“THE PENGUINS” REASSEMBLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19019, 15 November 1923, Page 11

“THE PENGUINS” REASSEMBLE.

EXPLORERS AXD WRITERS. DR STEFANSSON AND WR.ANGEL ISLAND. (From Odh Own Correspondent.) LONDON, October 5. After Sir Ernest Shackelton came back from his first Antarctic expedition be and his comrades formed what was known as the Penguin Club. Beside explorers they gathered together a rather happy party of journalists and writers. The club was mainly for social purposes and many cheerful dinners were hold at Gustave’s, a little French restaurant in Soho. Then came the war. and. like so many other organisations based on sentiment, the Penguins met no more in Soho. Some of the original members made the supreme sacrifice in the war and the “King Penguin” has found his final resting place down in South Georgia. Last week, on September 28, it was the birthday of Mrs Shackleton, (he explorer's mother. Dr Vilhjalmur Stefansson had been in London, hut was on the eve of returning to Canada, and Captain J. Stenliouse. one of Shackleton’s officers during the 1914 expedition, was to fco married on the following Monday. These incidents seemed to present adequate reasons for a reunion of ifie Penguins, and mine host. Monsieur Gustave, elected to entertain the members. In a little upper room there is a painted frieze depicting the Penguins holding court. They are actually penguins, but each has some stage property which indicates some Antarctic explorer. Shackleton, indicated "by a King Penguin, is seated crowned on a throne in the centre. r lhis was done by the artist, Mr D. Carter. There, wore some 35 members of the old club present at the reunion dinner. Explorers were not very well represented. Beside Dr Stefansson there were Commander F. A. AVorsley, who lias recently returned from Hudson’s Bay; Mr L. C. Bernacchi, one of the scientists of Scott’s first expedition ; and Captain Stenhouse. For the rest, quiet men in soft collars as likely as not, turned out to be authors whose works one had read for 20 years. It was a very bright affair. Mrs Shackleton’s health was drunk. Commander Worsley recited a poem on the eccentricities of the. Quest as a sailing ship. The verses have never been published, nor are they polite enough for general consumption, but they graphically describe (he dislike the members of the Quest expedition had for this fiendishly unstable and recalcitrant little craft. . Mr Bernacchi also had a hitherto unpublished Antarctic story to tell. It took a long time to tell, but condensed to bare facts, it was of a strange beast, the gyrosoutus, which was observed on the slopes of Mount Erebus. It had two legs and through generations of browsing on the steep. slope* had taken to proceeding always in the same direction, so that one leg became much longer than the other. At first it was only observed by telescope but the explorers essayed to capture a specimen. But the strange beasts invariably travelled extremely fast round and round the mountain. At last the seamen pf the party w-ere sent to head them off w-hile tlie scientists drove them forward according to their natural bent. When the gyrosenti found themselves for the first time in their existence headed off they turned lieht about so that the short leg was dpwn hill and the long one up hill. The re'sult, of course, was disastrous. They all rolled down into the Antarctic Ocean, and if any explorers go to Mount Erebus to-duy they will find the gyroscufi quite extinct. - TRAGEDY OF WRANGEL ISLAND. Dr Stefansson was in much more serious humour. He is evidently greatly perturbed over the tragedy which has recently occurred at Wrangol Island. He spoke on the subject of his recent explorations for an hour, much of hit, discourse no doubt being what will appear in his next book and for that reason not for immediate publication. With regard to Wraugel Island, however, he explained that, as Britain had neglected utr for 32 years after it had been discovered, the Americans thought they had a right to claim it, and therefore in 1881 an expedition from America placed a flag on the island and claimed it in the name of their country, occupying it for ten days. No one wont near the island for 33 years, and on the assumption that what was good tor the goose was good for the gander, the Canadian Government reclaimed it in 1914, and they gave instructions to Stefansson to place the Canadian flag on the island. The explorer seems to have realised for the first time during this last year that the history of the British Empire teaches that tho Colonial Office has through the past century been persuaded to extend that Empire most unwillingly. As for the tragedy that occurred on the island, Dr Stefansson attributed it to too great a confidence on the part of the men left on the island. In any case, the party which set out to cross to the mainland had before them a very easy task considering their experience. Tired of waiting for the rescue ship which never came, they no doubt made up their minds to snend about four months on the coast of Siberia, whore comparative luxury could be obtained with the hospitable reindeer owners. Possibly the ice had broken up in tho night when (hey were camping and they had boon tipped into the sea. One otiier thing had placed the party on the Island in a bad position. To economise thev had been content to take with them a ship’s boat instead of a skin boat, with (lie result that they Were unable to cross the onen spaces of water which sometimes appeared in the ice and separated (hem from tho hunting grounds of the walrus. On another occasion it seems they had piled tip tons of meat and left it for a week, with (he result that the hears had got the lot. . The men who had perished wefe experienced, and there was nothing apart from some miscalculation on their part which could account for the tragedy.