NO NEWS OF AMUNDSEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19027, 26 May 1925, Page 9

NO NEWS OF AMUNDSEN

. FLIGHT TO NORTH POLE. SHIPS PATROL ICE EDGE. 1 ANXIOUS ARCTIC VIGIL. THREAT OF BAD WEATHER, NOTE OF ALARM SOUNDED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received 7.5 p.m.) A. anrl N.Z/-—Sun. LONDON, May 25. There is still no news from Captain Tloald Amundsen and his companions who started on their flight to tho North Polo in two flying-boats from Spitsbergen on Thursday afternoon. Tho following wireless message despatched from the Norwegian transport Farm from W./llman's Bay, north of Spitsbergen, on Sunday, was received to- ' clay " Tho weather outlook to tho north of Spitsbergen is better than it. was yesterday, but cloudy. Tho visibility this afternoon was fair and flying conditions wero good. " The meteorologists of tho party assume that the good weather is now ncaring its end, as a low pressure system is advancing toward tho Polo. If the right timo is chosen for their return tho airmen will have the wind behind them, but, if their departure is delayed they will probably encounter thick and cloudy weather. / " If the bad weather reaches Wellman's Bay the Farm and tho Hobby will leave in order to follow Captain Amundsen's instruction to patrol .along tho edge of tho ice where tho aeroplanes would have every opportunity of descending on to the sea." i , Blizzard Ceases on Saturday. In spito of the absence of news from the airmen there was no note of anxiety in tho official copyright wireless report sent out from the Farm on Saturday night. This said: " Tho Hobby returned at 11 p.m. after an investigation of the north roast as far as Biscayer's Hook. Up to the time she loft there on her return at. 8 p.m. she had seen no sign of tho airmen.' " The blizzard has ceased and the clouds have dispersed. As a result the visibility tci tho North is excellent, with occasional sunshine. " According to the meteorologists' latest report tho weather over the Polar ! Basin is fine. The Hobby reports that jthe visibility was good over the Polar ice." Prolonged Absence Expected. I A message from Copenhagen states that [the editor of the Oslo newspaper After i Post, who was closely associated with ! Captain Amundsen's preparations, says he considers that 'the absence of news gives |no cause for alarm. It will, he says, | require at least 48 hours for,the airmen j to carry out thorough observations at th« I Pole similar to those which were carried ' out at tho South Pole in 1911. i Tho editor says he considers it possiblo i that one machine will return to SpitzIbergen with Captain Amundsen and that jthe other will' fly southwards to Cape | Columbia, or to the ship Maude, where I she lies ice-bound at the New Siberian ■lslands. ' Such, a flight would be across it he unknown areas which Captain AmuodJsen originally intended to explore. Aviator's Pessimistic View. ; A despatch from New \ ork states that ' Captain Hammer, the Danish aviator who i accompanied Captain Amundsen two years iago to within- 400 miles of the Pole, asserts that to attempt, to land in the vicinity ot the' Pole in the aeroplanes must be suicidal because of the rough ice. If '[the airmen managed to descend, how could they rise again ? ho asks. Captain Hammer says ho thinks the expedition has not more than one chance iin a hun'dred of returning. There are, 'he says, terrifying hummocks ,of ice all about iri the region of the Pole. "If anything happens to their aeroplanes," he says, " they are gone, as water intervenes 'between the Polar region and any route of escape to Alaska or Siberia.