ANTARCTIC DASH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21793, 7 May 1934, Page 11

ANTARCTIC DASH

MR. ELLSWORTH'S PLANS

CHANGE IN PROGRAMME SHORTER FLIGHT PROPOSED Having completed his lecture tour of New Zealand and having spent some time in Dunedin superintending the reconditioning of Mr.. Lincoln Ellsworth's polar vessel, tho Wyatt Harp, Sir Hubert Wilkins is now on his way to the United States and England on a hurried trip before returning to New Zealand to accompany the Wyatt Earp on her next expedition to tho south early next September. Sir Hubert left Auckland on Saturday by the Monterey for Los Angeles. "The Wyatt Earp is in first-class condition again," Sir Hubert said in an interview. "Her hull has been repaired and her engines are turning over nicely. She will leave about September 1 on Mr. Ellsworth's next expedition to the South Polar regions. I shall accompany the expedition again. I shall leave from Dunedin with tho vessel and we shall go across to South America and pick up Mr. Ellsworth at Puerto Montt, in Chile. From there we shall go down to Deception Island, and it is hoped that the flight to the Ross Sea will be made early in November. If all goes well wo shall return to Dunedin in February next."

Mr. Ellsworth's last expedition to the south, of which Sir Hubert was a member, met with ill fortune when the expedition's Northrop monoplane was crushed and fairly badly damaged by a sudden break-up of the ice in the Bay of Whales. It was intended on that expedition to fly from the Ross Sea in the direction of the Weddell Sea, but these plans have now been modified. Sir Hubert said that the flight would begin at a point south of Deception Island and on the edge of the Weddell Sea, and would be made across to RearAdmiral Richard E. Byrd's camp at Little America, on the Ross Sea. By this route the flight would not only be shorter, but would also cover about ''soo miles more of hitherto unsurveyed territory. Before he leaves on this expedition Sir Hubert has a great deal of travelling to do. The scheme, always dear to his heart, of establishing a submarine meteorological observatory in North Polar waters, has not been forgotten, and the purpose of his present voyage to the United States and England is to further the preparations for this undertaking, which he intends to go on with as soon as the Ellsworth expedition is completed.