BUCKING THE ICE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 22, 28 January 1929, Page 9

BUCKING THE ICE

HYRD'S SHIP STRIVES

OPENING A PASSAGE

(By Russell Owen. —Special to "New York Times.") BAY OF WHALES, 25th January.

Yesterday Commander Byrd made n valiant attempt to reach the ice barrier to cut a passage through tho heavy pressure ice with the City of Now York to a place where the Eleanor Boiling could bo'easily unloaded. The ice proved too thick, however, and after a day's ramming and battering he was forced to quit and await a little aid from the weather, which appears now might be coming, as a storm is brewing which may shift to the south, and if it does this part of tho bay ice should- go out. We left the berth where the ship had been made fast to the edge of a floe, because the ice in that spot was getting soft. Several men went in up to their waists during the morning, and finally Norman Vaughan, who has been carrying heavy loads in the last few days, went in up to his shoulders while ho -was standing alongside his team preparing to start in with a load of coal.

FOR THE ELEANOR BOLLING. A lead on the east side of the bay had opened up to within a few hundred yards of the "low part of the barrier. Commander Byrd determined to attempt to smash his way through there in the hopo that he could make a passage for the Eleanor Boiling. Tho City of New York pulled along the edge of the bay ice under steam until out in the open load. The ship headed along the south parallel to the barrier, and about three hundred yards out from it, where there seemed to be a series of openings, which led on a gradual curve inward towards the barrier. The ship hit the ice with all the power in the engine, and easily cut its way through for some distance. The ieu then became heavier until it checked the forward movement. Then we began to back up and ram ahead, making a few feet each time. Once tho ship was caught amidships by a big cake .that folded under tho other ice, and the bow was jammed tight. Men went over tho side with bars, poles, axes, and shovels, and tfnally broke the ice loose so that the ship could move again. The ship went ahead with renewed speed for some distance, the bow lifting up and smashing down again through ice five and six feet thick, but later we found that wo were working against ice that was Tidged and heaved up with pressure, so much so that there were in places cakes standing like pillars fifteen foot above the surface. It was also ice that was confined by pressure ice on two sides and by tho barrier on the other, which makes the task much harder.

RIDING THE FLOES. Byrd was sceptical as to liow muck lie could accomplish, but felt that if the barrier coulr] bo reached and the ice broken tip so that it might move out more quickly, it would help greatly in the unloading of the Eleanor Boiling, which is now tho greatest problem facing the expedition. Accordingly the ship went full speed ahead into this mass, whicli was at least, ten feet thick "below the water-line. Time and again the boat would ride up on one of these liuge floes, forcing her way between uplifted and jagged cakes of pressure ice, and slide off again when the engines were reversed without apparently making any impression. Two or three times this would be done, then the ice would crack and^ slowly bo forced aside. A yard at a time the ship made her way towards tho barrier in this way, reeling under the shocks and swaying when a stubborn cako deflected it as it charged forward, until tho barrier was imly a hundred yards away. But it might just as well navo k°ou a milo > for a point was reached where we could not go any further, and Byrd decided to back out and go back to the last point where coal had been unloaded. Most of the day and a good part of the evening were spent in this attempt, and it did somo good, for the ice has split and broken so much that a. good southerly wind might blow it out, and we hope that this will happen. The Eleanor Boiling is coming more.

slowly to economise coal, and there will be two days for ice lo inovo before she arrives.

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