BYRD'S GOAL ATTAINED

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 136, 5 December 1929, Page 9

BYRD'S GOAL ATTAINED

FLIGHT OVER PLATEAU

BACK TO MOUNTAIN BASE

United Press As»ocl»t!on- By Electric Tele-

craph—Copyright. (By Commander Byrd.—Special to the

" New York Times.")

BAY OF WHALES, 3rd December.

There was not less than 300 miles between us ana the Pole, continues Commander Byrd in his description of the Polar flight after surmounting tlia pass through the barrier range. If the sun remained the sun compass and wind drift indicator should talce us there as straight as a bee flies. "We wouia have to ride tlio engines all the way. The plateau was so high that if one of tho three engines should stop we would have to land on the snow, which at places was nearly two miles above sea level.. Such a landing wag an uncertain thing at any time, and more uncertain with a load aboard. ".The engines must keep going." I was saying this to myself when the starboard engine began to sputter. Bernt nosed down and Harold rushed to tho gas-tank valves and stood looking at the engine and listening to the jarring interruptions the missing cylinders caused in rhythm. Mac for once hesitated in his mapping work. After winning our hardest struggle, was our flight to bo ended so near tho objective? Bernt hurriedly manipulated the altitude control. In an effort to economise on the precious fuel the gasoline had been made too lean. Tho motor began to sing again. I say sing, for its roar was music when it was not missing a beat. Flying on a venture of this kind is full of contrasts—everything perfect one minute, and next everything black. BOWL OF POLAR PLATEAU. "All was well again. Wo looked around. Ahead was an apparently limitless plateau, glistening in the sunshine. Tho great polar plateau at last. It was good to see it after the months we had wondered about it, and the hundreds of times we asked ourselves if we would ever be lucky enou<'h to reach it. To the left were great mountain masses looming high above our level. I would hesitate to estimato their altitude, but they are very high, since at this place the plateau itself was about 10,000 feet abovo sea level. Mac's photographs must tell the story. Beyond this mass were separated peaks of many different shapes, running to the south-eastward. There was one great isolated peak completely snow-covered and looking like a great inverted white porcelain bowl. Back of us, running east and west along the rim of the plateau, were enormous peaks lifting their heads hi«h into the air.

'I looked over to the right, and got one of those kicks that pull a man away from civilisation and repay him for his efforts. _ There was a new mountain range in the distance, running north and south—a new bit of land to add to the map of the world. Mac would shoot with his camera. Wo felt that it was worth while bringing him for that alone. It occurred to mo as I looked around at tho mountains that they must fringe the whole plateau— Nature's great dam holding the ice and snow there until in geological ages the period when it would lift itself from Antarctica until the vast amount of snow molts and runs out to the ocean that lies down below. It will not bo revealed at present. Wo can only guess what lies beneath that great ice cap and what is its depth. It is one of the world's mysteries. That imaginary point, the South Pole, is in the centre of an uplifted plain, hundreds of miles in diameter—a magnificent edifice seemingly built to make more inviolable tho tiny spot which we were seeking. "Tho plateau seems to range from 7000 to 11,000 feet in altitude. Beyond the new mountain mass we saw a, small peak sticking up through tho great expanso of snow—a very lonely little black speck it was. It was hard to realise that it was the top probably of a mountain about 9000 feet above sea level. On we went flying at the rato of 100 miles an hour through the air towards our goal. Our drift indicator showed the wind was from tho left. We had to head the 'plane a dozen degrees to the left in order to fly straight south. FINDING THE GROUND SPEED. . "Il; was impossible to tell our exact altitude above the plateau, and therefore not easy to get our actual ground speed, as it would have been over water or ice near sea level, but there was a way with a stop-watch. Wo got the time it took a smoke-bomb beneath to traverse the length of a twelvc-ineh wire in the "bottom, of the 'plane. Turning to tho south, we took the time over the same object in the same manner, and then by simple arithmetic calculated the speed. To do this we were forced to open, the two-foot trap-door. The strong wind coming up through it quickly numbed the face. We observed it was 10 degrees below zero and getting colder as we approached the Pole. Wo found that the wind was against us. Instead of flying a hundred miles an hour over the plateau we were making only 74 or So. This was a disappointment. "It would take us longer to reach the Pole than wo had calculated, but we would come back faster. | 'We took a look back at tho mountains, and when wo saw their great height we realised that we must be very careful to allow for the wind. Unless we reached our pass on the Axel Heiberg Glacier and flew through down to tho Barrier, we might be trapped by mountains we could not scale. There were many very important, reasons, then, why the wind-drift indicator and the sun compass should be used with the greatest caro, and why Bcrnt and Harold should steer carefully. Suppose the clouds should closo in around the mountains before our return, that would indeed trap us, but it was one of those chances wo had to take. SURFACE OF THE PLATEAU. "The character of the plateau surface varied greatly from time to time. We saw to the left the foot of a magnificent glacier running down from the mountains and showing chaotic masses of crevassed ice, shining blue against the white snow. This may have been the devil's ballroom—that dangerous area which Amundsen traversed. We passed over groups of haycocks, those small rounded domes of snow which cover bottomless pits. There were wind-formed sastrug.^ arrow-shaped, which appeared hard with knife edges, and glistening more in the sun than the other snow surfaces. That area must have been one of violent winds. Landing there would havo been like landing among rocks. It was in great contrast to the surface we reached later, which was smooth and had the appearance of soft snow in an area of light winds. OBSERVATIONS IMPOSSIBLE. While the mountains were still looming large on the left we attempted to shoot the sun with tho sextant to get our altitude, and so give us a sun line that would cut our line of flight and at

the point of intersection tell us what the Bun had to say about our x'i'ogress, but the air was not smooth enough. Tho 525 horse-power engines in the nose of tho 'plane, exerting great force to keep us two miloj high, seemed to add to the weaving motion of the 'plane. It was impossible at this time to keep the sun and bubble in the sextant together long enough to get a dependable sight. We hoped that things would be favourable later on, but this did not worry us, for our distance was so short that we could hardly miss the objective. Our altimeter showed us to be keeping about the same atmospheric pressure, and we were therefore not changing our altitude very much. The snow beneath us seemed to be getting farther away, so we judged that the plateau was sloping down with a gentle incline. Back in the tail of the 'jilane was the meteorgraph - recording the changes in the temperature pressure and humidity, which after the flight would tell the whole story. We would know tho exact moment of the talcing off time of every subsequent altitude, and the moment of landing at the mountain base, and at Little America. AMUNDSEN'S BURIED TRAIL. Beneath us somewhere was the trail that Amundsen had blazed to the South Pole. The trail now was buried far beneath tho snow. My admiration for that great explorer increased tremendously when I saw what ho had to contend with. In his honour, and in honour of Bernt and tho other Norwegians at Little America and tho whalers who, with such great generosity, havo helped us, we carried with us the Norwegian flag. We carried with us a French flag. Wo have not forgotten, tho extraordinary hospitality France showed the transatlantic flyers nor the friendship demonstrated for America at that timo and the sportsmanship displayed at the success of the Americans in face of the loss of their gallant flyer who had set out on a more difficult feat. Half an hour past midnight we again tried to get the altitude by a sun sight. It was better this time and showed us to be close to our dead reckoning position. That was good, but there was still enough movement of the 'plane to prevent our being certain of that sight. There was probably an error in it, and just how much we could not tell. We felt confidenco in our sun compass and drift indicator, and, luckily, our sight did not change our calculations. The temperature seemed to be falling as we neared the Polo. The mountains abaft and on our beam wero fading now and tho clouds which may have covered unseen mountains showed on the horizon off our port bow. Harold was piloting, and Bernt came aft to tell mo that it was not quite so clear ahead, and that we might find mist near the Pole. Onco or twice wo thought we saw snow drifting beneath. An Antarctic storm seemed to be closing in on us, but we thought we could get back to the mountains ahead of it. We had a great 'plane, with great engines, and with reasonable luck wo should beat that storm. IN MEMORY OF SCOTT. We had extended Scott's trail, the Grosvenor trail, now so near the Polo that within easy visibility lay the path taken by Scott, who, with his companions, had perished on his way back, that great hero, who had shown that there are things more important than life, and who, in failure, won immortal success. In his memory and that of his gallant comrades, and in honour of our cousin and friend the British Empire, we carried with us ;i British flag. There flashed ihrough my mind tho fact that some had attempted to start a wild controversy covering the territorial rights of the British Empire and the United States as a result of our discoveries. What a pity there could be such a controversy. This ;.s a peaceful and scientific mission, trying to extend the boundaries of the land and the knowledge made by those heroes who gave their lives here. If the spirit of this expedition towards those gallant men and the nation that they represented could be known and felt it would add its mite toward furthering the good fellowship so vitally important now that our country has joined with other nations in a sincere effort to secure peace and harmony for the world. THE POLE BENEATH. The barrier edge was now about four hours back. No wonder the boys thought I was flying beyond tho Pole, which was only a little more than 300 miles from the barrier's edge. The wind had caused us to take longer than we had expected, but at last the big moment had come and that imaginary point, the very bottom of the world, was, according to my reckoning, somewhere beneath and within our view. I handed Harold the following message to radio to our comrades in America: "My calculations indicate that wo have reached the vicinity of the South Pole. Flying high for survey. Soon turn north."

Bernfc turned the nose of the 'piano to the right, while I attempted to get the altitude of the sun with a sextant, but there was too much movement of the 'plane for results. We know exactly what tho altitudo of the sun should-Le, since the altitudo of the sun's centre at any moment at tho Polo is equal to the declination of the sun, which at that.time was 21 degrees 27 minutes. The sun circles at that point without any noticeable change in. altitude. "We flew on to tho right for five or six miles, then circled and flew to tho left an equal distance, and followed our original line of flight for five or six miles further. I had wanted to go fifty miles beyond the Pole instead of half a dozen, but we had been-a long time in reaching it. I saw Harold's and Bernt's anxious eyes on the gasoline gauges. It would not be fair to these fellows to go any further. A TRIBUTE TO BENNETT. Wo turned the nose of tho 'plane back toward Little America. When wo had reached the place at which we had turned to the right we opened the trap door and dropped the American flag, weighted with a stone from Bennett's grave. We stood and saluted tho spirit of our gallant comrade and our country's flag, that little silk flag and that small stone tied together at the bottom of the world. Wo were about 2500 feet above the Pole, and the temperature had dropped to 10 degrees below zero. Visibility was good in most directions, but what was the direction? —all directions are north from the Pole. When wo had passed ov-er the Pole we had changed our time a wholo day. Now we had changed it back again. We still had a job to do. The winds were gathering in force. In a short time we could see more patches of drifting snow beneath us. We watched tho sun compass and drift indicator like hawks. We must hit the mountain pass. On and on wo went. Timo that seemed long before, crawled now. The first mountains to tho right, which Lad been clear on the outward journey, were half-covered with clouds. Mac photographed them. It was apparent the storm had just reached there. Bernt had increased the motor revolution, and the great Cyclone engine was doing its stuff. Wo aimed our course a few degrees to tho right, so as to reach the Barrier more to the eastward than we had left it, to get a better view of Carmen Land, and to obtain survey _ photographs geographically of great importance. DOWN THE HEIBEEG HOME. Suddenly Bernt gave a shout of joy. A little to our left was the pass we had come through, only partly cloudcovered, and what we took for the Heiberg Glacier was almost at the head. Ahead the clouds were beginning to form. We were just in timo. We were

very thankful that we did not have to waste precious time and gasoline looking for a way through tho mountains. Soon wo were sliding down Heiberg Glacier. It was very rough, but the 'plane was light.

In another few minutes Harold brought her down gracefully on the icehard sastrugi at our little mountain base. We put aboard 200 gallons of gasoline, and left 3501b of food, ten gallons of gasoline, ten gallons of oil, and a gasoline stove for Larry Gould's party. In an hour we were ready, and Harold lifted the Floyd Bennett easily from the snow and headed for tho camp. We took north over the rolling white plain, and it seemed to us we could see all that wo had left behind. A few more weeks' work and then homo.