hold 150,000 cubic feet of pas. to be made of the best Pongee silk cemented together, and covered by a hempen net of jointless cords, and a protec tive envelope of single silk weighing 88!b. From it depended a cylindrical car made of cane basket-work strong thened by wooden cross-beams. In June of 1896, Andree and his com pan ions went north to Spitzbergen on the steamer Virgo, and chose Dane's Island for his headquarters. There he made his catnp. and the following month was able to commence work on the balloon. After the balloon had been assembled, Andree was impatient to be off. while Strindberg and Frankel, two of the members of the expedition, wished to delay the departure of the expedition until the season was more advanced. On -ie day of the departure, the wind was north-easterly, but it was hoped gradually to reach regions in which the winds would be more favourable. The straps fell from the balloon, the ropes were cut, and the ship rose unfettered amidst the cheers of onlookers. It moved off at 20 miles an hour, and at that speed would have reached the Pole in two days. Along the shore the rest of the expedition watched the balloon unti] it became n speck over the grey sea. The hardv adventurers in it wero never to be seen alive again.]

landings at Las Palmas and St. Vincent de Paul's Rocks, they reached Pernambuco on June sth.

On January 22nd, 1926, Commande Franco and Captain Ruiz Alda left Spain, also for Pernambuco. After leaving Cape Verde Islauds their petrol supply failed, and a forced landing was made at the Island of Fernando Noronha, and the flight was finished on February 4th.

Captains Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli, the famous French flying aces, left Le Bourget in the White Bird aeroplane on the morning of May Bth, 1927. The machine was reported as sighted over England, and then no further traces were ever discovered al-

though the wild lands of Northern Canada were repeatedly searched on reports that an aeroplane had landed there. In 1927 the Atlantic Ocean was successfully crossed on four occasions from the American side, but a number of attempts from the European side failed. The successful ones were:—Charles Lindbergh, May 20th-21st, from Roosevelt Field to Paris; Lieutenant-Com-mander Byrd, and three companions, from Roosevelt Field to Ver-Sur-Mer, Paris; C. D. Chamberlain and C. A. Levine, from Roosevelt Field to Eisleden, Germany, who made a record nonstop flight of 3911 miles in 42 hours 31 minutes between June 4th and 6tli; W. S. Brock and E. F. Schlee, fjom Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, to Croydon on August 27th; Miss Ruth EUer, accompanied by a pilot, from Roosevelt Field, the machine landing alongside a steamer on October 13th, near the Azores.

Among those who failed that year were:—Princess Lowcnstein-Wintheim and two pilots, from England on August 31st, the machine being last sighted at Galway Bay, Ireland; others who have disappeared over the Atlantic from Europe included Captain Hamilton, Captain Hinchcliffe and the Hon. Elsie Mackay; and two Swiss aviators, Oscar Kaesar and Kurt Luescher. In 1928 the pioneer flight from Europe was accomplished, when, on April 13th the Junkers monoplane Bremen piloted bv Captain Herman Koehl and Commandant James Fitzmaurice.,Chief of the Irish Free State Air Force, with Baron Gunther von Hiienfeldt made a forced landing on Greenley Island, off the southern coast of Labrador. The difficulty of the flight may be appreciated by the fact that in a distance of about 2000 miles they were 400 miles off their course. The same year Miss Amelia Earhart. with a crew of two, flew from Newfoundland to Wales, landing on July 18th. In 1929 three attempts to fly; from America to Europe succeeded, while on four different occasions aviators set out on the westward bound flight, and were never heard ot end of June this vear WingCommander Kingsford Smith and his three companions left Ireland for New York, and were forced to land at Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, afterwards continuing on to New York.