ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 November 1933, Page 8

ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION

GATHERING AT DUNEDIN

[PEB PBESS , ASSOCIATION.]

DUNEDIN, Novembre 11

Sir Hubert Wilkins, interviewed on his arrival here to-day, said that he intended building a submarine specially designed for the conditions to be met with in ice work, and in it would make another under-water attempt to reach, the North Pole. He also intends constructing a boat in which to make the final voyage necessary in connection with the establishment of metedrlogical stations in the Arctic. Later he hopes to erect eleven stations in the Antarctic.

The Wyatt Earp, the Ellsworth Antarctic Expedition ship> arrived in Otago Harbour yesterday afternoon, after a voyage of 104 days- from Norway. The ship bore many signs of the rough weather which she had encountered during the voyage. She is in the command of Captain Baard Holt.

Three famous explorers in Mr Lincoln Ellsworth, the leader, Sir Hubert Wilkins, and Mr Bernt Balchen, were brought together again. Sir Hubert Wilkins and Mr Bernt Balchen were on the ship, and Mr Lincoln Ellsworth had been spending a holiday in New Zealand.

The trip took much longer than was anticipated, owing to the bad weather encountered, and early on the journey southward, the ship ran into storms, and later had to be hove-to for a

period of three days, when about 200 miles north of the Equator. After spending six days in rest and relaxation at Cape Town, the long voyage to Dunedin was started, and then the Tasman Sea was encountered in an ugly mood. On board the ship is a Northrop Delta monoplane, which will be used to fly from the Ross Sea to the Weddell Sea. For lowering the plane on to the ice, a special derrick has been placed on board, and the derrick has a span of 35 feet, thus enabling , the plane to be swung well clear of the ship.

Mr Ellsworth, sa-id yesterday that •the expedition would leave Dunedin on December 1, and it wfts expected that they would be at the base of operations, the Ross Sea, within three or four weeks. He added that if all went well, the expedition would be back in Dunedin after the transAntarctic flight soon after March 1-

WATKINS’ EXPEDITION.

RUGBY, November 10.’

Five members of the Walking Expedition which explored the Arctic ice cap in Greenland in 1930-31 have received from the King, Polar medals in silver with an inscribed clasp. H. G. Watkins, the 23-year-old' leader of the expedition, wag drowned in Greenland waters last year when an Eskimo canoe overturned.