FROM SHIP TO ICE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 10788, 8 January 1929, Page 6

FROM SHIP TO ICE

STARS AND STRIPES FIRST TIME IN ANTARCTIC. BYRD’S EXPEDITION LAND MATERIAL. FIRST HOUSE SHOULD BE ERECTED IN FEW HOURS. NO FLYING FOR WEEKS. (Copyright 1929 by the New York Times Cb. and the St. Louis Post Dispatch. All rights for publication reserved throughout the world.) (By wireless to the New York T.mes.) (By Russell Owen.) (Received Jan. 7, 7.d0 p.m.) BAY OF WHALES, Jan. 6. “To-day we moved our main baseft is the first time the Stars and Stripes have ever flown cn the Antarctic Continent. _ Our adventures continue and we are learn ng so moiling about this extraordinary part of the world. The 21st of December was our mid-summer day, and yet even now x ice fills the Bay of Whales. A leader in the Antarctic is unfair to us shipmates if he does not exercise much pat ence with the elements. Each day brings a new caprice of nature. Yesterday a ten-foot crack aliened in the Bay ice between the ship and the main base seven miles ■way, and wo have to send our nine heavily-loaded dog teams to the westward to get around. The total distance wo must now haul our loads •s nine miles. This makes 18 miles daily for the teams. To-morrow we •weeb to have ten dog teams on the job, but still the transfer of our material will be a long and slow process Our shipmates understand the u'ohlern, and those nob on watch on lie ship and at camp have volunteered to man-haul the equipment to the base with sleds. From noon to seven o'clock they managed to pull a ton and a.-half of material a third of the vay to the base. To-morrow they have got to haul at least five tons the same distance and the dogs will then take it the rest of the way. “ft will be some days before we an do any flying as we must devote our efforts to getting our mater al to 'tho shore, and erect houses. The first of four houses should be up yit'hiu forty-eight hours, It will then take at least a week to prepare and tend the ico field, and another several weeks before wo can do any Hying. _ “It is only by proceeding with thoroughness that we will be able to occced. The ice between us and the base may begin to break up at any lime, and so we must be on the job continuously, wth a radio look-ouu and strict rules to prevent the transportation party getting caught on the iee-flocs.

CONSTANT WATCH WITH GLASSES.

“The men ail 1 © safe as long as can keep our glasses on them, but in case of fog or snow the ice party and the ship look-out lose track of each other. A navigator with a compass is sent in with the dog teams, the route is marked with orangeyellow flags, which are most v'sihlo in the snow, and all hands hare instructions to make rapidly for the camp in case of fog or snow. Without Hags it- would l>e quite easy to et lost in a. snowstorm that might last for a long time. Every member of the transportation party is required to take his reindeer skin sleeping bag with him, so that he can weather the storm if necessary. No 0110 t permitted ©n the unexplored part of the harrier without a companion ed to him with an Alpine rope.

G ICEFIELD FORCES SHIP TO LEAVE BERTH.

After the dog teams left yesterday 'i huge icefield of enormous jagged cakes drifted rapidly oil to us from Mio east-, and to prevent huv'ng our '■•ip injured by it we had to leave our berth along the side of the ice r.nd put to sea. We could not drift .-'t-Ii the wind, as that would have L i-ken us against the ice barrier, so hoisted our sail and moved about all night. In this way we saved ecal, for we are 2.700 m'les from the nearest coaling station and are nursr our precious fuel with the greatest possible care. We must leave 75 '- ns on the barrier for fuel during the six months’ night, and so from tlio beginning, the preservation . of coal has been one of our serious problems. Tins would not have been possible without the tow of 1,600 miles on the vovage from New Zealand.

PREPARATIONS FOR- SIX MONTHS’ NIGHT

‘‘The party is out every day. We expect to use seal blubber for fuel nnd l'ght during the six months nicdit ;-nd with the meat we are feeding the dogs. From the skins we will make warm clothing. We would l>o well supplied with oil if we could procure some of the great schools of killer and fin nor whales that are blowing and snorting day and njght along the edge of the ice. When n.,yy dive under the water after hlow'ng their great- fins look like, the periscope of a submarine submerging. ELEANOR BOLLING TO LEAVE N-Z. ON JANUARY 10. ; ‘The ship Eleanor Bolling heads for us on.her three thousand mile voyage on® January 10. Wo have postponed her departure from . New Zealand from January 1 owing to the unusually bad pack ice that lies in our path for several hundred miles. Wo think that hv the time tlie Bali ng reaches the pack it will have drifted away mostly to the westward.