SOUTH POLE EXPEDITION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 16 August 1928, Page 8

SOUTH POLE EXPEDITION.

BASE AT PORT CHALMERS

DETAILS OF ORGANISATION.

NEW YORK, July 13

Supplies for Commander ixichard Byrd’s South Pole expedition are now being Kent- to Port Chalmers, aud the expedition will make its .New Zeeland base there.

The expedition headquarters at the Biltmore Hotel has latterly become a Uive of activity, with, an organisation that lias men in Washington, the Canadian wilderness, Norway, and Prance, in cqnneeion with tlio choice of personnel, equipment, and supplies. It is estimated that the expedition will cost £160,000, or slightly more than the Scott expedition. The sealing ship Samson lias been dry-docked and overhauled at Tromsoe, Norway, and lias been' specially fitted for carrying the three aeroplanes that Byrd will take with. him. He has had many consultations and continuous correspondence with Amundsen in regard the fitting of the Samson, as well as all the supplies and equipment, to the selection of which Amundsen has brought his latest experience in South Polar regions. The question of the choice of aeroplanes has been a difficult one, especially in regard to the. machine that will carry dogs and sleds over the polar plateau, which is 16,000 feet high, and the need for a machine with a slow landing sp’eed, to avoid disaster from the hidden hummock ice.

A new type of Antarctic house has been designed to accommodate the personnel, especialy the scientists and their instruments. Three of- these houses will be arranged around a general mess hall and outbuildings, and will make a tiny village to be set on the ice. Previous expeditions had the scientists working in a room dug out of the ice, but Byrd plans greater comfort for them. The houses are specially designed to resist cold at 7 5> degrees below zero :at the winter base. The physicists, geologists, and meterologishs have selected their equipment, and are now busy assembling it. Tractors with treads suitable for ice and snow travel, such as have been in use in Northern Canada, are being selected. They will carry supplies from the ship to the base, and haul the aeroplanes. -The chief difficulty lies in extricating the planes lrom the snow and. ice, and “jockeying” them into position for a take-off. A “snowllier,” or small automobile, with snow, treads on the rear wheels, will be used also for transport, and for laying down the forward bases, toward the pole. The construction' of the sleds have 1.-een the subject of much thought and, discussion. The conditions in the Antarctic are so rigorous that only the most flexible, type will stand the strain there. Three types were finally chosen by Byrd, after many talks with Amundsen and his two dog mushers, Scotty Allen, a Canadian, and Arthur Walden, of New Hampshire. The sleds for transporting material are double-ended, and linked together, to he drawn either by dogs or tractors. Those for the inland bases are of the basket type, with the rear part built up at the sides. Screws will be replaced by rawhide lashings. Tiie sled to be carried to the Pole by Byrd on .the ’plane has been made, from a. design by Oscar Wasting, who . accompanied Amundsen to the South Pole, and who is going with Byrd. It is a beautiful piece of workmanship, elastic and strong, and, though weighing only 501 b will carry half a ton. Canadian mushers and experts are now sending down 100 dogs from the Far North, from which Allen and "Walden will select 60. Fur clothing for the expedition, made l>v Eskimo women, has now arrived in New York. The parkas are made. of reindeer skin and are. wind-proof, with an inner lining of fawnsldn. Furlied. slcin socks will minimise the danger of frozen-feet. The footgear will be packed with Senna grass from Finland, which hp.s been found by previous Polar expeditions to be a splendid insulator. Other types’' of boots have been made in Norway. Sleeping hags have been made of reindeer in Alaska, and have eiderdown .lining. The food problem has been the greatest especially that of the containers. Tin crystallises at 30 below, and crumbles away. Byrd lost a lot of gasoline in the Far North from this cause. ' Dr. Goman, of John. Hopkins University, who is the medical officer of the expedition, has been in consultation with the United States Bureau of Standards about some other metal that will resist low temperature. Experiments are now under way. Dehydrated vegetables will form the greater part of the diet. Elaborate experiments are being made to determine the best means of avoiding scur-

w. The personnel is now completed. Byrd received 5000 applications for positions on the expedition. New appointees, supplementing the list already published. include an ex-commander of the British Naw as bo’s’un. Allen, the dog driver, 'is an ex—surveyor of the Canadian North. Byrd considers that his scientif'p personnel is the best available. Their projected value is shown s v tii© fact that the scientific works of th» Pcott expedition filled 12 large volumes.