ANTARCTIC AREAS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23274, 17 February 1939, Page 21

ANTARCTIC AREAS

AUSTRALIA'S VESSEL EXPLORER APPROVES PURCHASE j £from our own con respondent] SYDNEY, Feb. 10 The sale of the polar exploration ship Wyatt Earp to the Federal Government by Mr. Lincoln Ellsworth for £4400 was, acclaimed by Sir Douglas Mawson in, an interview at Adelaide. "Mr. Ellsworth has made a generous gesture to assist Australian scientific investigation, and I am delighted" that the Commonwealth Government has taken the opportunity of purchasing so valuable and fully equipped a vessel," §aid Sir Douglas. "The new vessel will be a great aid to science, and as soon as I know the plaits of the Government I will lose no time in organising further Antarctic work. I believe.that Sir Hubert Wilkins also is interested in conducting exploration in Princess Elizabeth Land.

"Australia now has a vessel .with which any summer she can readily undertake comprehensive scientific exploratory work in the Antarctic, and with this asset valuable Antarctic exploration at small expense can be carried out annually.

"In the past suitable vessels have been very costly. The well-known vessel •Discovery, used by Captain Scott, even though somewhat bigger and stauncher, was built at a cost of £63,000, when the cost of wooden ships was considerably less than to-day. "The Wyatt Earp is a wooden vessel of 400 tons, with a speed of seven or eight knots, and with its acquisition I can see a new era of Australian Antarctic exploration opening up."