A LONG DRIFT

Hokitika Guardian, 27 May 1929, Page 2

A LONG DRIFT

J. i.* i i : v! ■ ■ AGBOiSS NOi-Vvl. BOLE. CAPTAIN BA:UfLETT’S PLANS. VANCOUVER, April 17. Captain Robert Bartlett, who was with Peary in his days to'within two degrees of the North Pole, and who rescued his thirteen companions when they; wore, crushed in the ice near "Wrangell Island in 1914, plans to drift across the North Pole in an ice-proof ship of oak, which will leave. Seattle next autumn: •'

Bartlett’s plan is to freeze in the ice pack and drift over the pole, or as close to it as the ice pack will go. He expects it will take two'.years.

The boat' will have a saucer bottom so that she cannot ho crushed; as the Karluk was on His previous trip. She will have a crow of ten haiYly young scientists, together with Eskimos and dogs. There will be two planes, and runaways will be built on the ice pack. [Bartlett will build a house on the pack and roof it over; kennels will be built for the dogs. They will have a radio to keep in touch with the world. The drift ship will bp a schooner with a Diesel engine for auxiliary po-w er. Bartlett says she will be so strong and so built as to withstand the pressure of the ice. He‘even believes she cannot bo rolled over. Sailing from Seattle she will go through the Yuiuinak Pass to the Aleutians, and the Behring Sea, north to the Behring Straits. Then Bartlett will wuldi for an opening north, put her in the ice lot her freeze in and drift, lie expects to ho kept busy for two or throe yea l " taking soundings and meteorological observations, as well as studying sea and animal life, till he reaches Spitsbergen or Greenland. Asked as to the hardships of such a venture. Captain Bartlett observed: “No—not for me. The elements are kinder than things you meet in Mm city. The winds. The storing: Mm m* T know bow to get along with them. I EXPERIENCED EXPLOBF.iI. I Tf tbo suggestion to drift in Hie ire | pack arms the North Bole came from, anyone but Burl loti. it would get scant ill tent ion. But Bari 101 l knows

.the pack better than any man living or. dead. He was only 22 when lie wintered with Pojiry at D’Urville, Kane .ißasiii, on a' hunting expedition in 18SU-B'. From 1901 he captained r •sealer for four years, then he commanded tlie ‘Roosevelt From 1900 ,tc 1909 .taking an active part in Peary’s expedition to the Pole, and reaching ■the 88th parallel. On a private hunting expedition he again went to Kane Basin in 15)10. He was with the Canadian Government Arctic Expedition of 1913-14, as captain of the Itar Ink. which was crushed by the ice. With seventeen persons lie reached \Yrange'll Island. Leaving fifteen there with one Eskimo he crossed the ice to Siberia and returned with a rescue party reaching Warngcll eight months after. A year later lie reached Nome With thirteen survivors. In 1917, re commanded the Croker land relief expedition to Northern Greenland. In 1925, lie was sent by the National Geographical Society to locate bases lor aircraft in Northwest Alaska, and on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, also ’recording tides and surrents and dredging for flora and fauna, in 1929, lie went to North Greenland and Ellesmere Land; in 1927 to Fox Dasin and the western shores of Baffin Land, last year, to Siberia.