A GREAT ADVENTURE

Northern Advocate, 20 June 1925, Page 4

A GREAT ADVENTURE

It was fine news yesterday that Captain Ronald Amundsen and his five companions had returned safely to Spitzbergen from their quest for the North Pole; today it is finer to learn the details of their inspiring adventure. As was supposed soon after the intrepid explorers ( left King's Bay on May 21 in their two fying machines, difficulties of weather were encountered early. The machines flew almost as far as the explorers expectcd to have to go in order to reach the position of the Pole, but wind caused them to deviate from their course, and when they were able to make a descent they found .themselves still some distance from their objective. What followed is told but briefly. The 'planes were frozen in, and it was only after working hard for 24 days that the voyagers were able to release one of them and make their escape from the Arctic ice. We can imagine something of those weeks of solitary endeavour, for much is to be read into the statements that the marooned men "drastically rationed" themselves, that two members of the party were only saved from drowning through the heroism of Lincoln Ellsworth, Amundsen's first lieutenant, and that on their return to Spitzbergen their friends could see how they had suffered. When the whole story is told it will, no doubt, rank with those of the greatest exploits of the Arctic and Antarctic. The six adventurers have , endured, terrible hardships, and not in vain. They could not win to the Pole, but they have added to the store of human knowledge. They have charted a new route in the wastes of the Arftf-. and have gathered evidence of the nonexistence of land in a larc'c area. Probably they have gained fresh knowledge that will aid the sc ■u.-e of meteorology, and they ha ,- o p'-ov ; ■! man's newest means of , -"i be useful in the forlri r»mditions. More than fhet. !<.'ve inspired the world f'c.r :h ! ous courage. They W-n i> o\. Ihat the men of today .:i"o ••oil! mould; that thev '■n. .. the great forces o p ■ ' -in Ihrough to sii'''"""" ' ' 'inle of daring, skill. " r,: ' '!'••■ ->nd self-sacrifice is.a f " 11 " i^ed l\v their fellows.