BYRD EXPEDITION

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 121, 27 November 1928, Page 6

BYRD EXPEDITION

STARTING ON FRIDAY PLANS WORK SMOOTHLY LATEST DECISIONS (By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") DUNEDIN, This Day. For the first timo since the first contingent of the Byrd Antarctic expedition sailed out of New York Harbour on 25th August, ninety days ago, all the units yesterday converged in Otago Harbour. Bather unexpectedly the City of New York arrived off the heads under her own sails. Commander Byrd and his aviation personnel arrived yesterday from Christchnrch, and the ship Eleanor Boiling, which had gone to Wellington to take aboard aeroplanes, and then go up to off East Cape to take the barque in tow, also docked at Dun, edin yesterday. Happy reunions were made by the eighty-one members of the expedition. They will soon be divided again, as the City of New York, after docking at port for cleaning, will come up to Dunedin to-day to take aboard aeroplanes, stores, and dogs, and will leave, direct for, the Boss Sea on Friday. Commander Byrd will sail by the barque, and the Eleanor Boiling will leave early in December. With the centralisation of all the units the fi,nal plans will be expedited. So far there has not been a hitch in the arrangements, and the commander has already expressed his admiration with the thoroughness of the scheduled plans. SECOND IN COMMAND. An important announcement has beon made that Mr. Richard G. Brophy, the business managor, has been appointed second in command of the expedition, In the expedition there, are seventeen men who went to the Arctic with Corn-! mander Byrd, while one Martin Bonnie was a member of Amundsen's success-, ful Antarctic expedition. Captain Melville is a sailor who was trained as a deep-water man on, a square rigged ship. He first visited New Zea-. land in the barque Lorraine in, 1901. The vessel loaded wool for London. His next trip to New Zealand was on the barque Clan M'Leod, then in the kauri gum trade. On that voyage the barque ■was purchased by an Auckland firm, and, remaining on her, Captain Melville visited various New Zealand ports. Af-. ter shipping on one of the Aberdeen White Star ships, he went from Australia to London, and from there to his home in Massachusetts. Again he went for deep water voyages on square riggers, At the outbreak of the Great War he was chief officer under steani. Leaving tho firm with whom he had been for two years, he took charge of a barque, and ran .'. her successfully throughout.the war period without once sighting a submarine. The voyages extended to . Capeto-wn, Madagascar, and tho East Indies. Then followed a turn on big four and five-masted schooners sailing out of Boston, Captain Melville had returned to st'eaui when he heard of the Byrd expedition. THOUSAND APPLICATIONS. Sacrificing good prospects, he applied to join tho expedition, but applicants were so numerous, about 1000, that, two, months elapsed before ho received not-, ice of his appointment. The crew oh arrival were quaintly nondescript in, tonsorial adornment. Beards conformed, to many fashions, and some., wore plain whiskers. It was evident 'that, the City.or New York's equip-, ment did not include, a luxurious hair-, dressing saloon,, but all the same there were some, clean chins, All were picas-, cd to reach New- Zealand, Many of thorn were first voyagers, responding to tlio call of the icebound, Antarctic, and they were all under the spell of distant places and high adventure. ' "Any word, from horne1!" After greetings had been exchanged that was the first question, of, members, of the crew. They were handed a. sack of mail to be opened by their ca,ptain. Judging by the amount of correspondence the most popular man of the expedition was Paul A. Siple, the Boy Scout. "Uku, lole" Dick Konter was a close runner-: up. He is tho proud possessor of tho only ukulele that has ever been over the' North Pole. One'of the most interesting person^ alities with the expedition is the aviator, Bcrnt Balchen, a Norwegian, who piloted the Josephine Ford aeroplane on its flight with Commander Byrd from King's Bay, Spitsbergen, to the North Pole, and who was at the controls when the risky landing was made in the sea at Verser-Mur, off the French coast, after the aeroplane America had missiod Paris in the fog and storm, "Our tough job," said Commander Byrd, "is to get ready in time to reach the ice, so as to get through with the C. A. Larsen, which is a powerful ice^ breaker." Commander Byrd hat] a conference with his officers last night and decided j that a start should be made on Friday, when the. City of New York will i leave with sufficient, men, equipment, and aeroplanes to start flying this year. The Eleanor Boiling" will follow as soon as possible and return for the remaiiiclei; of the men, equipment, and supplies. The City of New York will take sufficient of everything to keep 25 men fed and employed through the. winter. If the Eleanor Boiling gets through, a second time, another 15 men can be added to t|ie winter per- | sonnel.