IN THE FAR SOUTH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20610, 8 January 1929, Page 9

IN THE FAR SOUTH

FLYING THE AMERICAN FLAG. DANGERS OF THE ICE. .GETTING MATERIAL ASHORE. By Russel Owek. Copyrighted, 1928, by the New York Times Company and St. Louis PostDispatch. '. All Rights for Publication Reserved Throughout the World. Wireless to New York Times. NEW YORK, January 0. . (Received Jan. 7, at 7.55 p.m.) Mr Russell Owen, aboard the barque City of New York, in the Bay of Whales, under date January 6, writes:— “ To-day we moved our main base. It is the first time the Stars and Stripes have ever flown on the Antarctic continent. Our adventures continue, and we are learning something about this extraordinary part of the world. December 21 was our midsummer day, and yet even now ice fills the Bay of Whales. A leader in the Antarctic is.unfair to his shipmates if he does not exercise much 'patience with the elements. Each day brings a new caprice of nature. “Yesterday a ten-foot crack opened in the bay ice between the ship and the main base seven miles away, and we have t 0... send our nine heavily-loaded dog teams to the westward to get around this crack. The total, distance we must haul our loads is how nine miles. This makes IS miles a day for the teams. To-morrow we expect to have ten dog teams on the job, but still the transfer of our material will be a long, slow process. Our shipmates understand the problem, and those not on watch on the ship or at the camp have volunteered to man-haul the equipment to the base with sleds. Prom noon to 7 - o’clock they managed to pull a ton and a-half of material a third of the way to the base. To-morrow they have got to" haul at least five tons the same distance. The dogs will then take it the rest of the way. ■ _ ■ “It will be some-days before we can do any flying as we must give our efforts to getting our material to shore, and erect houses. The first of four houses should be up within 48 hours. It will then take at least a week to prepare for the ice field, and several weeks before we can do any flying. • It is only bv proceeding with thoroughness that we will be able to succeed. The ice between us and the base may begin to break up at any time, and - so we must be on the job continuously with the radio lookout and strict, rules to'prevent the transportation party getting caught on an iceflow. The men -are safe as - long as we can keep our, glasses on them, but in the case of fog or snow the ice party and the ship lookout lose track of each other. A navigator with a compass is sent in with the dog teams and the route is marked with orange and yellow flags, which are the most visible on snow, and all hands have instructions to make rapidly for the camp in case of fog or snow. Without the flags it would be quite easy to get lost in a snowstorm that might last for days.' Every member of the transportation party is required to take hisireindeer skin sleeping bag with him so that" he can weather the -storm if necessary, and no one Is permitted oh the unexplored part of the Barrier without a companion tied fo him with, alpine rope. “ After the dog 1 teams left yesterday a huge icefield of enormous jagged cakes drifted rapidly on to us from the east, and: to prevent having our ship- injured by -it. we had to- leave, our; berth- alongside the ice and put to sea. We could not drift with the wind, as that would have taken us against the ice barrier, so we hoisted sail and moved about all night. In this way we saved coal, for we. are 2700 miles from the nearest coaling station, and are: nursing our precious fuel with the greatest possible care. We must leave 75 tons on. the barrier for fuel during the six months of night, and so from the beginning preservation of coal has been one of our serious problems. This'would not have been possible without the tow the, Eleanor Bolling gave us 1600 miles on the Voyage from New Zealand. The party is out every: day. “We expect to use seal blubber for fuel -and light during the six months’ night. From the skjns, we will make warm clothing We would be well supplied with oil if we could procure some of the great schools of killer and fiuner whales that are blowing and snorting day and night along the edge of the ice. When they dive under the water after blowing their great fins look like the periscope of a submarine submerging. : “ Our expedition ship, the Eleanor Bolling, will head for us tuber 3000-mile voyage on January 10. We have postponed her departure. from New Zealand from January 1 owing to the unusually bad pack ice that lies in our path for several hundred miles, and we think that by the time she reaches the pack it will have drifted away, mostly to the westward.—Australian Press Association.