BYRD BREAKS CAMP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20496, 22 February 1930, Page 12

BYRD BREAKS CAMP.

[LOADING SUPPLY SHIP,

AEROPLANES LEFT BEHIND

VESSEL'S BATTLE WITH ICE,

TBy Telegraph—Press Association—Copyrigli

NEW YORK, Feb. 20. tßy Mr. Russell Owen. Copyrighted 1028 by the New York Times Compnuy and the St. Louis Post Dispatch. All rights for publication reserved throughout (he world. .Wireless to tho New York Times.] BAY OF WHALES, Feb. 19.

Tho City of New York was no sooner tfongsido tho ico than tho gear piled Oiero was tumbled on board. It camo bver the sido i" a steady stream, records *nd scientific gear first, followed by personal baggage, and finally other things hliich were piled up in between the decks jmtil tho ship was full to tho hatch covers. All night long tho loading -went on find by breakfast time this morning wan finished, except for a few things which Bid not long delay tho ship. There was K need for haste, for tho season is getting late and tho ice pack has not disappeared this year. Breakfast was a sadly interrupted fncal, however, because the arriving mail tvas distributed then. Thero were bags find bags of it.. It had been piled in Hear-Admiral Byrd's cabin to keep it flrv, and it seemed as if thero would be bo end to tho amount of letters, bundles fcnd bags, and tho men staggered away trom the door with the loads they could bardly lift. Haste to Head Letters. Thero will never be another mail day liko it, for most of us, and even then Ihere was not time, at first, to read letters. Tho men grabbed a handful of torrespondcnce, scanucd tho hnndwritihg J)n them and hurriedly stuck them in their pockets, until tho ship should be at pea, and there would bo time to look them bver at leisure.

Just before the camp was finally defeerted Rear-Admiral Byrd and Captain McKinley hauled down tho flag which has flown over tho camp ever since tho Sun camo up. They saluted it and then Byrd turned toward tho hill on which lay his two aeroplanes that had carried him and his men to the South Polo and on other flights, and with a wave of his hand, a half salute and a half farewell, turned away from them. He. hated to leave them, but there was no way out of it. They are perched on the hilltop, jtheir wide wings spread out against tho Sky like two giant birds resting. Ship Scarred by Ice. The ship boro marks of her battle with the ice. ./All along her sides her sheathing was cut and scarred whero tho blocks bf ice had hit her in tho gales, and holes jwere punched right through the bulwarks at tho lino. There was no doubt that tho had been on a rough passage, and fas Captain Melville said: "Ono moro Hay. and wc would have bad to turn horth and run out of it. She could not have stood much more."

Both Captain Jlclvillo and Johansen ihe ice pilot, wore cntliusiaslic about the chip. They doubted if any other vesse fcould have stood the battering she re jceived and come through, and Rear. [Admiral Byrd was as pleased with th< ,way the crew had handled her and stuck jby their guns in difficulties. "Wo got along well until February 7," eaid Captain Melville. "Then a gale began which lasted all the way -to the DBamer. It started with a blizzard, and ;tvhen it was nofc blowing great guns it ;was snowing. New ico was forming fast Jalso and during the latter part of it we fan through a lot of that and slush. "The swell increased and I figured that i*we were near open water. Finally we tame out /of it at night with the gale blowing Nearly a hurricane. I have been uround Cape Horn several times and I never saw such seas as those. To make matters worse, big pieces of ice were being thrown about. They were lifted bigh above the rail when the seas roared plongside and 1 admit that I was nervous shout them. If tho ship had fallen off and some of- these chunks had come aboard they might havo sunk us. Forced to Hun lor Shelter. •"Finally we decided to turn tail to tho #torm and run for shelter. It took nearly an hour to get, around, hut wo made it, and then ran for three hours to tho northjwest until we got back into pack and slush See and hove-to in a clear place in tho 3eo of the ice. "Tho next day, February 8, tho gale (began to moderate! a little and wo made our way out and again started south. jWe had to run through 16 miles of pack See and slush again before reaching open ;water and camo out in longitude' 177 "degrees and latitude 69 degrees 15 minutes south. From that time wo have seen only a few scattered bergs, but we had no observation from February 11 until February 16. • ."The ship began lo ico up on February 13. Of course, we had some ico before, but it was not serious. Fix'.n then on it began to gather in earnest. Tho crew all the lime chopping tfnd smash* iing it from tho sides and from every [place they could reach. There wero 27in. of ice on the poop deck when wo reached shelter, so you can imagine how much live gathered. "It was worst forward, for there we 'could not get at it—the seas came over solidly and writ aft, and the. ice increased until there was a mass around the iriartingalo which 'a man could not put J tin arms round. There must have been ■2O tons on 11m headgear of (fin ship alone, and that height made her stick her nose into every sea. No Solar Observations. "I was afraid that wo might lose ilio headgear and if 11mL went it would have pulled our masts over. li. was a tough time in jtiiose days. .Ml we could do was io keep her head into the wind. With Iho engine full ahead and with no solar observations, and the compass acting crazily, as it always floes in these latitudes, it was hard to tell where we were, but it, was a .shock on February 15 when .we sighted land to realise how far wo bad blown off our course. I know it has happened beforo under such conditions, (but, just the same I was disappointed.

"Tho weather became clearer soon after ianil then wo saw the high peaks of -what turned out to be Ross Island. Onro under the lee of the land we got to work chopping away tho ice, and wo must have cleared 200 tons off her, but it was <i Jrough ride wTiile it lasted."