ANTARCTIC PARTY

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28157, 21 December 1956, Page 13

ANTARCTIC PARTY

Magga Dan At South Georgia (Pec. -0 n.m.) LONDON. Dec. 20. Dr. V. E. Fuchs, leader of the Commonwealth trans-Antarctic expedition, and members of the main partv. who left London in the Magga Dan for the far south on November 15. have arrived at South Georgia according to plan, says “The Times.” The ship has so far had an uneventful voyage w’ith calls at Madeira and Montevideo on the way south, but row she is on the brink of adventure. After a stay of about three days at South Georgia, where the ship will be refuelled and the Auster aircraft prepared for reconnaissance, all will be ready for the Magga Dan to undertake the task of finding a way through the Weddell Sea ice to the coast of Antarctica.

Rear-Admiral C. R. L. Parry, secretary of the expedition, said in London that the journey to Halley Bay would take eight to nine days. The Magga Dan is expected to sail at first on a south-easterly course from South Georgia towards the South Sandwich Islands, turning later more to the south with the object of making a landfall at Cape Norvegia. Then she will sail down Caird Coast to the Roval Society’s base. This corresponds roughly with the route taken by the sealer Tottan. which brought the society’s advance team to Halley Bay in January, and the course followed by the Theron on her return journey through the Weddell Sea in the following month. The Magga Dan will spend about a week at Halley Bay while the International Geophysical Year main party disembarks and many tons of stores

and equipment are unloaded at the base. Then she will sail to Shackleton base with the trans-Antarctic expedition. which, a year later, will attempt the first land crossing of the Polar continent. Admiral Parry, who recently spoke by radio-telephone to the advance party at Shackleton base, said that “leads" through the ice to the east and west of the base have been reported. They opened and closed from day to day with the change of the wind. The Shackleton party, which has now spent nearly a year at the base, is probably in continuous contact with the Magga Dan and eagerly awaiting the arrival of the main party and the mail they will bring with them.