AMUNDSEN’S STORY

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2715, 24 June 1925, Page 7

AMUNDSEN’S STORY

PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF FLIGHT ionlh’s Fight Against Enclosing Ice N 25 RESPONDS TO VITAL CALL. [By Electric Cable—Copyright.} [Aust. and N.Z. Cable Association.} (Received Tuesday, 7 p.m.) LONDON, June 22. A wireless message from King’s Bay gives Captain Amundsen’s thrilling personal narrative of the polar flight. It describes how, soon after setting out on May 21, the party traversed a two-hour fog, then a sunlit expanse of gleaming ice, probably over the S3rd degree, a fresh northeaster curtailing the speed. “We came down in line, calm weather and noticed that the ice was most uninviting, even for a forced landing, there being, hard, snow-filled crevices and ice packs. Therefore we recognised that the trip was more hazardous than we had thought Hours passed with no sight of land and it was apparent that we had gone over far to the westward and so we turned eastward.

“Still there was no sign of suitable landing. ' Feucht, at 1 o’clock in the morning, Hay 22, reported that hair his petrol had gone and it was decided to land and verify our position. The plane went down to the hundred metres level. In Grip of the Ice. “The ice floe seemed a most at* tractive landing, but Riiser Larsen’s engine back-fired and we were compelled to alight or» a branch of an ice lane between the lofty walls, the machine pressing down the ice blocks with the wings overlapping the walls. Coming to a stop at the extreme end of the lane with its nose against the ice floe, but undamaged.” The story proceeds: “We landed and sought to reverse and remove the machine to the main ice lane; it was most fatiguing and the walls, coming together like lobster’s claws, caught us in.

“Dietrichsen, meanwhile, thought Kisser had gone mad to attempt a descent in such a terrible spot. Dietrichsen ascended in the main lant unknown to us. We feared that the pack ice would screw up and destroy plane N 25. Observations taken during the night showed the position to be 87/43 north, 10/19 west.

“The plane was frozen in by morning and could not be moved, so we prepared on May 22 for a journey afoot to Cape Columbia. So far, we had not seen the N 24, but had heard a shot, We tried to cut a path, but it refrozc as fast as we cut it, therefore we had to hack a path over the floe at the bow, Risser Larsen using an axe, Feucht an ice anchor and I a knife fastened to a ski stave. At night lime, the thermometer read lOJdeg. Fahrenheit. We were terribly cold, sleeping in our bags. Next afternoon, we wore delighted to see a flag mounted on a tall floe, by which we found the N 24 party and exchanged signals. We learned the N 24 was leaking, necessitating constant pumping. Meanwhile, the ice drift brought the parties closer. Saved from Drowning. Next day, the N 24 was abandoned as inextricable and her crew began to cross the new ice. Riiser Larsen and myself went out in a canvas boat to help them. Suddenly',, we heard Dietrichsen and Omdal calling for help. They had gone through the ice while carrying a heavy load. Ellsworth rescued the former and we two together saved Omdal, just as he was disappearing under the ice. Both owed their lives to the lifebelt waistcoats, purchased as an after thought at Tromsoe. The combined party of six then began making a passage for the N 25 according to the best roadmaking principles. Firstly, ice blocks were laid down, then fragments of them. A snow track was ready by the evening of May 27. Though the engines were running, five of us had to help as best we> could to move the engine. Finally, wo reached a long floe clear of the danger of “pinching.” With our rations cut down, we became enfeebled. Currents drove us southwards, then back. Further North Useless. “Wo discussed the possibilities of further flight. Experience had shown the impossibility of finding a landing place and also of accurately determining the position of the Pole. It would simply have been a continuation of the flight over the ocean near the Pole, which was of doubtful value and not worth the risk. We began on May 30 clearing the ice afresh, but our first attempt to depart on June 1 failed, the ice breaking beneath the plane. « “The position was now ugly. We awakened early in the morning to find the ice turning the plane around. The hull was creaking and groaning. I was sure we would lose her. Riiser Larsen and Omdal hacked the ice and reduced the pressure. Lives in the Balance.

"Next day, Riiser Larsen tried t® drive the plane along-, but she Suddenly lifted her tail, because the ice could not bear the weight of her nose. We again hacked at the ice, realising our Uvea were in the balance. Riiser Larsen tried the plane at full speed and she cleared.”

Amunsden then describes the galling task of completing the tracV, often necessitating working almost the whole night long. “The moving floes kept undoing our work and we decided to sleep In shifts, realising we had only till June is to make the vital decision, jvhether.

to go afoot. Though, the rations were again reduced to thre biscuits and a few tablets of malted milk, with, a little cocoa each, we joked and sang while working. The two pilots on Juno 2 found a large floe, eight hundred metres away, which would be suitable for making a departure track. This floe we reached after many trials and disappointments, as compensation for which, the whole party indulged in a more generous allowance of pemmican. It was necessary on June 7 to cut through a twelve foot ice wail and build a bridge across the chasm which the . N 25 just managed to clear. We tried to start on June 8, but the snow was cloggy, so we had to clear _ It away. By June 15, we had completed five hundred metres of the track, half of which flooded through the crack. Another attempt to start the plane was unsuccessful, so we jettisoned everything that could be dispensed with. The temperature became lower, but a breeze was blowing, so we again tried to fly. A Great Moment— We Fly.”

“Riiser Larsen skilfully avoids the rough patches and we make a hundred, two hundred metres. On nearing the end of the track, our speed is not yet full, but just sufficient to take the last jump from the floe, and we are in the air at last! Our feelings can be imagined. We munch our biscuits and chocolate and begin to wonder whether we have enough petrol, but we soon see the heights of Spitsbergen. About this time, the stabilizsation rudedrs began to give trouble and finally the party had to alight in a rough sea. Wo rode over this and reached land on the west sida of North Cape. “Ship Alioy.” “On setting foot on the hard moun-tain-side, I think we all thanked God for His help during our month,- of constant battle for life. We were preparing to eat when a shout: “Ship Ahoy” was heard. We saw the sealer, Sjoeliv. All rushed aboard the plane and taxied out to the sealer, on which we journeyed ta ; King’s Bay, where we were royally welcomed. - “We are now busy filling out the hollow spots between our ribs.” ALGARSSON’S EXPEDITION. DUNEDIN MAN CHIEF ENGINEER. (Received Tuesday, 7 p.m.) LONDON, June 22. Mr. Gordon Burt, of Dunedin, has been appointed chief engineer to Liuet. Aigarsson’s expedition, which left today en route for Spitzbergen.