POLAR FLIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 124, 21 November 1935, Page 9

POLAR FLIGHT

ELLSWORTH TAKES OFF, MISHAP FIVE HOURS OUT, MAY BE RETURNING ' United I>, css Associatlon-By Electric Tel*, graph—Copyright. . . (Received November 21, 9 a.m.)' MONTREAL, November 20. A North American Newspaper Association message from the Wyatt t_arp at Dundee Island states that Mr. Lincoln Ellswortlrand Mr. Hal-lick-Kenyon took off from Dundee Island at 5.50 p.m. on Wednesday morning, Sydney time, for an attempted .flight across the Antarctic to Admiral Byrd's former base at Little America in the aeroplane Polar Star. At 11 o'clock on Wednesday night .the aeroplane wirelessed, "Back fuel How gauge broke." This message is interpreted here as meaning that Mf. Ellsworth was turning back. The aeroplane had sent only one pre. vious wireless message, forty-eight minutes after the start, reporting that it had progressively passed over snow and James and Ross Islands, and was then flying at a speed of 170 miles an hour. The Polar Star after passing b P °hL lSl ft nd hj^d left the °P en '**ter behind it, and was flying along the eastern edge of Graham Land when it reported the broken gaug^

CLAIMING OP TERRITORY bef °re having Mr. Ell*, worth said: "Soon we will be on what has been called the last great adventure in the history of Antarcticexploration. With faith in the reward of perseverance, we are bound on a flight of 2140 miles, 1300 of which will bfe evls wl° ry -n 0t yet Seen b * hum ™ eyes. We will pass over unclaimed areas *>r 600 miles, and that segment of the Antarctic which is thought to be fringed by a coast line of about 900 ing the 80th meridian, which we expect to cross at latitude 77, we will bein unclaimed territory. With the permission of-the State Department P o f "the United States, I will then drop the Stars and Stripes, and, so far as that act will suffice, claim the area we dis-

cover, even up to the 120 th meridian, for the United States. I will name the area James Ellsworth Land, after my father, who was himself a pioneer." DEPARTURE DELATED. An earlier message stated:— "The attempt to start on the Antarctic flight this morning failed as an unusually bright sun from 1 until 8 a.m. made the snow too soft and sticky for a take-off. As the .flight was definitely scheduled for 8 o'clock no attempt was made to hurry preparations, although the sun was up early. "At the last minute there was hall an hour's delay clearing the fuel-line Which had accumulated water that froze. We taxied across the island in an attempt to start, but it *as soon apparent that it was impossible. We now plan to leave at four tomorrow morning."