THE WYATT EARP

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 23 November 1938, Page 8

THE WYATT EARP

BATTLING THROUGH PACK ICE MESSAGE FROM ELLSWORTH I United Frees Aseociationl WELLINGTON, This Day. 'J he following message, copyright to tiii North American Newspaper Alliance, has- bee i received from the Lincoln Ellswoith Antarctic expedition aboard the Wyatt Earp. ‘ We are 700 miles from the Great Barrier. Since leiving lverguela Island on I.7th November we fought our way through pack-ice in the teeth of a 50-inile-an-hour gale. The ship’s decks and mils are heavily moulded with ice and the speed at times was under one mile “The meeting with the pack-ice was dramatic. The wind subsided suddenly ana the storm clouds cleared. The Aurora Australis shot across a clear but nightdarkened sky. momentarily defining the hoiizon. Then we entered a curtain of ice crystals hanging 700 feet above the sea. “Once through its edge, visability was nil. rhe high swell of the sea was felt, hut the sudden stillness was awesome. Before long we felt the crunch of ice against the ship’s bows. We are in the region of Jack Frost.” EXPEDITION COSTS £I,OOO A DAY CAPETOWN. Lincoln Ellsworth, the explorer, arrived in Capetown to await his base ship, the Wyatt Earp, which sails at the end of October on a voyage of discovery to the unknown African side of the Antarctic Continent. “No man has ever penetrated into this part of Antarctica.” he said. "With luck, I shall be the first to cross it.” The Wyatt Earp carries two planes in her hold. When the expedition has reached Antarctica, Commands Ellsworth and his pilot will take off from an ice-floe in the larger plane on a flight to the Bay of Whales. They will have three months’ emergency provisions with them, for there is nothing to eat in this desolate region. “No bird,” said Commander Ellsworth, “will go more than three miles inland. There have never been any animals there ever since Antarctica broke away from Africa before the world took shape.” This is the last trail to be blazed, he explained. Civilisation had charted every other corner of the earth. His present expedition would cost about £I.OOO a day.

The expedition will have its base at the Bay of Whales, to which point the ship will cruise when the plane has set off on its flight.

Commander Ellsworth, unassuming in manner, speaks with a quiet American voice, and expresses keen interest in everything he discusses. He has been making Polar flights for the last 12 years. He went with Amundsen across the North Pole from Spitzbergen to Alaska in 1925. In 1926 he flew over the North Pole in the airship Norge, which was piloted by Nobile, who later met with disaster in the Italia during another Polar flight.

It was Lincoln Ellsworth who sent out the first radio message in history from the North Pole.