ANOTHER POLAR EXPEDITION.

Evening Star, Issue 11683, 15 February 1902, Page 8

ANOTHER POLAR EXPEDITION.

Mr William Ziegler, a New York millionaire, has with characteristic liberality borne the entire expense of fitting out an expedition to the North Foie, which is commanded by Mr Evelyn B. Baldwin, and sailed recently from Tromsoe in Norway. The commander <xf tins expedition was bornat Springfield, Miss., on July 22, 1862. After studying and travelling in Europe for many years, he entered the service of the United States Government as. observer in the Signal Service. He accompanied the Peary expedition of 1393-94 as meteorologist; in 1897 he journeyed to Spitsbergen in the hope of being able to joja Andree’s expedition, but fortunately for himself he could not find room in the balloon car. Later he accompanied the Wellman expedition of 1899. Certainly no expedition has ever before sailed in quest of the North Pole with so complete an equipment or with brighter prospects of success. In announcing his intention to bear the entire expense of the expedition. Mr Ziegler wrote to Commander Baldwin : “ I do not want to see arty but an American win the honor of the discovery of the North Pole, when so many of our brave countrymen have sacrificed their lives in the effort to attain if L think Ameiica is great enough and progressive enough to have that distinction." The fleet comprises three vessels The flagship, the America, is a threemasted slrip-rigged steamer- of 466 tons net burden, driving a single smew. Her length overall is 157 ft, beam 27ft, depth 19ft. She is constructed of solid oak throughout, having a sheathing of greenheart from keel to water-line. She is 2ft thick on her sides, these increasing to 2J>ft at the bow. Before being rechristened she was held to be the crack whaler of the entire. Dundee fleet. Her consorts tire the Frithiof and the Belgica, The first-men-tioned is a Norwegian sailing vessel that has seen much service in the Arctic seas, and she will act as tender or supply steamer to the flagship. She is of the same general construction as the America, although smaller, registering 260 tons net. She is commanded' by Captain Kjeldsen, who for more than a quarter of a century has taken many a vessel from Norway to Spitzbergen and Franz Josef band. It was Kjeldsen who twenty-eight years ago was in command of the lender Lsbjorn, which acted as a supply vessel for the Tegctthof, which under Payer bore the Austro-Hungarian expedition northward on its eventful voyage of discovery of Franz Josef Land itself. It will be remembered that the Belgica carried the Belgian Antarctic expedition of 1897-99, under Carlache. She is similar in construction to the America, is 110 ft long, 26£t wide, and draws 15fl of water. She is commanded by Captain John Bryde. Baldwin, after describing in the pages of ‘Windsor’ the plans he has laid for capturing the North Pole, concludes a deeplyinteresting article thus:- “ No previous expedition to the North has ever made such complete arrangements for the transmission of news back to civilisation as that which I have the honor to command. Six hundred buoys have been provided, and are to be set adrift, four hundred of them to be used in connection with our work in and from‘Franz Josef Land, and the balance to be deposited on the east coa,st of Greenland, for use of any of our party who may chance to arrive there. Each buoy is to contain news of our condition. To send back these buoys we are provided with forty balloons packed for transport in hermetically sealed tin cases. Each balloon, with the exception of two larger ones, has a capacity of 3,000 cubic fret, and measures, when inflated, 31ft in height and 65ft in circumference. They will he inflated with hydrogen gas made by the vitriolic process. It is intended that

some of these balloons will be released at intervals during the Arctic night, and each will be freighted with a number of the news-buoys, containing messages inscribed upon parchment. The buoys will be fastened to a pendant line, one beneath the other. The balloon, when inflated to its full capacity, will carry the buoys upward not less than three miles, and southerly air currents will waft them op their several journeys. Generally they will be placed afloat during the prevalence of northerly winds. The natural leakage of gas will probably cause the balloon to descend to the ice or water, us the case may be, in from eight to ten hours after its ascension. By an ingenious arrangement brown as the liberator, the lowermost hnoy will be released from its attachment immediately upon contact with land or water. The release of its weight will cause the balloon to rebound into the air, and it will then continue its progress for about five hours, dropping again at intervals, until the very last buoy has been deposited either in the polar current or in the open waters. The carrying power of these balloons wall ensure the buoys being placed where they mil most certainly be picked up by the Arclie whaling and sealing vessels, or even bv Traiwulan! ic liners. The recovery of these buoys will establish much valuable data, concerning the air and sea currents if the Arctic regions. Of the thirteen buoys probably set adrift by Andree during his memorable balloon voyage, two have thus fas been recovered ; one, dated beyond the 80th parallel, was found some months later off the north coast of Iceland, while (lie other wits picked up on King Charles s hand to the eastward of Spit/.bergcn. nearly 1,200 miles from Iceland. It should be remembered that Andree employed no device for releasing bis buoys, being compelled to throw them from the car of his balloon, and it is possible thal some of them were therefore crushed and broken by their fall. It is onlv fair to assume, therefore, that a. much larger portion of our buoys will he recovered. I desire here to emphasise the fact that the Baldwin Ziegler expedition was organised to reach the Pole.- Neither scientific research nor wen a record of ‘farthest North’ will suffice; only the attainment of that much-sough!-for spot where one can point only to the South can satisfy our purpose. If. from any cause not now foreseen, our efforts during the summer of 1902 should prove fruitless, we shall remain in Finny, .losef Land until the spring ot 1903. when th? effort will lie renewed. Fresh supplies and equipment- will be forthcoming, and 1900 will find ns fully prepared for another struggle with the unknown. But T do not anticipate such a. contingency."