AMUNDSEN’S JOURNEY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 17 May 1926, Page 9

AMUNDSEN’S JOURNEY

EXTRA EDITION.

TRANS=POLAR FLIGHT. BAD WEATHER CONDITIONS CREW’S EXCITING TIME. BY CABLE- -PRESS ASSOCIATION COPY BIGHT. Received ii.3o u.m. to-day YAINCU'U Vilß, May LG. In a wireless message no in the Norge, atiuresscd to -Nome, Captain -Ainuiiasen uesonbetl ins voyage. ne said wiat they haa tuignt sunsnine, except tor an iionr bexore reaching tne Role, which was readied at 2.30 o cock in tne morning. Re was au.ie to ciiecK. tne position oy raa.o geonometer ana longituae observations. Ca.ptam miiuncisen described the Onoppmg oi t>n® American, Norwegian ana Italian hags, anti then, after circling the Tolc, the N org. was neaaed for ifarrow at seven o'clock in the morning. The ice-covered, hole was reached during a fog, and the explorers were obliged to go very high. Buch bleaks as they got failed to disclose any signs oi land. Snow followed them, and hoar frost began to settle inside the living quarters, on the ropes ana other gear, it even formed on tire engine gondolas and rigging, until it droppeu otf it m pieces which were caught by the propellers and shot througn the snip, along with pieces which formed on the propellers tnemselves. This experi- / ence was very exciting, and for hours | th e crew was continuously engaged in patching holes in the fabric covering the keel and protecting tne air bal - loons, and speculating upon the possibility of being compelled to lands on the ioe-pack. Then conditions improved and they were able to pass under the fog cloud, permitting observations to be taken with the magnetic compass. The sun compass outside had become a soid block of ice and was useless. At last they spotted land ahead. They wereolose to Barrow] 46 ( hours after ieavong King's Bay, Spitzberg. The coastline was followed, but fog and snow made visibility had and travelling difficult. As they feared the possibility of striking the Alaskan mountains, till at last the sun gave a chance for making observations, they took the opportunity to set course over the Behring Strait,' to clear any land and came down over the sea. ice, whereupon the freezing of fittings began again. This time- it was critical, as all, materials for patching had been used up and there was no more glue left to mend the holes in the torn fabric. Broken ice, drifting with a very strong wind, indicated that they were too far south and a long distance from laud. Orders were therefore given to steer towards land to eastward, wherever it appeared, in the- quickest possible time. Thence they carried on till eight o’clock on Thursday night, when they noticed the lights in the fishing village of Tellair. They then stopped the engines and landed. The total distance travelled by the Norge was 2700 miles, made up of the stages: King’s Bay to the Pole 750 miles, in fifteen hours; circling the Pole and- making' observations consumed 2) hours; from the Pole to Barrow was a distance of 1250 miles, which / was travelled in 28 hours; from Bar- | row to Teller, 700 miles, occupied 24 V hours. The centre of the ice cap, or ice pole, is about 400 miles from the North Pole, in the direction of Barrow, and almost in a direct line between the Pole and Barrow, so that the navigators reached it without- going out of their course. This is a’so the Pole of Inaccessibility, because it is approximately the most distant noint on the earth from the most northerly positions which the explorers had achieved in ireaching the North Pole. Admiral Peary came within 400 miles of the Pole of Inaccessibility. but no others have approached -so close. —Sydney Sun. Oab-'e. UNANTICIPATED DANGER. NEARLY RESULTED IN DISASTER. Received 1.20 -pun. to-day. VANCOUVER, May 16. The flye/i-s seemed to have .anticipated and guarded against every possible source of danger except the one which nearly resulted in disaster to the Norge, namely tthe dhiance that the propellor .blades would bat chunks of ice -through the skin of the ship. This practically kept the crew under a bombardment, the possibility of which bad not -received sufficient attention. —Sydnev Sun Gable.