ADRIFT ON ICEFLOE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 13 April 1934, Page 5

ADRIFT ON ICEFLOE

CHELIUSKIN’S CASTAWAYS HEROIC RESCUE BY AIRMEN (United Press Association—By Electrio Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 13th April, 10.40 a.m.) MOSCOW, 12th April. How airmen in response to emergency calls from Moscow risked their lives landing on the broken ice was revealed by the Cheliuskin castaways’ stories following rescue to-day of a further twenty-two, leaving only six on the icefloe. Those marooned were gradually confined to a smaller space as the breaking, surging ice crushed the camps. They were crowded in a small wooden hut and tents and they kept a temperature in which they were able to live by piling ice against the outside walls. Then the pressure of the surrounding ice became so great that tltje camp’s floor was erupted and carried off the kitchen. The next day, 9th inst., ice again surged in, destroying the hut and the castaways’ only remaining boat. Ice also damaged a laboriously prepared aerodrome to such an extent that the castaways despaired of the possibility of rescue. Nevertheless, in response to Moscow orders, Soviet airmen again and again flew from the base camp at Vankaren. They had to circle round and round the camp before they could find even four hundred yards of comparatively flat surface amid the broken ice. Then with time a pressing problem they had to crowd as many castaways as possible into the small ’planes. Molokiv, one of the airmen heroes, flying a ’plane normally to carry two, crowded three into the cabin, and strapped three more to the ’plane’s lower wings. He made four journeys of an hour each in one day.

Captain Schmidt at first refused to leave before his colleagues, but he became so enfeebled by pneumonia that he was forced into the ’plane and flown to hospital.