ADVENTUROUS EXPLORER

Evening Star, Issue 21655, 26 February 1934, Page 12

ADVENTUROUS EXPLORER

UNDER AND ABOVE ICE SIR HUBERT WILKINS'S EXPERIENCES IN THE ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC FIELDS Six years of exploration in the Arctic and Antarctic by Sir Hubert Wilkins were graphically described by moving pictures and voice by the famous Australian to an audience of leading citizens at the Empire Theatre this morning. Before Mr Lincoln Ellsworth left Dunedin he asked Sir Hubert to return in some way thanks for the help given to the expedition by the Harbour Board, the City Council, and private enterprise. He decided to screen privately a film of the expedition, and to take advantage of showing them pictures of his own work in the north and south. Mr Ellsworth desired to ascertain whether or not the land of the Antarctic extended into the Pacific. Unaided by modern machinery, Scott, Shackleton, and others who had gone before had explored in the real. spirit of adventure; but romance was not yet past. With airplanes and modern modes of exploration, romance was still to be found. Sir Hubert said his exploration work was id planning meteorological stations, and he, had found many places where scientists could live for year after year to study meteorology. He was “sort of pushed ” into exploration. Going to the Arctic he had hoped to discover sites for thirty-two stations, and, by going to tjhe Antarctic, to discover another twelve sites. In the Arctic with Steffanson, he had learned all the trials and tribulations of ice exploration. He had flown 15,000 miles over the Arctic Ocean and had found no fixed positions for observations. Steffanson had told _ him that ho could not expect to do scientific work, flying at 100 miles an hour, and urged him to use a submarine. He decided to go north ‘in a submarine. Many people thought it was a foolish idea'; and accused him of taking the idea from Jules Verne’s 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.’ In fact, he had not read Verne’s work until the submarine trip was actually begun. In 1620, a submarine had submerged on the Thames and- a piece of tapestry by, Botticelli had depicted a submarine under the ice and an aeroplane flying above. An ancestor had in 1678 written a book with a theme of the use of a submarine in the Arctic. His experiences in Australia, where dumb animals ‘and pioneers suffered severely _ from droughts, had drawn his attention to the need of meteorological research, with the hope of forecasting seasonal conditions. Only by a process of development could they hope to achieve results, which would probably not be attained for tw r enty-five years. The - difficulties _ encountered by the Ellsworth expedition and the effect of the ice pressure on the Northrop Gama plane were shown in the first picture. The Wyatt Earp steamed 450 miles through the ice pack before reaching the open waters of the Boss Sea. The ice in the Antarctic was not as thick as the pack in the Arctic, said Sir Hubert: although it was found necessary on one occasion to cut a way through the ice with a cross-cut saw. The aeroplane was landed on perfectly flat ice, and the expedition hoped that it would remain so till Ellsworth made the 3,000-mile flight to the Weddell Sea and back. Less than 36 hours after reaching the ice, the plane wars assembled and ready for the flight. In the meantime at the request of Admiral Byrd, some members visited the base at Little Ainerica. All that was seen above the snow were the aerial masts and the tops of the chimneys. Though it appeared to be quite solid, the ice suddenly fractured, and one crack opened up beneath the skis of the plane. As the floes came together the plane and the skis were crushed. At the time the plane was about a, mile from the edge of the ice. Repairs I could not he made in the Antarctic, and the machine was ; hoisted aboard the Wyatt Earp for return to America. ,

FLIGHTS IN ALASKA. 1

A lengthy and vivid picture, with lucid accompanying descriptions by Sir Hubert, of exploration in the 1 Arctic followed. The planes of the Detroit expedition were carried on a steamer from British Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska, where ’the temperature was 58deg below zero. The largest plane was the Southern Cross, a two-engined Fokker. A single-engined Fokker crashed from- 100 ft on its first flight, and within 24 hours the big plane crashed through a slight mistake on the part of the pilot. The flying season was almost at an end when the single-en-gined machine was repaired. It was flown 870 miles across an unknown range, really the northern end of the Rocky Mountains, over the Yukon River afad the Endicott Mountains, which had not been previously traversed on foot or by plane. The flight was rather a. dangerous one, as, owing to its ceiling, the machine had to be flown through the passes. They landed at an Eskimo tillage, and for five days a blizzard raged; it was the only time in six years of Polar flying that ,ice formed on the planes. Returning to Fairbanks, he found the flying field , to be a sea of mud, and for the next fortnight drainage had to be carried out. On taking off the wing came right off and Sir Hubert was trapped in the cabin under twenty-six cases of petrol. Fire was feared, but it did not break out. On being repaired the Southern Cross was flown to Point Barrow, a large territory being mapped. The maps were now of value to prospectors. The flying ground at Point Barrow was a frozen lake: Interesting scenes of Eskimo life at the seal hunting grounds were included in the picture. The Eskimos loved their children and their homes. There was no melody in their music, but the themes were very pleasing. After two years’ use in the Arctic the Southern Cross was shipped hack to Amex-ica, where it was sold to Sir Charles ! Kingsford Sxnith. The plane was too big for Arctic work. In the third year Sir Hubert purchased a Lockheed, made by the same maker of Ellsworth’s plane. In it he set out to fly right across the Arctic. He flew from Alaska to Spitzbergen, a distance of 2,500 miles, in twenty hours, landing at Dead Man’s Island. On reaching Norway he was welcomed by Raould Amundsen, the famous explorer. who shortly, after left to rescue his erstwhile associate, Nobile, and was never seen again. WHALING IN ANTARCTICA.’ In developing his , meteorological plan. Sir Hubert then went to the Antarctic. The expedition’s movements were graphically shown in the film. From Montevideo the expedition went to Deception Island on a Norwegian whaling ship, which travelled 700 miles through the pack ice. On Deception Island was the largest penguin rookery known. It was eight miles square,

and was a mass of penguins. Scenes of whaling were especially interesting. The modern type of harpoon weighs 1201 b? and is shot into the whale. An explosion follows. Death is usually instantaneous, but Sir Hubert has known of five charges being necessary before a whale was killed. One of the mammoths photographed was 103 ft Sin long; blue whales usually measure COft to 80ft in length. “It is pot likely that the whales will be extinguished, because, long before that happens, the whaling industry will be unprofitable,” ' said Sir Hubert, briefly touching on a question of interest to Now Zealand, with its Ross Sea dependency. NEW LANDS DISCOVERED. Six weeks before Admiral Byrd reached Little America, Ben Edison was' pilot on the first aeroplane flight made in the Antarctic. Flying the Lockheed, they took off on skis and flew over the kflown parts, of Graham Land, and reached the unknown continent. They found that Graham Land was not a peninsula, but a group of islands, and also discovered 1,400 miles of new coastline and seven or eight islands. _ Some of the mountains were 15,000 ft high. Sir Hubert did: not find it necessary to winter in the Antarctic, but he left the planes behind. In the second winter he returned in the William Scoresby, a small vessel owned by the Colonial Office, and in_ the vessel he cruised southward looking for a suit-, able place for taking, off on a_ flight to Little America. After searching for thousands of miles, he found a base on floating ice, but the ice was. unsafe and the flight was abandoned. If that flight had been made the plans of the Ellsworth expedition would not have been necessary. However,/seven flights were made in the Pacific sector of the Antarctic, and a place suitable for a meteorological station was discovered. Their work in the Antarctic was finished, although much work yet remained for exploration by aeroplanes and dog teams. Although he regretted leaving the Antarctic, he was glad to return to further his plans for a submarine expedition to the Arctic. The .American navy finally loaned him the Nautilus, and the vessel sailed on the hazardous Atlantic crossing. . Through an attack of toothache an engineer forgot to close a valve, and an engine broke down. The vessel was cramped with machinery, and with the reduced staff it was found impossible to keep the machinery in good order. The Nautilus ran into a heavy storm, and for five days the crew was battened down; below. An American battleship towed'the Nautilus to Cork. Each member of the crew was presented with a walking stick there. Sir Hubert suggested that that was Irish humour, insinuating that they would have to walk home from the submarine trip. The Nautilus was docked at Deyonport naval yards for extensive repairs, 194 jobs dope in the Philadelphia naval yards having to be recovered. The Prince of Wales, with whom Sir Hubert had been in Prance during the war, visited the submarine for several hours. In perfect order, the Nautilus travelled to Bergen, which was reached at a stage in the season when they should have been returning from the Arctic. They reached a point only 400 miles from the Pole. SIGHTS UNDER THE ICE. He had never intended to explore the ice from the surface, but to submerge. Under water the speed was three'miles an hour. However, it was discovered that the diving rudders were r missing. Several months later he discovered that the rudders had’been removed by operation of a machine by one of the crew who was not too pleased with the prospect of going under the ice. On announcing his intention to dive under the ice he gave every member an opportunity of leaving the expedition and joining a ship in the vicinity, but all

the crew volunteered to remain. They were brave men. While scientific work was going on oceanographic research was proceeded with, samples of the ocean bed being taken at depths of three miles. At last the submarine went under the ice. The submerging of the vessel was tricky work. As the vessel moved under the ice the noise, of the ice on the huge drum, 175 ft long and 25ft in diameter, was terrific, and he thought the submarine would be ripped open. He had not counted on this noise. The sights through the portholes were marvellous, visibility under water being , good for 30 or 40yds. After thirty-seven miles had been covered under the ice the Nautilus Returned to the surface. He knew that the Nautilus was not suitable for a trip across the_ Arctic, but it was suitable ':for acquiring the information he desired. The submarine expedition, he could assure the public, was a success from his point of view, and he hoped, .with the assistance of his friends, to build a new Nautilus and to go back to the Arctic to establish meteorological stations. ■