ANTARCTIC

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 64, 2 March 1929, Page 5

ANTARCTIC

NEW EXPEDITION PENDING BACKED BY AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT. BYRD OFFERS TO CO-OPERATE. (Copyright from tho Byrd Expedition by Commander Byrd.) (Received 2, 10.15 a.m.) Bay of Whales, March 1. “I have just heard that the Australian Government is backing an Antarctic expedition for Sir Douglas Mawson. This is good news. My friend Sir Douglas is a great seient ist as well as a great explorer, and there is no one with greater knowledge of Antarctica than he. Wo therefore predict a brilliant success, and if it may bo possible for our expedition to co-operate or to lend him assistance, we shall be delighted. Antarctica is a tremendous area, and it will take many expeditions to bring it out from the region of the unknown.” SIB DOUGLAS MAWSON'S ARRANGEMENTS. Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) London, Feb. 28. Sir Douglas Mawson, discussing his Polar expedition arrangements, said he was taking over the Discovery, which was at present at the West India doek nearing completion. Provided there was no unforseen delay, she should be in readiness to start late in the autumn. The Discovery would shortly bo taken over by Captain Davis, who would go to Australia in the summer. Sir Douglas Mawson himself would go to Australia by mail steamer. He said he was already inundated with requests from all parts of the world to join the expedition. “My own opinion,” said Sir Douglas, “is that visions of a great Polar continent, affording facilities for human life on a big scale, will never come true; but there is no reason why small communities should not find life there tolerable, and in some respects even advantageous. Although women could not reasonably participate in Polar exploration, there is no reason why they could not endure settlement life in the Antarctic regions.”

The old Discovery has been many things in her day, but contrary to general belief, she was never a whaler herself. 'She was designed >n whaling linos, as being best for Antarctic work, but she was intended from the first to carry Captain Robert Scott’s National Antarctic Expedi tion down to survey Ross’s Great Ice Barrier, and to explore the land that was said to exist to the eastward of it. She left Lyttelton, New Zealand, for the Antarctic, in December, 1901, and was soon bound tight in the ice, when the special strengthening, provided by tho Dundee Shipbuilding Co. stood her in good stead and prevented her from being crushed. She was discovered still firmly embedded in the ice by the relief ship Terra Neva in the beginning of 1904, With 18 miles of ice with a minimum thickness of sft between her and open water. By the strenuous efforts of the crews of both ships, assisted by blasting, she was finally released. After that, she acted as a fur collector for the Hudson’s Bay Co., a supply ship during the war and the operations in .Turkey, and a relief ship for the Shackelton Expedition.