FAREWELL TO DUNEDIN

Evening Star, Issue 21633, 31 January 1934, Page 6

FAREWELL TO DUNEDIN

MR ELLSWORTH LEAVES THIS MORNING DREAMS OF ONE MORE FLIGHT ANTARCTIC PROBLEMS STILL UNSOLVED While nothing definite in the way of new plans has been formulated by Mr Lincoln Ellsworth, he is already dreaming of another attempt to fly across the Antarctic continent in about a year’s time. If he is successful then his cherished hopes will have been realised, and the bitterness of defeat this time will be forgotten. Mr Ellsworth is anxious to return to America, and it was a smiling expedition leader who left town by car this morning to board a plane at the Taieri airport. By 10 o’clock the machine was in the air. It is his intention to spend a few days at Tongariro before catching the boat at Wellington for Los Angeles._ “ There is no satisfaction in exploration work. I won’t say it brings disappointment or actual sadness to a man,” Mr Ellsworth remarked before leaving. Going back to America contained no thrill for him. He had no place that he could call his own. He was fifty-three years of age, and had no home of his own, t( I’m tired of it all,” he added. Alono- with other explorers—Byrd and Wilkins, for instance —he said he realised he had arrived at that stage when he must soon stop wandering and settle down, but before he did that he thought of making one more flight into the south and then—“ through with it.” A ranch in the Western States Mr Ellsworth pictures as home for his wife and himself; somewhere where the life will give him something different to do from the work he has accustomed himself to in the last thirty years. A NEW BASE. Discussing his statements made to a ‘ Star ’• reporter on Tuesday regarding the proposed route for the next expedition, Mr Ellsworth said that the base, if his hopes materialised, would be established at Deception Island, south of Cape Horn, and m the meantime he proposed to commence his flight to the Weddell Sea from there. From this latter point the plane would be turned to Little America. Once there he would meet his ship Wyatt Earp, and in about twelve months’ time he would once more be in Dunedin, his ambition satisfied and his back turned to the south for ever. But these are only dreams, and until he has reached 'America and has had time to form proper plans they must-remain so. “ I have seen the Antarctic now, and I know what the conditions are,” he said, when speaking of the problems still to be solved. “It won’t be easy. It will mean a flight of 2,700 miles, 1,800 of which will be over unknown land. But only so can the task I have set myself be completed.” If plans are made as outlined above and Deception Island is used as the base, the expedition will reach there about October. Then the Polar Star will take the air about the beginning of November, when flying conditions in the Antarctic are at their best. From the edge of the Weddell Sea the plane will fly over the space to the Ross Sea. This will be not only the most dangerous, but the most interesting part of the trip. On this flight Mr Ellsworth will definitely know whether the two seas are connected and whether the Queen Maude Range ends abruptly or runs across tie Southern Continent. Bernt Balchen will again be chosen as pilot.

MOVEMENTS OF WYATT EARP. The Wyatt Earp will probably remain at the Rattray street wharf until next week, when she will go to Port Chalmers to dock for overhaul and repairs. Sir Hubert Wilkins, who remains in command, said this morning that he did not know whether the ship would stay here after that or go to Auckland. The damaged plane is still on board, and it will be a week or two before the wings are boxed ready to ship to Los Angeles. The fusilage does not need to be crated for shipment.