AID FOR JOHN BISCOE
Northwind To
Leave Today
- The United States Coastguard icebreaker. Northwind, will leave Lyttelton today on a 5000-mile voyage to aid the British Antarctic supply ship, John Biscoe, which is held up in heavy ice near the four British bases on the Grahamland Peninsula—at the foot of South America.
The Navy’s icebreaker. Glacier, and the Belgian Antarctic supply ship, Polarhav, are in difficulty trying to escape from pack ice near the Belgian base, about opposite South Africa. The original plan was for the Glacier to assist the John Biscoe once it, had escorted the Polarhav to open.’sea. When the United States Antarctic headquarters in Christchurch received a report from the Glacier yesterday indicating that she was in difficulty, RearAdmiral George J. Dufek, the expedition’s commander, ordered the Northwind to go to the aid of the John Biscoe.
Supplies for Antarctic It was previously intended that the Northwind should leave Lyttelton next Friday for the Ross Sea. with supplies and mail for the men spending the winter at the Cape Hallett and McMurdo Sound stations. To carry out this supply work, the United States Navy ship, Staten Island, is being recalled from Melbourne. She is due at Lyttelton at 1 p.m. next Thursday to take on supplies, and will then proceed to the Ross Sea area.
A message received from the Glacier yesterday indicated that the icebreaker had taken some passengers and supplies off the Polarhav. The message said that the other American icebreaker in west Antarctica waters, the Edisto, wris as close as it could get to the two ships without entering the pack ice. The Edisto is to supply the Glacier with a helicopter to replace the one which crashed on the pack ice on Wednesday. Once the Glacier and the Polarhav have escaped from tbe ice, it is intended that they should go slightly north towards South America and then, possibly with the Edisto, to attempt to find another way through the pack ice to the Belgian base, which the Polarhav was trying to reach when it first struck the pack ice.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28820, 14 February 1959, Page 12
Word Count
347AID FOR JOHN BISCOE Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28820, 14 February 1959, Page 12
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