UNDER THE POLAR ICE

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 76, 25 February 1930, Page 7

UNDER THE POLAR ICE

VOYAGE IN A SUBMARINE. WILKINS CONTINUES PLANS. NEW COASTLINE DISCOVERED. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copvright.) MONTEVIDEO, Feb. 24. Sir Hubert Wilkins, the Australian explorer, is leaving for New \~ork within a week to prepare for an Arctic trip in a submarine, which he considers a logical undertaking. Maps showing three hundred miles of hitherto unknown coastline discovered by Sir Hubert Wilkins and films of scenes in the Antarctic, were landed here to-day’. Sir Hubert stated that the members of the expedition had suffered from seasickness only' when making short trips in small craft. The weather had been worse than on the last trip, although there was less ice.

The expedition had verified the fact that Charcot Island was a peninsula, and not an island, with a large continent to the southward. Instead of finding land west of Charcot they’ had found only water. Sir Hubert Wilkins said that thev had been in no danger when cut off from wireless communication last month, but being surrounded by a mountain range nine thousand feet high south of Peter the First Island made transmission and reception impossible. He had prepared plans for the establishment of permanent observation posts in the Antarctic, but the inetallation of these depended on the financial co-operation of the nations concerned. It was possible for men to live in these regions for long periods.

Sir Hubert Wilkins first anounced hie plan to cross the North Pole by submarine when he was in New York at the end of March last. He had, he said, conferred with the United States Government officials with regard to the voyage, which would probably be from Spitzbergen to the Behring Sea. Sir Hubert pointed out that there was need for such a trip in order to obtain data of the depth of the Arctic Ocean, and also to diecover if the bed of the ocean was a conical depression or basin-ohaped. He estimated that the voyage could be completed in a month. Xavyrsubmarine experts, however, said that Sir Hubert’s proposal was highly impracticable, because the cruising range of a submarine was limited to about 200 miles when submerged. Moreover, the greatest depth heretofore attained by an American submarine was 318 feet, which would probably be insufficient to negotiate the Arctic ice, the estimated depth c,f which, in many places, was estimated at several hundred feet.