NOT USELESS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1932, Page 9

NOT USELESS

NAUTILUS'S CRUISE

KNOWLEDGE GAINED

■-In. spite .of iail;.tli'e jCriticisms'directei agairißt:us,-.the Nautilus expedition was not a failure, writes Captain ' Sloan Danen-Lower, commander of-the Nautilus, in the -"Sydney Morning Herald." It is true that we did'not attaia our objective, the. North Pole,: the Nautilus having been disabled by the loss of our diving rudder, an especial part of her structure, but we nevertheless; proved some thing.which was generally, regarded. as' impracticable before w» .embarked on our. e*Speditiqn, namelj> that a submarine can be navigated under ice. ■ - - ,

When the Nautilus left her American: port, for" Europe,' we -werev quite awara that crossing: the "Atlantic.-.:in.-. V rough, weather,: without the help of.&ny.other vessel to give us.a' tow, would be the most difficult part: o~f the: enterprise. We had* ho hesitation^'however,' in.' carrying^ out this part of the plan, because it was the best .way.to test oup submarine, and find out what defects the machinery might develop while wa were still within Teach, of ■ outside assistance. We felt that if the vessel could stand this test we could have confidence in her when we came to tha essential part of the enterprise. During the;voyage -we.met with one of those accidents to which even the most modern machinery is liable. We bioke;a cylinder, and-this was the causa of aUrour troubles, even while -wre wera being towed. : The repairs unfortunately, took a very long time... We rccondir tioned the Nautilus, but the delay presented us'from meeting the Zeppelin, as she could~,n6l; change lfer~'.d'ate for, starting. This was'nofaseri'ousmatter, as it deprived us only of the purely; spectacular part of our expedition. What was more disagreeable was: that we Svere prevented from leaching-; the Arctic regions until a late period in th« summer. x

We nevertheless made a start, and ws had no reason^to regret it." When wa went down for the firef time, we discovered that the ice under the surface was a good deal softer than we expected to.find, it,'and. we'got along without too much .trouble. ■ We also found that the light, slightly tinted -with blue, was- comparatively good. _ During the first few days^ our scientific men made some observations o£ great interest. From the point of view of bottom sampling, ■ sounding, water; temperature, and gravitation, thor; were able to enrich science with new facts, which was not surprising, as wsi ivere the first to make researches of this.Kind. ( EXACTING LIFE. Not, being a savant, but.merely the captain of the ship, whose duty is to see that the machinery is in good working ordei, I had no time to'indulge in-scientific observations or enjoy tho sight of ice-fields -viewed from, bclqw. My. principal-anxiety was to keep the. oil from freezing. We>were--on duty; for four lours at a stretch, and "each of ns was pretty-well exhausted when the. time came to "be relieved: I can assure you' that life in a cold, damp submarine is no picnia. The v cold .was not unbearable, but the sudden variations of temperature; which caused frequent precipitations of moisture, were extremely unpleasant.' In spite of all this, the r-.orale"of our savants and ofi our crew of sixteen men was excellent. Sir Hubert Wiliins showed himseli a. splendid: leader. For most of us, the" whole voyage consisted of keeping watch for four homi at-'a- time. -We soon.-discovered.that ta» cold caused a marked decrease in the. aji£auQt<:>>.f^i:ur7ejLt^fiom",6jaTj..accnmu'> latorsi.»On-'sonie..;da'ysVweT were work* in&xniai temperature 'of 33lfeg.! Fahrenheit.' S'As I have:saidi purchiefjanxietyj, was to" the bil-'from. lrcdngealing^ and it is notgoing'too far to say that this eventuality' was* the greatest danger 'we ran.. We could not stop that machinery for, any, length of time, because, what saved us was the heat generated; /by] the'engines. ■. •We escaped ■ being frozen ourselves,but we were within a'hair's-breadth o£ finding our submarine hopelessly embedded in the ice. ■: ■ v One morning Sir Hubert -Wilkins gave the order to dive. I was -inspect-, ing the .machinery to make sure that everything was in order, when I discovered, to my intense astonishment,that the diving rudder was missing! I immediately ■ ordered the diver-r—the first to operate in such latitudes—to gi> down and examine the lower part of the ship. He was ready in a few mm» utes, and when, he disappeared below the surface we were in a state of great anxiety.' ' ' ; . , ■ Anyone can understand the feelings with which, we awaited the diver's report. It was a great relief to find that nothing-very serious.": had happened. :i' The finain iuader: and;!the pro- . peller were; fntact^'^The depth rudder, had.simply disappeared,-;as :ii it had been'^spirited .away! .^ I.!' : ." When this .state ofjthings^was reported to' Sir Hubert Wilicins,^ tie ; was notl pleased, to put it mildly, but there,? was nothing to be done. The only possible course was'to abandon the expedition and go back to our base. We made three ; "wash" dives, however, nosing1 the i;ow. under the ice and pushing ahesd letting the ice submerge us. Anothfir accident would have disabled us corapletely, and we should never havs>. been able to extricate the Nautilus' from the ice, inasmuch as a submarine without a depth rudder ceases'to be a, submarine. The accident might have been avoided by putting some kind of protective ■ framework outside the propeller and the depth rudder, but this would have meant building a submarine specially; designed for Polar exploration, and thai' cost would have run into a million dollars. ..,,'•■ •'.'...

.A submarine of this kind willxper-, haps be constructed some cay, and heiv captain and crew will be able to profit J by our experience and take their ves-i sel under the ice to the North Pole«| I should be quite willing to try iujf I luck again on this venture.