BYRD EXPEDITION

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 51, 23 November 1928, Page 13

BYRD EXPEDITION

PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE ELEANOR BOLLING TO LOAD TO-DAY SOME INTERESTING DETAILS AU the members of the Byrd .Antarctic Expedition were hard at work yes-, terday in preparation for the task of loading the supply steamer Eleanor Bolling, which is due at Wellington at daybreak this morning from Dunedin. . X , The whole of the equipment and stores landed here by the C. A. Larsen has been carefully checked over. Yesterday afternoon all hands, including aviation pilots and mechanics, assisted by a number of Harbour Board men, were busily engaged in loading cases of varied equipment, foodstuffs, and dog biscuits, on to trucks supplied by the board in readiness to start loading the Eleanor Bolling at 8 o’clock this morning. The ship will berth at the outer end of Pipiteat Wharf. Loading the Aeroplanes. The loading of the huge crates and cases containing the fuselages, wing sections, and engines of the four ’planes into the 600-ton steamer will be an interesting part of the work. The Harbour Board is providing every facility, including the use of its floating crane Hikitla. The Eleanor Bolling has a forehatch measuring 40 feet long by 22 feet wide, to take the bulky packages, but even so their safe stowage will present some nice problems in stevedoring. It is expected that the Eleanor Bolling will be ready to sail on her return to Dunedin to-morrow morning, and it is probable that a number of the party of 15 members here will go south in the ship. At Dunedin the steamer will land the smallest ’plane, which is to be transhipped to the City of New York for the Antarctic, voyage, and all the small cased goods, which will have to be re-sorted with the stores, already at the southern port Commander Going South. Commander Byrd, accompanied by Mr. Russell Owen and several officers, will leave either this evening or tomorrow for Christchurch, en route for Dunedin. At Christchurch they will make a pilgrimage to the fine statue of Captain Scott, executed by Lady Scott, and Commander Byrd will lay a wreath at the base of the statue as a tribute to the memory of the great British Antarctic explorer. A civic reception will probably be accorded Commander Byrd and his companions at Christchurch, and a similar function will take place at Dunedin. At Government House. Commander Byrd was the guest of the Governor-General and Lady Alice Fergusson at luncheon on Wednesday, and with several members of his party dined at Government House last night. Flags for South Pole. . ,When he starts from the Ice Barrier in the monoplane Floyd Bennett, on his 1600 mile flight to the South Pole and back, Commander Byrd will carry with him an historic memento in the form of a blue and white pennant which Captain Roald Amundsen, the famous Norwegian explorer (who perished a few months ago when he went in a 'plane to the rescue of members of the Nobile North Pole expedition), carried to the South Pole in 1911. Amundsen, with four companions, 52 dogs, and four sledges, left his base at the Bay of Whales on October 19, 1911, reached the South Pole on December 14, and arrived back at Framheim on January 25, 1912, the whole journey taking 98 days. On that memorable occasion the pennant was borne on a sledge. This time it will be carried by Commander Byrd in his great all-metal trimotored 1000 horse-power monoplane. The pennant was presented to the Hollywood Aero Club by Amundsen more than a year ago, and it was handed over to Commander Byrd by the club on the day he left San Pedro for Wellington. It is to become the permanent property of the Aero Club of Norway when he brings it back in 1930. Commander Byrd will, of course, carry the American flag with him to the South Pole. In addition he will also have the flags of his native State of Virginia, of the State of California, and that of the American Legion. He has also publicly announced since his arrival at Wellington that he will take with him the British flag and the New Zealand ensign, the former in honour of the memory of Scott and Shackleton, and the latter in recognition of the Dominion’s intimate association with Antarctic exploration expeditions.