BYRD EXPEDITION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 10, 22 December 1933, Page 7

BYRD EXPEDITION

AMONG THE ICEBERGS Unusual Number Encountered NEARING UNKNOWN WATERS (Special to the Press Association from the Byrd Expedition). JACOB RUPPERT, Dee. 21. At noon to-day the Jaeob Ruppert was .barely a day’s steaming from the edge of the unknown waters encircling the Pacific quadrant of the Antarctic. The course is still south-east. Apparently we are getting into the greatest ice-berg producing area in the world. Since the one first, sighted this morning over 800 have come within vision. A ‘‘fleet” of a score or more, exactly like ships under way, aro strung across the vessel’s path. The nearest is less than three miles distant and has slicer sides, Ihc largest dose to 250 feet above the water. The sea is strewn with gently rocking ice debris, through which the Jacob Ruppert is warily feeling her way. Rear-Admiral Byrd and other Antarctic veterans said they had never seen such quantities of icebergs. Admiral Byrd remarked: “Only an undulating and extensive barrier coast could produce bergs in such large numbers. Somewhere hereabouts is a barrier which may be considerably larger than the great Hoss Teo Barrier.” Admiral Byrd's present objective is a. point in the South Fucillo where the 150th meridian cuts the Antarctic Circle. From there he hopes to work the vessel past the record tracks of Captain Cook in 1773 and then explore 2000 miles of undiscovered eoast-lino to right and left of the position. If ice-pack storms prevent navigation an aeroplane flight over the area might be attempted. Admiral R. E. Byrd’s ice-breaker and auxiliary supply ship Bear of Oakland, which, is now on her way from America to join the Antarctic expedition, is expected to arrive at Wellington either next Tuesday or Wednesday. She will make only a short stay, during which 200 tons of coal, left here by the steamer Jacob Ruppert, will be loaded. She will probably leave Wellington towards the end of next week, and is expected to join the flagship Jacob Ruppert in the Ross Sea early in January, both ships then proceeding to the ice barrier to land the expedition and its supplies.