ARCTIC EXPEDITION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20642, 14 August 1930, Page 11

ARCTIC EXPEDITION.

WILKINS ON HIS PLANS.

SUBMARINE'S NEW NAME. GUARANTEE OF RETURN LODGED By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. (Received August 13, 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK. August 12. Sir Hubert Wilkins lias lodged a bond for £2OOO, executed by the National Surety Company, as a guarantee to the Uriitod States Shipping Board that he will return to the Government in. good condition the submarine 012, which he is to use on hijs Arctic expedition. Sir Hubert, after an inspection at Philadelphia of the submarine, said he proposed to take with him a crew of 18 men, provisions for a year and fuel for 7000 miles. He will go from Spitzbergen on and under the sea to opcu water in the Behring Strait on the other side of t lie North Pole. The 012 is one of several undersea boats built before the World War. It has been renamed the Nautilus, after Jules Verne's mythical craft.

"Three hundred ships have been lost in vain attempts the Pole by crushing a path through the ice," Sir Hubert said. : "I do not believe it can be done. We plan to cruise under tho ice nt a speed of not more than four knots. If we hit submerged ice nothing will bo damaged because of the protective steel we plan to instal, "Every 100 miles we must come to tho surface to take air. If. it happens to bo open water we can open the hatches. If there is ice overhead we-can pierco it with a collapsible ice-breaker. Wo expect, to bo able to pierce ice 12ft. thick.

"The purpose of tho trip is purely scientific. We plan to test the behaviour of the gyroscope compass at the Polo and hope also to mako preliminary observations as to the possibility of placing a weather bureau station in the far north. The station would bo of great value to meteorologists in forecasting the weather. '