ITALIA’S CRUISE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 193, 17 May 1928, Page 9

ITALIA’S CRUISE

DEPARTURE FROM KING’S BAY FOR FRANZ JOSEF LAND PROGRESS REPORT FROM NOBILE The airship Italia has left King’s Bay, and it is understood that its objective is Franz Josef Land. General Nobile states that a week may elapse before an attempt is made to land at the North Pole. I (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.)

Rome, May 15.

The airship Italia has left King’s Bay. As soon as the Italia was released from her hangar, she soared into the air and started northwards amid “Vivas” from the Italians. It is understood that General Nobile’s objective is Franz Josef Land, 500 miles from Spitzbergeu. Nobile is taking a crew of only fourteen, just sufficient to man the airship. The removal of ice from the envelope and motors delayed the departure until the afternoon.

General Nobile wirelessed from the Italia: “We flew for some hours over the pack ice, were befogged for an hour and a half, and emerged five hundred feet above the frozen sea. The visibility was then from one to ten miles. The views were magnificent. NOBILE’S STORY BELIEVES WORST PART * OVER ' “AIRSHIP’S POTENTIAL WATERLOO” (United Service.) London, May 15. In a copyright story sent by radio from King’s Bay, General Nobile says: "A week may elapse before we make an unprecedented attempt to land at the North Pole. I believe the worst part is over, since the Milan-Spitz-bergen journey was the airship's potential Waterloo. Landing at the Pole should not be an insurmountable difficulty in view of the special devices to enable the airship to be regained, even if she is drifting. I shall entrust the landing party with ropes and the Cross. All will kneel and thank God when the Cross is safely planted in the eternal ice at the top of the world. • “We are sending out letters by the small motor-boat Hobby, hitherto imprisoned in the ice. The supply ship Citta di Milano is endeavouring to find moorings, and is fighting the ice with bombs to make holes and by her own weight, she hopes to moor by May 19. “The Italia left King’s Bay on May 10 for Nicholas the Second's Land, half of which is mapped. We intended to follow the coastline and settle the existence of Gillis Land and attempt a landing to study the geology. If it proved impracticable to anchor, special cables would have been attached to the belts of the landing party. We would have returned to King's Bay over a vast unexplored zone, most ini portant geographically and astronomically, but we were driven back after eight hours’ adventurous flying, trying all air routes and battling against the elements. We followed the north-west coast of Spitzbergeu and reached Amsterdam Island and turned toward the North Cape. Cyclones and bad visibility precluded altering the course to reach the North Pole or return via Greenland. The storm hammered our sides and pelted the gondola with lumps of ice. Fog and headwind half paralysed us. We therefore returned to the hangar on the night of May 13. It was terrible, and it seemed impossible to free the Italia of ice, through falling on the hangar's unprotected roof. AU available men furiously swept off the snow, ten tons of which were aboard at midnight; and avoided a wreck by discharging cargo and releasing fifty gas containers into the airship’s body to increase the buoyancy. We placed tarpaulins on top of the envelope, the alpinists and sailors lifting them by main force, and at intervals shaking off the snow.

“We expect to start any moment on May 15, when the snow ceases and the skies are azure. We have refueled and re-supplied the Italia, necessitating strenuous footwork from the supply ship half a mile away. We took stations aboard, intending a three days’ flight to Nicholas Land. The temperature is ten centigrades below zero and permits the use of more fuel. The airship is most buoyant. The radio transmitter, skis, sledges, and fishing tackle are on board in case of a forced landing.”

OVER GREAT POLAR WILDERNESS

(United Service.) (Bee. May 16, 11 p.m.)

London, May 16.

In continuation of his copyright story. General Nobile wirelessed on Tuesday night: "Have been sailing steadily 500 feet beneath a thick bank of fog, extending many miles overhead. Passed the North Cape. Spitsbergen. ami launched on the great' Polar wilderness, fairly strong head winds causing the Italia to pitch slightly as she heads towards the Franz Josef Archipelago. It was glorious before we encountered the fog. speeding, a loft in the wonderful azure of this northernmost sky. especially after the alarms of the last two days, when the Italia was nearly overwhelmed and crushed in one of the worst snowstorms in my experience. Our /anxious experience lias proved the axiom that the airship is always safer aloft than on land.”

SIGHTED FRANZ JOSEF

(Australian Press Assn.—United Service.) (Rec. May 16, 11.55 p.m.)

Rome, May 16.

General Nobile, radioing at 9 o’clock yesterday, says: “Have been flying several hours beneath the fog northwards in order to penetrate more deeply the unexplored zone between Spitzbergen and Franz Josef Land. The visibility is ten miles. A L’A wind Jias

curtailed the speed to thirty miles an hour. The fife has deposited abundant ice-on the Italia’s envelope, otherwise all is well. No trace of land yet. The ice pack seems more compact, and more favourable for landing than Cape North.”' A further message said: “Sighted Franz Josef at 2.30. Visibility has improved to twenty miles.”

WILKINS REACHES TROMSOE

AIRMAN’S ANTARCTIC

PLANS

(Australian Press Assn. —United Service.).

Oslo, May 15.

Captain Wilkins and Lieutenant Eielson arrived at Tromsoe, and were enthusiastically welcomed by the residents.

(Australian Press Association.) Tromsoe, May 15.

Captain Wilkins, interviewed, said* that he carried the Australian flag and the Union Jack, as well as the flag of the Explorers’ Club of New York, on the Polar flight. The machine is being sent to the United States, where the airmen will make a short tour. In the meantime they will visit Oslo, Berlin, Antwerp, Paris, and London. During the stay in America, Wilkins intends to appeal for funds to finance the Arctic exploration by Storker Storkerson, who accompanied Wilkins on his previous Arctic expedition, and who, Wilkins thinks, knows more of Arctic travel than any other person. Wilkins said: “I will carry out meteorological investigations on a big scale in the Antarctic and take photographs of the ISOO-mile stretch between Ross Sea and Graham Land, for the purpose of finding suitable bases for meteorological stations enabling important forecasts of the weather to be made for Australia, South America and other areas.

AERIAL TORPEDO BOAT

(United Service.) (Rec. May 16; 11 p.m.)

London, May 16.

Admiralty officials witnessed an aerial torpedo boat, a two-seater Black-burn-Kipton, piloted by Captain Blake, with a 500-hOrse-power Napier-Bon engine, carry out demonstrations of swooping down the river Humber at Brough at the rate of three miles a minute and discharge a torpedo into Ihe waters and climb up again. The machine can be operated amphibiously and also used for bombing work.