FIRST BIG ANTARCTIC FLIGHT

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 52, 25 November 1929, Page 11

FIRST BIG ANTARCTIC FLIGHT

BYRD TELLS THE STORY SMITH DELIVERS “MOUNTAIN AIR MAIL” (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Uy Commander Richard Byrd— Special to “New York Times.”) Bay of Whales, November 21. The day before yesterday our Ford aeroplane established a tiny base almost within the shadow of the South Pole. We went out a total of 440 miles. Before we started the flight I told Dean Smith to deliver the mail to the mountains. We all know that an air mail pilot with mail aboard will go through, when it can be done. Dean did a fine job. il Striking Contrast. Holding the indistinct trail made by the dog teams of the geological party we passed the party 200 miles out. We also looked down at our comrades 2000 feet beneath us, making only ten or fifteen miles a day, where we were making a hundred miles an hour. It emphasised the great difference between the old method of polar exploration by dog team and the new method of aviation. The dog team party, however, will be able to' remain at the mountains for several weeks, where an aeroplane might be blown away in a storm. That is why minute geological investigations must be made by a foot traveller. Even now, however, we have learned enough to design, an aeroplane that we can anchor to the snow and so defy the winds. About midday in the flight we passed over the territory of the crevasses, the region that the supporting party worked its way through. We could see their zig-zag path as it wound in and out among the botomless crevasses and dangerous pits. All the more we realised what a wonderful job this party did in getting through. This area, a chaotic mass of criss-crossing chasms, gigantic.ice blocks on end, fansliaped cracks, wide and narrow, stretching for miles to east and west, is entirely beyond my powers of description. We must let the mapping camera tell its story: Not long after passing the crevassed area we sighted great mountains on the starboard bow. Later, on the return trip, from 5000 ft., we thought we could follow them for 150 miles, and we judge that we saw all the way to the Beardmore Glacier, where Scott and Shackleton ascended to the plateau on their Polar effort. McKinley photographed this range, and a new one running near it in the same direction. We can definitely join up the Axel Heiberg Glacier with the Beardmore Glacier. Horizon Filled with Mountains. This is a magnificent range. As we approached the mountains, peak after peak came into view until finally the whole horizon from south-east to south-west was filled with mountains. It looked as it Nature had built these impassable ramparts to keep forever the secret of the South Pole, but as we approached nearer we saw huge gia-’ ciers debouching ice into the Barrier through great ragged gashes in the mountains. These are outlets for the two-miie-high plateau of ice, in the centre of which lies the South Pole. Never- have I seen such rugged mountains or such magnificent scenery, great mountain masses rising from the sea level precipitously to thousands of feet. Peak after peak towered to heights of 10,000, 12,000, and 15,000 feet. McKinley photographed with his mapping camera dozens of mountain peaks never before seen. He will develop his films so that the world can see what he saw and science study at its leisure and with microscope these extraordinary glacial phenomena. The Big Moment. Perhaps one of the biggest moments of the whole of the expedition was landing at the foot of the mountains, for landing away from the base on unknown fields is always uncertain and even more so in Polar regions, with a heavy load aboard. As far as our aviation mission is concerned, and as far as a very great many other vital things were concerned, all our eggs were in the aeroplane, when a landing was made. All was staked on that landing. It was an unknown quantity. What a colossal mess it would have been had we failed. It was one of those risks one must sometimes take in Polar regions to win. Smith was given this big responsibility of landing on an unknown* ground, the character of which is not easy to judge from the air, but Dean did his stuff. He carried the mail to the mountains. When we had built our base and took to the air again, and we could look back at the little pile of food and gasolene, it appeared very tiny and utterly lonely there on the great expanse of snow, with these tremendous mountains in the background. It is these great mountains that make our problem a peculiarly difficult one, and precent a non-stop flight to the Pole from Little America. We cannot carry a sufficient load of gasolene to scale those peaks, reach the Pole, and return non-stop. So that is why we must have gasolene available at the foot of these mountains, when we will become short of fuel on our return. PHOTOGRAPHIC LABORATORY DIFFICULTIES DEVELOPING PICTURES OF MOUNTAINS (By Russell Owen). (Rec. November 24, 5.5 p.m.) Bay of Wales, November 22. While tlie men were occupied in overhauling the big Ford aeroplane.

another group was busy in the Photographic laboratory developing the aerial pictures of the Queen Maud Mountains. There are dozens of clearcut, beautiful pictures of magnificent peaks rising step by step from the barrier plain, stark, bleak, and majestic. They are now being assembled so they can be studied in detail, and some day they will be the first accurate record of this part of the Antarctic. ‘ Preparations to develop the films were made while the aeroplane was in flight. About eight hundred gallons of water are required, and in this region it is necessary to provide it. Some expeditions have found it dinicult to get enough water for necessary cooking and washing purposes. Goal is necessary, and down here coal is as valuable as diamonds. A pailful of hard-packed snow makes about a third of a bucket of water, so to get eight' hundred gallons of water, three tons of snow must be hauled and melted. Joe Rucker and Jim Feury put their heads together and evolved a melter that would melt. With the help of a lot of other men they dug a deep trench in the snow outside the photographic laboratory, which is now buried so deeply they could construct a small snow-house under the ■ surface that would still be above the level of the photographic laboratory. Then they cut square holes in the sides of two steel gasoline drums, placed them on their sides on a framework constructed of boxes and an odd pair of steel skis, which had belonged to the famous “snow mobile.” Under this they put a pressure kerosene torch, which gave a roaring flame of terrific heat. They then connected the two drums, ran the hose from a connection down to the laboratory, and were all ready for operation. Each one of these drums held 100 gallons of water; 1 tank in the laboratory held 75; another spare tank in the mess hall held 75, and four developing tanks held 50 gallons each. That made 550 gallons, which could be made readybefore the work began, and the melter would supply the remainder as needed. They turned on the torch, and, with half the camp hauling snow, quickly filled the drums outside, which were drained into the tanks in the laboratory.

After Captain McKinley had had a few hours’ sleep on his return from the flight he started at about noon on Wednesday, and when his task had been completed, there were 120 photographs showing the Barrier all the way to the mountains and back to the forced landing place; also pictures of the mountains taken from the air, and while the aeroplane was on the ground at the mountain base. [Copyrighted 1928 by “New Vork Times" Company and "St. Louts Post-Dispatch." All rights tor publication reserved throughout the world.]