N.Z. OBSERVERS SEEK SITE FOR ANTARCTIC STATION

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27858, 5 January 1956, Page 10

N.Z. OBSERVERS SEEK SITE FOR ANTARCTIC STATION

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, January 4.

Two of New Zealand’s observers in the Antarctic with the United States “Operation Deep Freeze” saw the New Year in, by daylight, on the ice of McMurdo Sound. The two men, Lieutenant-Com-mander W. J. L. Smith, of Auckland, and Dr. Trevor Hatherton, of Wellington, left the American icebreaker Edisto on New Year’s Eve, each with a one-man sledge, on a tour of McMurdo Sound to survey the likeliest sites for Scott Base. This will oe the New Zealand Antarctic expedition’s base camp, which will be set up about 12 months hence.

A radio message, lodged by Lieutenant-Commander Smith on December 31, and received by the Ross Sea Committee in Wellington today, said that he and Dr. Hatherton were planning a round trip of about 75 miles. Their journey was to take them first across the ice to Dry Valley, which descends into McMurdo Sound . beside the Lower Ferrar Glacier. The two men planned then to skirt the foot of the Ferrar Glacier to Butter Point, and traverse the western shore of the sound to Cape Chocolate, at the foot of the Koettlitz Glacier and near the edge of the Ross Barrier ice-shelf.

From Cape Chocolate, their intended route lay across the ice-shelf to the Dailey Islands, a group of five rocky outcrops appearing above the ice .that flows into the barrier shelf from the Koettlitz Glacier.

The Dailey Islands are at present favoured by the expedition authorities as first choice for the site of Scott Base, so long as they offer a suitable and protected area for base facilities, and have good access to the selected glacier route to the polar ’ plateau. The final stage of the sew Year survey undertaken by LieutenantCommander Smith and Dr. Hatherton

lay around the edge of the ice barrier to Hut Point, near which Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s base camp still exists.