RACE TO NORTH POLE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 101, 30 March 1925, Page 12

RACE TO NORTH POLE.

WORSLEY AND AMUNDSEN. NEW ZEALANDER’S ENTERPRISE. LONDON, March 17. With characteristic daring. Commander Frank A. Worsley, of New Zealand, will endeavour to race Captain Ronald Amundsen in his flight to the North Pole. It will be a somewhat one-sided race, as Captain Amundsen will make his attempt by air in well-equipped machines, while Commander Worsley will use an old wooden brigantine, the Lady of Avenai, as far as Spitzbergen, and then an aeroplane. Still a friendly contest between these two famous explorers is sure to arouse a world-wide interest.

Commander Worsley, who was born and educated in New Zealand, is 52 years of age. He was captain of the steam yacht Endurance in Sir Ernest Shackleton’s South Polar expedition, and navigated Shackleton’s ship from Elephant Island to South Georgia. The Lady of Avenai was formerly used as a training ship by Captain Dowman, but was laid up when bo bought the famous tea-clipper Cutty Sark. The expedition will leave Liverpool in May in charge of Grettir Algarrson, a marine officer, who was formerly a journalist. The brigantine, which has been renamed Iceland, will carry a crew of 20, including scientists, under Commander Worsley. Tlie trip is expected to last six mouths, but stores for two years will bo taken in case the ship should be ice-bound.