GATHERING OF EXPLORERS

Evening Star, Issue 19005, 29 July 1925, Page 9

GATHERING OF EXPLORERS

THE DISCOVERY'S NEW VOYAGE Explorers who were associated with tho most famous Polar expeditions ol modern times were present at Portsmouth recently, when Mr Araery, the Colonial Secretary, inspected the Boyal Research .ship Discovery,; .which has just been put into commission to carry out whaling research work for the Government otf the Falkland Islands. Tho vessel’s field of operations will bo “ from tho Equator to tho Antarctic,” and her task will he to mark whales and to collect data as to their lood and habits. The explorers present at the ceremony included Engineer Bear-Admiral Skelton, who was engineer on the original Discovery with Captain Scott, and Dir Bernacchi, who was also on that expedition ; Mr J. Dl. Wordie, who was with Shackleton on the, Endurance; Commander J. B. Stcnhouse, who was captain of the Aurora when she rescued that explorer after drifting in the ice for eleven months, and who is now in command of tho Discovery. Commander Trestnul, of the Norwegian Legation, who went to the Sooth Pole with Amundsen; Mr F. Debe.nham, the scientist, who accompanied Captain Scoff, on his last expedition; Lieutenant 10. S, Marshall, who got within nineteen miles of the Polo with Shackleton; and Surgeon-commander Atkinson, who commanded the relief party who found tho bodies of Captain Scott and his comrades. Mr Amery was received on the jetty by the Admiral Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir S. B. Fremantle. Presiding at a luncheon at the Town Hall later, Dir Amery said that they wore assembled to inaugurate a great adventure which might have an effect upon tho economic prosperity of the world. Onr whole outlook on life had changed in recent years. When ho was at school Africa was a swam]). ’To-day some of them thought it was wrong if they did not drink Kenya coffee or smoke Empire tobacco. “I believe,” said air Amery, “that we are on tho eve of discoveries which will again change onr whole outlook in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Some day we shall throw open the Arctic regions of Canada and tho remote islands of the Arctic Sea for onr everyday needs of musk ox, wool for our clothing, and other things. Wo may find ourselves habitually passing by 'the North Pole in order to got to one place or tho other. “It is part of the legacy left ns by Dir Mercator—whoever he might be — that Ave do not realise that the shortest way to, say. Japan, is via Dundee and the North Pole. I do not suppose the Antarctic is likely to develop quite on Arctic lines, though as a permanently open winter sports resort it may one day become very popular.” Mr Amery hoped that tho British Government was going to undertake the safeguarding of the immense resources of those great regions. He also mentioned that a fast whale-catcher was to bo commissioned, and that it, would be ready in a few months. Speaking of the history of the Discovery, Dir Amery recalled that she was once used by Captain Scott, and that during tho war she fell upon evil times, and served as a carrier of furs and general cargo. “To-day,” said Dir Amery, “ I believe she is the bestequipped Arctic research vessel which has ever left, those shores.” The Colonial Secretary concluded by saying that we had entered into a period when research was more important than ever before. The Government had appointed a committee of Imperial Research winch would do within tho Empire what the Committee of Imperial Defence did for the security of tho Empire in the years preceding the Great War.