THE WELLMAN POLAR EXPEDITION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 18, 16 October 1907, Page 10

THE WELLMAN POLAR EXPEDITION.

DELAYED BY ARCTIC GALES. GUIDE-ROPES AS FOOD CARRIERS. Advices from Mr. Wollman's Polar Expedition camp, Spitsbergen, dated July 25, state:— "Not content with badly damaging.tho airship hall on tho 4th inst., and thereby delaying'us a fortnight, the Arctic winds have blown with considerable force almost all the time since, making it extremely difficult to carry on the work of reparation. But by working night or day, as opportunity offered, we managed to finish tho new towers and bridges and all the carpentry work a week ago to-day, and were engaged putting on the canvas cover enclosing the structure, when a gale of wind came tearing out of the south and stopped all further operations. For five days that gale continued. Yesterday it subsided; At once a score of men set to work. By nightfall tho hall was again completely enclosed. .

"To-night we nro back again where wo were when the galo of July 4 hit us such a hard blow—three weeks of precious time lost. But time enough remains, if we can avert further disaster. It has so far been an extraordinarily unfavourable July in Spitzbergen, Bell Sound, headquarters of the whalers, is full of ice, and even the whalers have had to seek the other harbour. Sealing sloops putting in hero to find refuge from the storms report very bad weather outside, and the icepack only fifteen miles to the west.

■ "One of the many somewhat difficult pieces of work we had to do here was to pack and make ready for the America the two serpents. These serpents are an important part of our project. A guide-rope so-called—though a better name for it would be weight-balancer or equilibror—wo must have. Its function is to drag moro or less of itself upon the-sur-face of the earth with less or more of its weight upon the airship, as circumstances may require. Thus it becomes an automatic governor, within certain limits, upon the vortical fluctuations of tho ship. This guiderope or equilibrer , must havo weight to be effective—looolb. at least. To escape puting so much weight into useless material we designed and constructed tho serpent —a pipe of strong water-tight leather six inches in diameter and 123 feet long; its outside surface covered with more than 29,000 steel scales, each about as big as a silver quarter, very thin, and riveted to tho leather, overlapping like the scales of a fish., • This serpent is designed to have the smallest possible resistance in sliding over the ice or snow, or floating on the water, in which element it is bnovant.. . ■ -.'

The retarder serpent, on tho other hand, is designod to make tho'greatest possible resistance in proportion to its weight in dragging over the ice-floes, which are usually covered with a snow crust, and rarely present a smooth surface. The function' of the retarder is to drag like a. drag-anchor when the wind is adverse to.our.course and wo wish to drift gontly with it and without losing either too much headway or burning too much of our precious fuel in tho motor. Hence this Mi'iwit is covered with, 1870 stool seratcbors, f>ach with six sharp points aboufoneinch , in length, or a total 11,250 points on the 75 feet of body. The cqiiilibrcr is always to have more or loss of its length upon tho surface of tho earth; the retarder is to.bb let down to touch the earth only when necessary. Both of these leather pipos' were to bo filled witli rpsorve food. < This food was to bo a vital part of tho store should circumstances compel the crow to winter out, dopondont upon tho stock.carried, in the America. : We, of course, hope this'may not bo the case; but-it is our duty to provide, as far as possible, against all contingencies. Packing the food in these long cylinders was a tedious job. Tho first thing wo had to do was to melt paraffin in a tank made for tho purpose, and idip into it hundreds of sheets of thick, strong paper. ■ Those.paraffined sheets wore then, each in turn, rolled into a cylinder about two feet in length, and placed in a tin mould nearly six inches in diameter.' Within this receptacle the food was packed. Broad (ship biscuit) was, as far as practicablo, packed inside butter and fat meat, so that, should sea water get inside, the bread would be.protected from injury. Bacon was cut'in discs to fit the receptacle, and packed in tight. Butter carefully by hand to get out the superfluous water. Various expedients wero resorted to for security's sako and to permit the discarding of tho weight of.tins.. The tins wero used only on a part of Horliek's malted milk, condensed milk, comprossed oatmeal, and bovril, this last an emulsion of pca-meal r bacon/ beef; potatoos, etc. : As each , cylindrical package two feet long and six inches diameter was made up within the paraffin 'paper, it Was carefully, tied, with cord,,, labelled with its woight and' contents,- and then, encased in long tubes of oiled silk. The tubes of silk wero three times varnished, Snaking them not only imporvious to water, but gas-tight as long as they were not"torn'. Within oach section of silk piping wero placed partitions of wood about seven feot apart, and by wrapping either side of these with tightly-drawn cord wo made each. section independent of the other'so far as. water-tightness is con-, cerned. -That is to say, water might get into one section and not pass through into its neighbour. The packed silken pipes wero then drawn into the leathern cylinders, and tho sections of these riveted and .glued together.

"In tho'two serpents,- with a combined length of 193 ft., wo packed 14731b. of food, of which 3511). was paper, tin, and packing, loaving 14381b. of food net. The serpents themselves weigh 4G3lb.,'the total isl93Glb., and the per cent, of contents is 76, leaving only 24 per cont. for the serpents. The net food within tho serpents, omitting: tins and packing, is as follows: —Ship biscuit, 971b. ; butter, 891b.; cheese, 001b.; bacon, 3101b.; Horlick's milk, 1571b.; triscuit, 451b.; condensed milk,. 181b.; roast beef, 82!b.; dried beef, 1871b.'; Spratt's biscuit, 561b.; compressed oatmeal, 171b.; Oxford sausages, 101b.; hain, v 131b.; bovril special food, 2671b. —total, 14381b. . ../.'-. . "The food-packed sorponts, like tho aerial method of approaching tlieVPolo of which we are part, must necessarily be regarded as an experiment—interesting,' ingenious perhaps, hilt' still.an..,experiment.' Actual trial will demonstrate its .utility and'efficiency far better than any theory or calculation. Should a considerable part of this'- , reserve food supply bo lost, of course it would,be impossible for tho crew to winter out, unless they could get game enough to make up the loss. This is by no moans improbable, ;as<nearly., (though not quito) all parts of thn Arctic regions ford enough garne to enable men to live if they have a gun and a supply of cartridges. '.'lf wo can ovorcome the difficulties inherent in getting a good'start with tho.airship, and 'the America then gives tho account of herself which wo bolivo wo have good reason to hope for, we shall not need this reserve food supply. But it is mighty comforting to think that it is therein case it should bo needed at. somo remote spot , in tho Polar regions."