BYRD AT THE BARRIER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 31, 23 January 1929, Page 7

BYRD AT THE BARRIER

Motor Boat Amongst Ice Floes ■ Exciting Adventures With Killer Whales Thrilling Report of Narrow Escape (By Russell Owen, copyright, 1928, by the “New York Times” Company and the St. Louis “Post Dispatch.” All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to the “New York Times.” (Received 23, g. 50 a.m.) Bay of Whales, Jan. 21. "We had our closest and most disconcerting experience with killer whales last week. A short but exciting guessing contest occurred during a long excursion by Commander Byrd in a small boat to a lead along the eastern side of the bay seaching for a landing place for the Eleanor Bolling. He took one of the quarter-boats with an outboard motor and was accompanied by Strom, the first mate, Paul Siple, John Sutton and myself.

THICK WEATHER. “It bad been snowing nearly all day and a stiff wind was blowing off the ice. Although it was still snowing a little when we put off and the sky was a thick, dirty grey, we could see for several miles and make out the smoky outline of the ice cliffs ahead. THE JOURNEY. “The boat ran along the edge of the bay of ice towards the Barrier to the east, the Commander and Strom conning the boat through big lumps of pack ice. Some pieces from 20 to 30 yards across stuck out in great tongues of solid, blue ice far below the water-line. There were uglylooking shelves, cobwebbed and honeycombed with perforations. AT THE BARRIER. “Where we first reached the Barrier it was 35 feet high—a steep wall of white snow outside the true Barrier line in which the strata of many snowfalls could be seen. The Commander turned the boat’s nose southward and then ran along the Barrier for more than a mile to where the ice was caked too thick for our boat to rise over it. Byrd examined the face of the Barrier inland, his glasses focussing on a point where the Barrier sloped gently to the bay of ice, flow blocked by high pressure ridges. He then decided to start home. The motor had other ideas, however, so we had to take to our oars. “We wound in and out of the big cakes of ice while two askua gulls swept down to look over the strange invasion. Many snow petrels were sitting on the ice cakes, camouflaged against the snow, only their black eyes and bills making them visible. AN INTENSE MOMENT. “Approaching the point where the boat was to turn westward along the face of the bay of ice toward the ship the low, feathery spout of a whale was seen half a mite ahead. We regarded that spout with an interest which might mildly be called intense. Byrd was steering standing up. The

drift ice was thick here. Another spout was seen, then the long, black tin of a killer standing over a low ice cake. “The question was, how many were there ? “Byrd headed a coui e close to the ice and straight for the spouts. We all sat silently and watched. We reached a point with a small inlet beyond it and three fms rolled up towards the ice. Byrd at once turned the boat so as to' cut across their tails and we paused not more than ten feet behind them as they disappeared, diving under. They then broke water again 20 feet behind us, heading towards the boat with an enormous, deliberate roll. As the whales rolled toward us Byrd stood with his body half twisted around so that he could see them, holding the tiller with one hand and a. 45 revolver in the other. We had learned that a bullet can account for a killer. As the killers went under again he shifted his course and once more headed directly toward the ice. “ ‘Get ready to get on the ice 1’ A CLOSE THING. “One of us scrambled ashore with a rope and the others tumbled out. Byrd was last. The killers must have dived under the boat and the ice. “After a few minutes we started the motor and pushed off. keeping watch for the killers. We reached the ship in safety. “The lookSut said that he had seen three killers pass the ship a few minutes before we arrived. Probably they were still looking for us. THE ELEANOR BOLLING. “The Eleanor Bolling entered the ice pack at 6.30 a.m. “ ‘We are,’ the Eleanor Bolling reports, ‘right among bergs and loose ice. We have seen penguins and seals on the ice for the first time. We are having wonderful weather. It is clear, hut there is no sun despite the 24 hours’ daylight. The temperature is 38 degrees above zero. All hands are in the best of health and spirits.’

“At noon the Eleanor Bolling was in a position 1,441 miles south-east of Tairoa Head, at 68.38 degrees south longitude, and 177.50 degrees east.”