WYATT EARP HEADING NORTH

Evening Star, Issue 21627, 24 January 1934, Page 7

WYATT EARP HEADING NORTH

MYSTERIES DF THE ICE EXPLORER EXPLAINS PLANS SHIP DUE DUNEDIN SATURDAY (Special to the United Press Association from Mr Lincoln Ellsworth aboard the Wyatt Earp.) January 23. We were at latitude 58.55 deg, longitude 177.48 deg at noon to-day, within 1,000 miles of Dunedin. We should be in port early on Saturday morning. For two days after leaving the Bay of Whales we had a strong wind from the south-east, but this helped us on our way. Since then we have had excellent weather.

Strange to relate since on our way south we passed through a belt more vthan 300 miles wide we have seen no pack ice on the return trip. It seems almost miraculous that so much ice should have disappeared in fifteen days. We are south of it, but we know from bitter experience that changes in the ice, like everything else in the Antarctic, can- take place with extraordinary rapidity. Two days ago we passed many icebergs, strung out like huge battleships in line. There were more than fifty of them, averaging about a mile apart, It is difficult to saywhether it was the wind or the current which had influenced their distribution. They had been adrift for some time, and the waves had eaten into most of them, exposing great caverns in the ice. Some had obviously turned turtle at no distant date and overturned. The bergs, with jagged peaks rising 60ft high, were a great contrast to the flat table-topped ones which floated with the same ex--1 posure that they had when they left the barrier.

As we approach New Zealand and during their watch below there is great activity among the crew; Strange faces appear as the men decide to lop off their whiskers, some of which have been growing since leaving Cape Town. As we go northward wo miss the continuous daylight which we experienced while in the south. There are now about six hours of darkness, and since the main lighting engine is out of commission the Kohler set is called upon to furnish electric light as well as service for the wireless. The temperature increases noticeably from day to day, and the fresh water pipes have thawed. A few days of steady sea routine after the strenuous time at the barrier enabled the crew to get the ship back to its customary cleanness. By the time we reach Dunedin the whole of the Antarctic journey will seepi like a dream. THE DAMAGED PLANE. But there will be a sharp and sad reminder when the airplane Polar Star comes from the hold to be crated in readiness to be shipped back to America. I have decided to send the machine on a passenger ship from Wellington to San Francisco. The Wyatt Earp will first call at Dunedin, discharge the fuel oil and the gasolene (Polar Star supplies) for storage, and then take the airplane to Wellington.

SHIP TO DRY DOCK AT PORT CHALMERS. While I am awaiting developments which will enable me to decide on my future plans tEe ship will return to Dunedin and go into dry dock for slight repairs to the rudder, which was twisted while passing through the pack ice, and for general overhaul of the engine.