SHIP FOR N.Z. EXPEDITION

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27896, 18 February 1956, Page 8

SHIP FOR N.Z. EXPEDITION

JOHN BISCOE CHOSEN FALKLANDS VESSEL TO BE MANNED BY NAVY The wooden motor-ship John Biscoe will carry members of the- New Zealand expedition with their equipment to the Antarctic. The ship has been used by the Falkland Islands Dependency for survey work during the last seven years and a half. It will be released from service when a replacement vessel is delivered to the dependency, probably later this year. After a refit in Britain, the John Biscoe will be sailed to New Zealand by a Navy crew. Lieutenant-Com-mander W. J. L. Smith, R.N.Z.N., who returned to Christchurch yesterday from the Antarctic, where he has been an observer with the United States expedition. will probably be flown to Britain to bring the ship south. The John Biscoe was built during World War 11. It was constructed in the United States and was originally a netlayer. It is 900 tons gross register. In 1948 the ship was modified for work in the Antarctic. Its biggest modification was an additional sheathing of two or three inches of greenheart, one of the world’s hardest woods, as an outer hull. A New Zealand frigate will escort the John Biscoe to the Antarctic next summer. It will accompany the expedition shin as far as the edge of the pack ice. Frigates can steam through light ice. but have not the strength in their hulls to withstand the stress of thick ice.