LOST IN ANTARCTICA

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 83, 2 January 1930, Page 11

LOST IN ANTARCTICA

AEROPLANE WITH WHALING FLEET PILOT LIER & DR. SCHREINER MISSING BYRD PARTY EXPECTING TO LEAVE FOR HOME An aeroplane used in scouting for whales by the whaler Kosinos, in Antarctica, has been lost. It was piloted by Lief Lier, and Dr. Schreiner, the ship’s doctor, was a passenger. Although search for the missing men is continued, there appears to be little hope of it being successful. (United Press Assoclation.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Rec. January 1, 7 p.m.) (By Russell Owen. —Special to "New York Times.”) Bay of Whales, December 30. The bay ice is beginning to roll up on the eastern side, and break into lagoons of water, in which seals play. The last two weeks have been unusually warm, and for three days now we have had hours when the sky overhead was clear and the sun shone down with midsummer warmth. The men wander round on the snow without caps or gloves, wearing glasses to protect their eyes from the brilliant light. They sit on boxes basking in the sun sleepily in odd moments, and sometimes someone can be seen stretched on an engine crate drowsing in the grateful warmth. Breaking of the Ice. Signs of the breaking of the ice have been watched with great interest, for on what happens to the Bay depends in large measure the method of loading the ships. If the ice does not go out and stays as it is now it will be a tremendous task to get the ’planes aboard, and although there is breaking up on the eastern side of the bay, the central part and western side are as smooth and unbroken as during the winter. With regard to the pack ice, whalers report that it is the heaviest they have seen for years. It is 150 miles wider than it was last year, when it stretched across our path from latitude 68 to 72, 150 miles of almost solid pack, but this year it reaches from latitude 67 to 74, three degrees further, or 450 miles of pack to be penetrated. • So heavy was the ice that one of the first whalers to go through lost a chaser in the crush. This condition Is delaying the start of our ships from New Zealand, for it was hoped they would have been on their way long before this. It is probable that the City of New York will start in a few days and sail to the pack to save coal, and the Eleanor Bolling, which is a steel ship, will follow her some days later. They will meet at the edge of the ice and come through together for mutual safety. It is hoped that by the time they reach here the pack will have broken sufficiently, and they will be able to get through In a reasonably short time and with safety. The ships should be able to get through fairly easily after the middle of January. At least we hope so, for with the job done everybody wants to get home, and it still seems a long way off. It will be a great day when the mastheads appear down the bay. Disappearance of Aeroplane. Another tragedy has been written on the ice-strewn, seas of the Antarctic. An aeroplane used in scouting for whales by the whaler Kosmos has vanished near the edge of the ice pack, despite search for it since Christmas Day. It was flown by Lief Lier, the wellknown pilot in Norway, who had with him as passenger, Dr. Ingvald Schreiner, the ship’s doctor, and son of a well-known physician in Oslo. Search for the missing men is being continued by the Kosmos, although after five days’ desperate effort, in which the entire ice-pack was penetrated deeply between Scott Island and Balleny Islands, there is little hope that they will be found. What happened to them must have come so suddenly that Lier had not an opportunity to make a safe landing on the ice or in the sheltered ice bay. The loss of two young men, both of whom were popular on the ship and at home/ has spoiled the Christmas season for the whalers and they are saddened by the accident, . which they could not avert, and which they have tried so hard to overcome by rescue operations. The Kosmos, which is commanded by Captain Andresen, is the largest of the Norwegian whalers. She is a 22,000ton ship, built specially for this work. She is really a floating factory for ren-' dering blubber from the whales brought alongside by small chasers. It had been thought in recent years that an aeroplane would be of value in spotting whales, And Commander Byrd’s expedition, coming through last year, did much to hasten the experiment. A light two-seater aeroplane, a Gypsy Moth, with a 100 horse-power Cyrrus engine, was fitted with pontoons, and Lier was engaged as pilot. Lier Well Known. Balchen knew Lier well and so did Carl Petersen, one of our radiooperators, and I met him in Oslo on the way to Spitzbergen, with Amundsen and Ellsworth, in 1926. He was a tall, handsome man of 32 who, until this trip, had been doing commercial flying in Norway, using his own ’planes. He learned to fly in Hungary in 1921, and after seven hours’ solo flying bought a ’plane and flew it home over Germany and .Sweden — quite a feat for a new pilot. Lier had made a number of good flights in his small ’plane, and its use had been completely successful in whaling. One day he flew in all 700 miles. He was always careful, knowing the danger of getting out of touch with the ships, and in addition to using radio when he flew alone he kept along the edge of the pack, with the mother ship or some of the chasers in sight. But on this occasion he did not carry radio, because of the added weight of his passenger. The day that Lier disappeared he started at 6 o’clock in the evening when the summer sun was high in a clear sky. Whaling operations had been resumed after the Christmas festivities. The whalers are on the other side of the date line from us, so that our Christmas was December 26 for them. Lier started and had with him fuel for five or six hours. His orders were to inspect the ice-pack edge to the west of the Kosmos. Three big whalers north of the pack were strung out west of Scott Island. The C. A. Larsen, which helped Byrd so much

last year, and the Southern Princess, were near Scott Island, and the Kosmos was more to the west. The ’plane carried emergency rations for two days, as the possibility of a forced landing was always present, but it did not seem dangerous in view of Lier s method of flying within sight of the ships. Captain Andresen had taken every possible safety precaution. Chasers Sent in Search. After six hours had passed and Lier had not returned, anxiety began to be felt. The chasers of the Kosmos were ordered out to look for the 'plane, and as time went on the chasers from the other two ships also joined in the search, so that there were sixteen of these fast little vessels tearing along at 14 knots across the edge of the pack. Then the two whalers to the east came up to aid their chasers and hunted the entire territory between Scott's Island and the Kosmos, and then a small fleet struck off to the westward. In the five days that have elapsed they have searched 220 miles to the westward of the Kosmos. Some of them penetrated the pack at intervals as much as 160 miles from the edge. When they returned they came back in a parallel line, far apart, sweeping the entire sea area for a long distance from the edge of the pack. It is unbelievable that Lier made a mistake in his course, as the sun was visible at the time and he could have followed the edge of the pack. Pilots here are more inclined to believe that due to engine failure in the climb he fell off on the wing and spun into the pack or the sea. The sea was fairly smooth at first, but after the second day it rose and became foggy. The weather cleared again in a short time. After the first hunt, there was a conference of captains on the Kosmos, and there seemed very little hope from the way the search had been carried out that the ’plane could be found. > The Kosmos’s chasers are still searching, however, penetrating the pack, which now seems to be breaking up wherever possible. Byrd’s Desire to Help. Commander Byrd was much concerned when he heard of the mishap, and sent word to Captain Andresen that he wished it were in his power to do something to help. From the extent of the search which has already been made it is certain that the ’plane could not have drifted beyond the distance reached by the whalers. Byrd also offered to send down the New York to search if she would be of assistance. • „ It would have been impossible to fly from here to aid in the search, for there are no pontoons for the ’planes, and the distance to the northern edge of the ice pack is more than 800 miles further than to the pole itself. Even if a ’plane could get that far, it would be impossible for it to land and refuel, and it would have to turn round immediately and fly back. The possibility of such help was immediately dismissed by the whalers as too hazardous, and Captain Andresen wired to Commander Byrd to-day: “The risk of a 'plane even flying up here from your base would be a great one, in view of the uncertain weather experienced outside the pack, there being many days of fog at this time of the year. I thank you for your generous offer of help in our time of trouble and know that you are with us.” (Copyrighted 11)28 by “New York Times" Company and “St. Louis Post-Dlspateh.” All rights for publication reserved throughout the world.] Mr. Lief Lier, it will be remembered, was frequently aloft in his latest pattern Moth seaplane during the visit of the Kosmos to Wellington, the trim cream and yellow machine making several test flights round the city and oyer the Straits. Mr. Lier was well accustomed to the lands of iee and snow, as he participated in the foot search for Nobile in the Arctie. He has had considerably flying experience in the Northern Hemisphere, and flew the machine which is now reported missing from Stag Lane Aerodrome, England, to Norway. Aircraft have been used in searching for seals off the Canadian coasts and herring off the Scottish coasts, but this was believed to be the first occasion on, which an airman had been called upon to scout for whales and provide information as to the best leads through the ice floes, the carrying of the machine being rather in the nature of an experiment. Mr. Lier was very popular with the crew of the Kosmos and her brood of whalers, doing a considerable amount of photographic and kinematograph work in connection with the expedition.