AT THE ICE BARRIER

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 80, 28 December 1928, Page 9

AT THE ICE BARRIER

A GREAT CHRISTMAS DAY FOR MEMBERS OF BYRD EXPEDITION BROADCASTING FROM HOME Mr. Russell Owen picturesquely describes the sighting by the members of the Byrd expedition of the great mysterious ice barrier on Christmas Day.

(United Press Association. — By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Copyright from Byrd Expedition.) (Rec. December 27, 7.10 p.m.) Koss Sea, December 25.

Mr. Russell Owen, on board the City of New York, in the Ross Sea, writes: —Christmas Day, and we are at the ice barrier. That formidable and glistening symbol of impregnability which Commander Byrd is about to explore by “ir, appeared before us late this evening, a great wall of white on the distant hori on. Before midnight we were coasting along the face of it —our first real contact with the continent on which we will live for a year. We sighted it just after our Christmas celebration in the forecastle, when everyone received presents, and celebrated with song and talks, some of humour and some charged with the feeling of all this Christmas means to us and to those left behind.

'‘Barrier on Starboard Bow.” No sooner had we reached the deck than Storm, the first mate, in the crow’s nest, called down: “Barrier on starboard bow.” A great cheer went up, releasing <“11 the pent-up emotion of the men, who for months have been directing all their energies to this goal. It has been their dream and their ambition, to which purpose they have dedicated two years of their lives, and the word that the barrier was actually in sight acted like electric stimulus. To-morrow we expect to go ashore at Discovery Inlet, when we will set our feet for the first time on that mystic land which has so drawn men that have laid down their lives to learn something of its secrets. It is as much a milestone as their first flight will be, and that we should have reached it on Christmas Day, a day of thanksgiving and dedication to the greatest ideals of men, is a source of thanksgiving and happiness to. all on board. Byrd’s Message to Secretary for Navy. In a few days, if all goes well, our aeroplane may be winging its way over the snowy wilderness of the Barrier. Commander Byrd expressed this to-day when in a message to the Secretary for the Navy he said: “We have reached the great mysterious ice barrier. It presents to us an ice cliff higher than the masts of the ship. We are 2400 miles from the nearest human dwelling, in the only area in the world where a ship can get so far from civilisation. That we are here safely is due to Providence and my loyal and stout-hearted shipmates, who have worked together unselfishly as a unit. It will probably be some days before we get permanently ashore, on account of the ice that will be in the Bay of Whales.” Listening to Words from Home. Not the least wonderful of all these happenings of this evening is that as we were approaching the Barrier we all listened on deck to broadcasting from home, and one cannot listen to those metallic tones coming from the loudspeaker without feeling the tremendous progress made by man in science since tlie last Antarctic adventure. It is weird, almost ghostly, to hear words from home coming to us as we move through these ice-filled waters to our base, and comforting too, for we know that we have not wholly lost touch with the world so very far away.

We are trying on skiis to-night on deck, making ready for our first run on shore, and theer is great expectancy of new things, of meeting at last the tremendous icefield on which our home will be for fourteen months, of glimpsing some of the beauty and stark loneliness of the Antarctic. This has been a great Christmas Day for us. By next Christmas Day our story will have been written, for what it is worth, and there is not a man aboard who is not in his heart determined that it shall be a worthy one.