UNLOADING SUPPLIES

Evening Star, Issue 21628, 25 January 1934, Page 9

UNLOADING SUPPLIES

THE BYRD EXPEDITION SHORT GUT TO BASE FOUND press Association—By Telegraph— Copyright. NEW YORK, January 23. Driven from her berth along the low shelf of bay ice by a strong south-east wind the Jacob Ruppert at noon to-day cruised slowly in the vicinity awaiting abatement of the weather. Meanwhile twenty men are marooned ashore, three at Little America and the remainder between the empty supplies caches and the unloading station at the •edge of the bay ice four and a-half miles away. Unloading was in progress at midnight yesterday, when the wind forced the Jacob Ruppert to flee to prevent the smashing of her plates. Nevertheless the shore gang continued •to work, piling the unloaded supplies on dog sledges and tractors for transfer "to the emergency caches. A most encouraging thing has been the discovery of' .a-short passage to Little America. the result of a survey flight it was first thought it would be necessary to haul 450 tons of supplies a distance of twenty miles because of pressure ridges and crevasses. Now, as a result of another, survey by Finn Roone a new passag* of only 6.3 miles has been discovered. Roone spent a sleepless fortyseven hours during the reconnoitring, and risked his neck twice in breaking through thinly-roofed crevasses, sav..ing himself by bridging the opening .with his arms. As soon as Roone reported the passage Admiral Byrd or- . dered the. unloaded stores Jo be transported to the emergency cache. The immediate concern is to get the Jacob Ruppert unloaded and started northward. and Admiral Byrd proposed a .cache, for the supplies, moving them to Little America later. Toward evening the wind began to moderate, and it is expected that the Jacob Ruppert ‘ will be remoored shortly. Meanwhile the ship is in constant wireless communication with the cache unit. A message from the Bear of Oakland, transmitted at 7 o’clock on Tuesday evening, stated: “We are in latitude 55.40. We passed 120 miles to .westward of the Wyatt Earp, bound for Dunedin. We have been having head winds, and seas until to-day. Our speed is nine knots. There are light rains, with. overcast skies.” GRANT OF AEROPLANE TRANSPORT ; LEADER’S APPRECIATION. [Fu United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, January 24. Appreciation of the Government’s action in arranging, for the quick transport of supplies for the Byrd expedition from Auckland, .to Dunedin is expressed radiogram' received by the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr A. Hamilton) from . Admiral Byrd. .“ Please accept for the people and the Government of New Zealand, my deep 'and-abiding 'gratitude for the generous donation of aeroplane service at a moment most critically affecting the successful accomplishment of my expedition’s mission, in which, through the New Zealand men attached to the expedition, the New Zealand people are playing a most vital .part,” the message states. “ For yourself. Major ‘.Wilkes, Commander Isitt, Lieutenant .Wallingford, and all others who were active please accept my personal thanks.”