SUBMARINE IN ARCTIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20218, 1 April 1929, Page 9

SUBMARINE IN ARCTIC.

WILKINS' LATEST PLAN.

PROPOSED POLAR VOYAGE.

NAVAL EXPERTS DOUBTFUL.

OUTSTANDING DETERRENTS.

Australian and N.Z. Press Association. (Received March 31, 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 30,

Sir Hubert Wilkins, the well-known Arctic explorer, informed a representative of the New York Times that ho is conducting active inquiries into the possibility of making a submarine trip across the Arctic Sea. However, ho has no definite plans yet for undertaking the trip this year. The explorer said he would like to bore his way through the waters beneath the polar ice in order to study the ocoan depths and currents. He said he had this trip in mind for 15 years. He believed the journey could be made in a month and that July would be the most favourable period.

It would be possible to do it this summer and bo back in timo to resume his Antarctic work next October. Sir Hubert was non committal when he was asked whether ho had planned the expedition for tho coming summer, but he admitted that ho would require tho aid of some Government and had been making inquiries. He said Stefansson had suggested the i.'oa in 1913.

A telegram from Washington says naval submarine experts regard Sir Hubert's plan as highly impracticable. It is learned that the explorer asked the Navy Department recently to provide a, submarine for tho venture, but tho request was not looked upon favourably.

The great depth of tho Arctic ice field and tho limited under-water cruising range for submarines were considered to be the outstanding deterrents to tho accomplishment of the plan. It is pointed out that Arctic ice-bergs often extend many hundred feet below the surface of the sea.

Tho greatest depth ever attained by an American under-water craft is 318 ft, The under-water cruising range of a submarine is only 200 miles and should Sir Hubert's boat exhaust the batteries while beneath tho ice-floe he would be trapped unless he could blast his way out. It is seriously doubted that a depth bomb would bo sufficiently powerful to work through a heavy sheet of ice.