NORTHWARD BOUND.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 April 1925, Page 5

NORTHWARD BOUND.

ANOTHER POLAR ASPIRANT. ■ LAST LAP IN AIRSHIP. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. LONDON, April (i. The Vancouver explorer, Grettir Algarason, who will' lead an expedition to tne North Foie next month, making the final dash of 300 nines by aeroplane, has written to the Daily Express giving further details of his plans. “The airship in which 1 hope to reach the Pole will be of a small, non-rigid type, similar to the .Blimps used in patrolling the Channel during the war,” lie says. “The airship has been specially constructed in London to encounter exceptional conditions, but we are in such a hurry to obtain a. start over Amundsen that its first and only test will be a flight from London to Liverpool. ft is 150 leet long, with a window gondola made to carry fou,r passengers and thirty days’ food. There a,re two sleeping berths for men off duty and special cooking stoves. Spare petrol will be carried as ballast, and also a small sledge, which, in the event of accident, will hold enough food to take us back to our nase ship on the Aliskan coast.

“Last winter in the Arctic is reported to have been the,warmest far a century, which will probably enable the base ship, named the Iceland, to go further north than was originally expected. The airship is carried on hoard the Iceland on a special deck. As the airship’s cruising speed is fifty miles an hour, we hope to reach the Pole in twelve hours. “We will make fast, descend a rope ladder and make observations to determine whether there is land or shallow water a+ the Pole. We will then return to. our ha.se shin, with which we shall he continuously in wireless communication.”