WEATHER STUDY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 109, 7 April 1934, Page 7

WEATHER STUDY

IN POLAR SEAS,

FAMOUS EXPLORER’S QUEST.

Misconceptions based on wrong theories concerning the motives which had actuated ■ his submarine projects of Polar exploration were exploded by Sir Hubert Wilkins when speaking at a civic reception given in his honour at the Palmerston North City Council Chambers to-day. He said that he had no desire to be sensational when he undertook the voyages, could not be blamed for the idea, of which he was not the originator, and had never read Jules Verne’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” until he was journeying across the Atlantic in the submarine Nautilus. A NOTABLE RECORD.

Extending a cordial welcome to the visitor, the Mayor (Mr A. E. Mansford) said that undoubtedly most were aware that Sir Hubert Wilkins was an Australian by birth. In 1912-13 he was photographic correspondent with the Turkish troops in the Balkan AVar. In 1913-17 he was second in command of Stefansson’s party in the Canadian Arctic expedition. In 1917 he was granted a commission in the Australian Flying Corps and later was attached as second in command of the military history department as official photographer. During the War he was twice mentioned in despatches, was awarded the Military Cross and later a bar to it. In 1919 Sir Hubert was appointed navigator of the Black-burn-Kangaroo aeroplane on the England to Australian flight. In the years 1920-21 he was second in command of the British Imperial Antarctic Expedition, and in 1921-22 was appointed naturalist with the ShackletonRowett Expedition. In 1923-25 Sir Hubert led the Wilkins Australian and Islands Expedition for the British Museum; he commanded the Detroit Arctic Expedition in 1926-27, and it was during this flight that he used the monoplane Detroit, afterwards taken over by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and renamed the Southern Cross. In 1928 Sir Hubert flew over the North Pole, and during that year was knighted in recognition of his many achievements. “The most daring, and, I must say, what many of us thought the most foolhardy feat by Sir Hubert was his trip in the Nautilus when he attempted to reach the Pole by submarine under the ice,” added the Mayor. “He now contemplates building the Nautilus 11, and I am sure we all wish him the best of success.” Concluding the Mayor apologised for the unavoidable absence of Mr J. A. Nash, M.P., and of Mr M. A. Eliott, a member of the New Zealand Institute. TRACING AIR MOVEMENTS.

Stating that it was a great pleasure to be in Palmerston North, and thanking them for the honour accorded him. Sir Hubert said the records showed that he had been kept fairly busy for the last few years, but he was not scarred and -wrinkled as most people expected to find a Polar explorer. People often wondered why he went to the Polar regions and especially in a submarine. Brought up in Australia, he had been at an impressionable age when he saw his own and other families ruined by the great drought of 1900-03 when thousands of sheep and horses died of starvation. It occurred to him that the losses due to drought might be overcome by foretelling when the good and the bad seasons were coming. “I believed that it would not bo impossible to understand the laws of the atmosphere,” added the explorer, “and that the system of air movement must be governed by the same sort of mechanism as everything else. He concluded that its operation might be discovered by study in all parts of the world. Two bands of atmospheric movement appeared to rise at the Equator, proceed towards the Poles, and sink down there before returning to the Equator. The most favourable point for study after the air liad been subjected to the influence of the sun in the stratosphere appeared to be in the Polar regions. He had planned a series of observations in the vicinity of the 80th parallel, hut discovered that there were blank spaces on the map where occupied bases had to be established 1500 miles apart. Spasmodic observations were of no use. They had to continue over at least one sunspot cycle. Information obtained, too, had to be transmitted from hour to hour and day to day to other places and correlated. TEN YEARS’ WORK. Many would be surprised to learn, continued Sir Hubert Wilkins, that the first man he approached on the subject was Marehese Marconi, the wireless inventoi. The latter then said that it would not be possible for at least ten years to have cheap shortwave communication hourly with all parts of the world. Sir Hubert then proceeded, realising that it would take ten years to complete his geographical work.

Aerial observation was required over the billions of tons of ice, especially in the Antarctic, which influenced the temperatures of the ocean and the air about it. He felt that if lie could trace that movement and see its reactions on the large continents he would begin to know .something about the system of air movement, and that, after 20 or 25 years’ observations, they would be able to forecast the seasons. He considered that was a good speculation for all concerned. Losses of millions of pounds through droughts could be obviated. United States rubber company managements said that they could save millions of dollars a year if they knew in advance the nature of the seasons. It was estimated, added Sir Hubert, that 12 meteorological stations were needed in the Antarctic and 32 in the north. Sixteen of the latter had already been established. Firstly these stations had to he located at points accessible each year for the transport of supplies and relief of staff. The reason for using the submarine lay in the fact that at one point in the Arctic Ocean there was no land to be found. It had occurred to him that it would be much more comfortable and safer to live under the ice and come up to take observations. A SUBMARINE BASE.

“People thought that I was crazy,” said Sir Hubert, “but they forget that where there is water it is not freezing point, and it is probably IUU degrees warmer than on the ice where the temperature is 70 or 80 degrees below zero, and where storms and blizzards rage. The submarine was not intended to go on a voyage underneath the ice to the North Pole That is a point which was not lucidly explained. It was to be used to provide headquarters for a group of scientists making observations. There was no desire to be sensational. I never read ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the See’ until I was crossing the Atlantic in the submarine. It was Bishop John Wilkins, whom I believe to be an ancestor of mine, wrote in 1668 voicing the idea of using a submarine for making weather observations. It was curious that I should lie working for seven

years before I discovered this. There is a tapestry made in 1420 A.D., and found in Berlin, which depicts a submarine under the ice and an aeroplane above, so that people cannot blame me for the idea.” (Laughter.)