NOT USELESS

Evening Star, Issue 20994, 7 January 1932, Page 11

NOT USELESS

NAUTILUS'S CRUISE KNOWLEDGE GAINED la spite of all the criticisms directed against us, the Naiitilus expedition was not a failure (writes Captain Sloan Daneu-Lowef, commander of the Nautilus, in the Sydney ‘ Morning Herald ’). It is true that _we did not attain 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 something which was generally regarded as impracticable before we embarked on our expedition—namely, that a submarine can be navigated tinder ice. When the Nautilus left her American port for Europe wo were quite aware that crossing the Atlantic in rough weather, without the help of any other vessel to give, us a tow, would be the most difficult part of the enterprise. We had no hesitation, however, in carrying out this part of the plan, because it was the best way to test our submarine and find out what defects the machinery might develop while we were still within reach of outside assistance. We felt that if the vessel could stand this test we could have confidence in her when we came to the essential part of the enterprise. During the voyage wo met with one of those accidents to which even the most modern machinery is liable. „ We broke a cylinder, and this was the cause of all our troubles, even while we were being towed. The repairs, unfortunately, took a very long time. Wo reconditioned the Nautilus, but the delay prevented us from meeting the Zeppelin, as she could not change her date for starting. This was not a serious matter, as it deprived ns only of the purely spectacular part of our expedition. What was more disagreeable was that we were prevented from reaching the Arctic regions until a late period in the summer. We nevertheless made a start, and we had no reason to regret it. When we went down for the first time we discovered that the ice under the surface was a good deal softer than wo 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 clays our scientific men made some observations of great interest. From the point of view of bottom sampling, sounding, water temperature, and gravitation, they were able to enrich science with new facts, which was not surprising, as we were the first to make researches of this kind.

Not being a savant, but merely the captain of the ship, whose duty is to see that the machinery is in good working order, I had no time to indulge in scientific observations or enjoy the sight of icefields viewed from below. My principal anxiety was to keep the oil from freezing. AYo were on duty for four hours at a stretch, and each of us was pretty well exhausted when the time came to be relieved. I can assure you that life in a cold, damp submarine is no picnic. The 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 morale of our savants and of our crew of sixteen men was excellent. Sir Hubert Wilkins showed himself a splendid leader.

For most of us, the whole voyage consisted of keeping watch for four hours at a time. We soon discovered that the cold caused a marked decrease in the amount of current from our accumulators. On some days wo were working in a temperature of 33deg Fahrenheit. As I have said, our chief anxiety was to prevent the oil irom congealing, and it is not going too far to say that this eventuality was the greatest danger wo ran. We could not stop the machinery for any length of time, because what saved us was the heat generated by the engines. Wo escaped being frozen ourselves, but wo were within a hair’s breadth of finding our submarine hopelessly embedded in the ice. . One morning Sir_ Hubert Wilkins gave the order to dive. I was inspecting 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 clivei the first to operate in such latitudes—to go down and examine the lower part of tho ship. Ho was ready in a few minutes, and when ho 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. The main rudder and the propeller were intact. The depth rudder had simply disappeared, as if it had been spirited away! When this state of things was reported to Sir Hubert Wilkins, he was not pleased, to put it mildly, but there was nothing to be done. The only possible course was to abandon tho expedition and go back to our base. We made three “wash” dives, however, nosing the bow under the ice and pushing ahead, letting the ice submerge us. Another accident would have disabled us completely, and we should never have 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 the cost would have run into a million dollars. A submarine of tins kind will perhaps bo constructed some day, and her captain and crew will bo able to profit by our experience and take their vessel under tho ice to the North Pole. I should be quite willing to try my luck again on this venture.