BYRD EXPEDITION

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 73, 21 February 1930, Page 7

BYRD EXPEDITION

BAY OF WHALES LEFT. BACK TO CIVILISATION. CITY OF NEW YORK’S TRIP. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright). NEW YORK, Feb. 20. The City of New York left the Bay of Whales at 9.30 o’clock on Wedneslay morning. “This weather-beaten, ice-sheathed ship means letters and home and the way back to civilisation, stated a mesr sage from the Byrd expedition. LOADING OPERATIONS. NEED FOR HASTE. BIG MAIL "FOR PARTY. (By Russell Owen, copyright 1928 by the New York Times Company and the St. Louis Post Dispatch; all rights for pub lication reserved throughout tho world. Wireless to tho New York Times.) Received February 21. 9.15 a.m. BAY OF WHALES, Feb. 19. The City of New York was no sooner alongside the ice here than the gear piled at the spot was tumbled aboard. It came over the side in a steady stream—records and scientific gear first, then the personal baggage, and, finally, other things. All night the loading went on. and by breakfast this morning it was finished, except for a few things which did not long delay the ship. There was need for haste, because the season is getting late and the ice pack has not disappeared this year. Breakfast was a sadly-interrupted meal, however, because the arriving mail was distributed then. There were bags and bags of it. It had been piled in Rear-Admiral Byrd’s cabin to keep it dry, and it seomed as if there would be no end to the amount of letters and bundles. The men staggered away from the door with bags they could hardly lift. Even then there was not time at first to read the letters. The men grabbed a handful of them, scanned the handwriting, then hurriedly stuck them in their pockets until tho ship should be at sea and thore would be time to look them over at their leisure, at least, for those who would not he seasick, and most of us barrier lubberswho have been afloat for a year but might as well have been on land, expect to be indisposed to a greater or less degree. FLAG HAULED DOWN. Just before the camp was finally deserted Rear-Admiral Byrd and Captain McKinley hauled down the flag which had flown over the camp ever since the sun came up and saluted it. Then Rear-Admiral Byrd turned toward the bill on which lay the two ’planes which carried him and his men to the South Pole and on other flight.?, and with a wave of his hand, half salute and half farewell, turned away from them. He hated to leave them, but there was no way out of it. They are perched on the hilltop, the wide wings outspread against the sky like two giant birds resting. The ship bears the marks of the battle with the ice all along her sides. Captain Melville stated:—• “One more day and we would have had to turn north and run out ot it. She could not have stood much morei”

Both Captain Melville and Johansen, tho ice pilot were enthusiastic- about the ship. They doubted if another could have stood the battering she received and come through.