OVER GLISTENING PEAKS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20892, 5 December 1929, Page 9

OVER GLISTENING PEAKS

THE FLIGHT TO THE POLE. RACE AGAINST A STORM. REMARKABLE NAVIGATION. COMMANDER BYRD’S STORY. (Special to Peess Association.)

By Russell Owes.

BAY- OF WHALES, December 3. (Received. Dec. 4, at II pm.) Continuing his story, ' Commander Byrd says:— There was not less than 300 miles between-ns and the Pole. If the sun remained the .sun compass and the wind drift indicator should take us there as straight as a bee flies, but we would have to' tide the engines all the way.. The plateau was so high that if one of the three engines should .atop, we would have to land on the snow, which at places was nearly two miles' above sea level. “An uncertain thing - at - - aily time, but more uncertain with a- load aboard. The engines must keep, going ” I was saying this to myself when the starboard engine began to sputter. Bernt nosed her down, and Harold rushed to the gas tank valves and stood -looking at the engine. and listening to the jarring interruptions of missing cylinders. • -Mac for once-hesitated in his mapping work. After winning our hardest struggle, was our flight to be ended so neat the objective? Bemt hurriedly manipulated the altitude control. In the effort to economise on the precious fuel the gasoline had been made too lean. The motor began to sing again. I say “ sing ” for its roar was music when it was not missiitg a beat. Flying on a flight of this kind is full of contrasts—everything is perfect one minute and the next everything is black. ■ All was well again, and we looked around. Ahead -was- an apparently limitless plateau, glistening in the sunshine. The great polar plateau at last! It was good to see it after the months we had wondered about it and the hundreds of times we asked ourselves if we would ever be lucky, enough to reach it. .To the left were great mountain masses looming high above our level. 1 -would hesitate to estimate their altitude, hut they are very high, since at this place the plateau itself was about 10,000 feet above sea level. Mac’s photographs must tell the story. Beyond this mass, were separate peaks of many different shapes, running to the south eastward. There' was one great isolated peak, completely snow covered and looking like a great inverted white porcelain howl. Back of. us, running cast and west along the rim of the plateau,, were, enormous peaks, lifting their heads high into the air.’ I looked oyer to the right and got one of those kicks that pull a man away from civilisation and repay Mm. for his efforts,There was a new mountain range in the distance running north and south, a new hit of land to add to the map of the world, which Mac would shoot with his camera. We felt that it was worth while bringing him for that alone. It occurred to me as I looked around at the mountains that they must fringe the whole plateau —Nature’s great dam, holding ice and snow. We can only guess what lies beneath that great ice cap and what its depth is. It *is one of the world’s myssteries that the imiginary point, the South Pole, is in the centre of -an up-, lifted plain hundreds' of miles in dia-

ineter, a .magpificent-edifice seemingly. , !• to make anoye inviolable the tifiy spot which w'e were seeking; The plateau seems to range' from. 7000 to 11,000 feet in altitude. Beyond the new mountain mass we. saw a small peak etickihg up through a great .expanse of snow, a very lonely little black speck. It was hard to realise .that it was the top, probably, of a mountain about 9000 feet above sea level. On we went flying at the rate of 100 miles through the air towards our goal. Our drift indicator showed that the wind was from the left, and we had. to head the plane a dozen degrees to the left in order to fly straight south. It was impossible to tell our exact altitude above the plateau, and therefore not as easy to get our actual ground speed as it would have been over water and ice near the sea level, but there was a way. With a Stop watch we got the time it took a smoke bomb beneath to traverse the length of a 12-inch wire in the bottom of the plane. Turning south, we took the time over the same object in the same manner, and then with simple arithmetic calculated the speed. To do this we were forced to open a two-foot trap door, and the strong wind coming up through it quickly numbed the face. It was 10 degrees below zero, and getting colder.' As we approached the Pole we found the wind was against us, and instead of flying ■ 100 miles an hour over the plateau we were making only 84 or 85. This was a disappointment, aud it would take us longer to reach the Pole than we -had calculated, but we would come hack faster. We took a look back at the mountains, 'and when we saw their great height we realised that, we must be very careful to allow; for the wind unless we reached' our pass on the Axel Heiberg Glacier and; fly through down to the Barrier we might be trapped by mountains that we could not scale. There • were many very important reasons, then, why the wind drift indicator and the aim compass should be used with the greatest aye and why Bernt and Harold should steer carefully. Suppose the clouds should close in around the mountains before our return; that would indeep trap us, but it was one of those chances wc had to take. The character of the plateau surface varied greatlv from time to time. We saw to the left a magnificent glacier running down from' the mountains and showing chaotic masses of crevassed ice, shining blue against the white snow. This may, have been the “ devil’s ballroom,” that dangerous area which Captain Amundsen traversed. We passed over groups oi haycocks, those small rounded domes of snow which cover bottomless pits. There were wind-formed sastrugi, arrow shaped, which appeared to be hard, with knife edges. Landing there would have been like landing among rocks. It was in great contrast to the surface we reached later, which was smooth and bad the appearance of soft snow. While mountains were still looming large on one’s left wc attempted to shoot the sun with the sextant to get altitude, and so give us a sun line that would cut out line of flight, and at the point of intersection tell us what the sun had to say about our progress, but the air was not smooth enough. The 525 horsepower engines in the nose of the plane exerting great fore* to keep us two miles high, seemed to add to the weaving

motion of the plane. It was impossible at this time to keep the sun and the , bubble in the sextant together long enough to get a dependable sight. We hoped that things would be favourable later on, but this did not worry us, for cur distance was so short that we could hardly miss the objective. Our altimeter showed us to be keeping about the same atmospheric pressure, and we were therefore not changing our altitude very much. ■now beneath us seemed to be getting fhrthe> away, so we judged that the plateau was sloping down with a gentle incline. Back in the tail of the plane :waa the metcrorgraph, recording changes

in the temperature pressure • and humidity, which after the flight would tell the whole story. We would know the exact moment of taking.off, the time of every subsequent altitude, and the moment of landing at the mountain base and at Little America. .

Beneath us somewhere was the trail that Captain Amundsen had blazed to the South Pole, a trail now buried far beneath the snow. My admiration for that great explorer increased tremendously when I .saw. what he had to contend with. In his honour and jn honour of Brent and the other Norwegians at Little America and whalers, who, with such great generosity, have helped us, we carried with us a Norwegian flag. We also carried with us a French flag, for ■we have hot forgotten the extraordinary hospitality France showed Transatlantic flyers or the friendship demonstrated for America at that time, and the sportsmanship displayed, at the success of Americans, in face of the loss of their gallant flyer who had set out on a more difficult feat..

Half an hour past midnight we again tried to get the altitude of the sun. The sight was better this time and showed us to be close to our dead reckoning position. That was good, but there was still enough movement in the plane to prevent us from being certain about the sight. There was probably an error in it and just how much we could not tell. We felt confidence in our sun 'compass and drift indicator and luckily our sight.did not change our calculations. The temperature seemed to be falling as we neared the pole. The mountains on our beam were fading now and clouds which may have covered unseen mountains showed on the horizon off the port bow. Harold was piloting and Bernt came aft to tell me that it ■was not quite so clear ahead and that we might find mist near the pole. Once or twice we thought we saw snow drifting beneath, an Antarctic storm seemed to be closing in on us, but we thought we could get back to the mountains. Ahead of it was a great plane with great engines, and" with reasonable luck we should beat that storm.

We had extended the Grosvenor trail now so near the pole that within easy visibility lay the trail’of Captain Scott, who, with his .companions, had perished on his way back. That great hero who had shown that there, are things more important than life, who in failure won immortal success. In his memory andthat of his gallant comrades and in honour of our cousin and friend,. the British Empire, ,we carried with us a British flag.

There flashed through my mind,the fact that some people had attempted to start a wild controversy covering the territorial rights of the British Empire and the United States- as a result of our discoveries. What a pity that there could be such, a controversy! This is a peaceful and scientific mission, trying to extend the boundaries of land and knowledge made ■by • those heroes who gave their lives here. If .the spirit of this expedition towards those gallant men and the nation' that they represented could be known and fell it would add its mite toward furthering the good fellowship which is so .vitally important now that our country, has joined with other nations in a sincere efforts to secure peace and'harmony for the world. The Barrier edge was now about four hours back. No. wonder the boys thought I was flying beyond the pole, which was only a little more than 300 -miles from the Barrier's edge. The wind had caused us to take longer than we had expected, but at last the big moment had come and that imaginary point, the very bottom of the world, was, according to my reckoning, somewhere beneath and within our view. • I handed Harold the following message to radio to our comrades in America:. “My calculations indicate that we have reached the vicinity of the South Pole. Flying high for survey. Will' soon turn north.” Bernt turned the nose of the plane to the right while I attempted to get the altitude of =the sun with the sextant, but there was far too much 1 movement of the plane for results. We knew exactly what the altitude of the sun should be, since the altitude of the sun’s centre at any moment at the pole is equal to the declination .of the sun, which at that time was -21 degrees 27 minutes. The sun circles round that point without any noticeable change in its altitude. We -flew on to the right for five-or.six miles, then circled and flew for an ■ equal distance and followed-our original line of flight five .or six miles further. 1 had wanted to go 50 miles beyond the pole instead- of half a dozen, but we had •been a long time in ; reaching it.- I saw Harold’s and Bernt’s anxious eyes on the gasoline gauges, and it would not be fair to these fellows to go a r -y further. .

We turned the nose of the plane hack towards “Little America,”, and when we reached the place at which we had turned to the right we opened the trap door and. dropped an American flag weighted with a stone from Bennett’s grave. We stood and saluted the spirit of our gallant comrade and our country’s fla". That little silk flag and that small stone are tied together at the bottom of ihe world. We were about 2500 feet above the pole, and the temperature had dropped from 10 degrees below zero.' Visibility was good in most directions, but what was the direction? All directions are north from the pole. When we passed over the pole we had changed our . time, and now we had changed* it back again. We still had a job to do. . The winds were .gathering in> force, and in a short time we could see more'patches of drifting snow beneath ns. ' We watched the sun compass and the drift indicator like hawks. We must:hit the mountain pass. On and on we went, and time that seemed long before crawled now. The first mountains to the' right, which had been clear on the outward journey, were halfcovered with clouds. Mac photographed them. Apparently a storm had just reached there. Bernt had increased the motor revolution, and the great cyclone engine was doing its stuff. We aimed our course a few degrees to the right so as to reach the Barrier more to the eastward than we had left it, to get a better view of Carmen Land, and to obtain survey photographs, which will be geographically 6J great importance. Suddenly Berne gave a shout of joy. A little to our left was the pass we had come through, only partly cloud-covered, and what we took for the Heiberg Glacier ' f i almost dead ahead. Clouds were beginning to form, and we were just in time. We were very thankful that we did not have to waste precious time and gasoline looking for a way through the mountains. Soon we were sliding down Heiberg Glacier, It was very rough, but the plane was light. In another few minutes Harold brought her down gracefully on the ice, hard sastrugi, at our little mountain base. We pnt aboard 200 gallons of gasoline, and left 3501 b of food, 10 gallons of gasoline, 10 gallons ‘of oil, and a gasoline stove for Larry Gould’s party. In an hour we were ready, and Harold lifted the Floyd Bennett easily from the snow and headed for camp. Wo took north over the rolling white plain, and it seemed to us wo could sec all that we had left behind. A few more weeks’ work, then home! NORWEGIAN CRITICISM. ILL-TIMED AND UNINFORMED. • (Special to Daily Time? 1 1 CHRISTCHURCH. December 4. “ M hatever Major (Iran’s opinions may be. it is most unfortunate that he gave public .expression to them at the present time," said Mr H. P. Bridge. Lnited States Consul at Christchurch, i when asked to comment on the Ner-

wegian explorer's criticism of the Polar flight story attributed to Commander Byrd.

“ I consider that his remarks were in very bad taste. lam not able to express a competent opinion on the accuracy or, otherwise of Commander Byrd’s story, but there is no gainsaying that his flight over the South Pole adds still further to an already formidable list of achievements. After having spent several hours in Commander Byrd’s company when he was passing through Christchurch, I can hardly believe that he has indulged in any deliberate misrepresentation or over-colouring of his experience. He has a most likeable personality, and is absolutely the reverse of the boastful type.” Boypnd stating, that Major Gran had been in the Antarctic and should know what ho was talking about. Dr C. C. Parr, professor of physics at Canterbury College, who has had experience in Subantarctic exploration, had little to say about the question. “ Nevertheless, Commander Byrd is a straight-forward and honourable chap, and I do not like to see-it even suggested that he has deliberately exaggerated his experiences,” he said.

Describing Major Gran’s criticism of Commander Byrd’s story as an unwarranted and inexplicable attack upon the. American explorer, a keen student of South Polar exploration said that Byrd’s descriptions of the vast mountains he encountered tallied absolutely with what Amundsen saw and recorded in his writings. Amundsen passed with difficulty through a great and broken range containing peaks jn some cases 15,000 feet high. Scott, who crossed the mountains at another point, did so by climbing the great Beardmore Glaejer, which was 25 miles wide and 100 miles long. Gran’s statement that Byrd’s story of the mountains was a fantasy was sjmply incorrect, and to say that the area traversed was all a huge plain, which, but for a few crevasses, could be crossed on a motor cycle, was stupidly ridiculous. SPIRIT OF REMARKS DENOUNCED, LETTER IN DAILY MAIL. LONDON, December 4 (Received Dec. 4, at 10 p.m.) Mr Herbert George Ponting, F.R.G.S., ■in a letter to the Daily Mail in which he speaks for .all Captain Scott’s comrades, denounces the whole tone and spirit of the remarks by Major Gran. He says; “ They can only recoil upon himself. Commander Byrd spent two years preparing for his expedition, and established a base on the great ice barrier in December. His staff includes geologists, meteorologists, and other scientists. The main geological party is now proceeding with dog teams to examine mountains 500 miles from the base, which Major Gran dismisses as a phantasy. Every polar explorer knows that this vast range was first discovered by Captain Shackleton. I highly admire the achievement of Commander Byrd and his comrades It was a colossal task. Commander Byrd’s fine wireless tributes to Captain Scott and other pioneers and his words before Captain Scott’s statue at Dunedin were the most beautiful and touching tributes from one man to the memory of others.” THE EXPEDITION SHIPS. PREPARING FOR VOYAGE SOUTH, Preparations for the long and hazardous voyage to the Bay of Whales arc .being carried out with speed on board the Byrd Antarctic Expedition ship City of New York at the Rattray street wharf. A start was made yesterday to load stores, several members of the crew and a number of waterside workers being employed on this all-important undertaking. The provisions have been stored in the concrete Wharf shed for 12 months, having been landed after the arrival of the supply ships from- America. . The City of New York will carry sufficient supplies on her southward voyage to last the crew for 12 months. This is essential, as the ship has to contend with the hazards of the ice-pack at all times once she reaches the frozen waters. There is always a possibility of the ship being frozen in for a year,, but Captain F. C. Melville is hopeful that ho will be favoured with the same good fortune as last year when the City of New York safely negotiated the ice-pack when she carried Commander Byrd and his party to the Bay of Whales, and also on the return voyage through the pack.

Captain Melville has despatched a wireless message to Commander Byrd stating that the City of New York will be ready to leave Dunedin on December 15 for the Bay of Whales. . It is expected that loading operations will be completed early next week. The City of New York will make a trip to the Heads about the middle of next week for the purpose of having her compasses adjusted and her. radio apparatus tested. Captain Melville will invite a number of friends to make the trip. Most of the day will be spent at the Heads, and the trip, therefore, will be in the nature of a pleasure outing.

# Two or three members of the expedition who returned to America when the crews of the City of New York and Eleanor Bolling were reduced when the ships went into winter quarters at Port Chalmers have arrived back, and rejoined the ships. A young New Yorker who made three attempts to join the expedition in the early stages, and who was ordered to return to - America with the members of the depleted crews, turned up in Dunedin about two weeks ago. He applied to Captain Melville for a berth on the City of New York, but was not accepted. This man first stowed away on the City of New York, but was discovered and sent ashore before the vessel sailed from New York. He then journeyed down to Norfolk (Virginia), and went aboard the Eleanor Bolling when she called there to coal on her way to New Zealand. The man was again sent ashore, but when Commander Byrd was informed of his keenness and persistent methods allowed him 4 ?> join the Eleanor Bolling, and he arrived in Dunedin aboard the vessel towards the end of last year.

Captain Melville and others from the City of New York have attended several private functions arranged prior to the departure of the ship. It is Captain Melville’s intention to entertain a number of prominent citizens on board his ship before sailing for the far south. Last_ Sunday a very enjoyable Masonic picnic was held at Harrington Point, when brethren from the Milton and Balclutha Masonic order, and also local members of the lodge were transported down the harbour in the ferry steamer Wairckn, which was placed at the disposal of the party by Mr R. Miller. Captain Melville was, by special request, placed in sole command of the party. Music was supplied by Mr R. Kouter, a member of. the ■ crew of the City of New York, who is known among his comrades as “ Ukulele Dick.” WIRELESS EXPERT. AX AUCKLANDER SELECTED. (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, December 4. In answer to an urgent telegraph message from Dunedin, the well-known Auckland wireless expert, Mr R. J. i Orbell, left hurriedly for the south ; by to-niglit’s limited express to join the • Byrd Antarctic Expedition. The summons was received by Mr Orbell late on Tuesday from Messrs H. L. Taj.ley and Co., New Zealand agents ic- tli? expedition in Dunedin, and as the ship Eleanor , Bolling is scheduled to leave for the Eav of tVbales on December 10 be decided to

lose no time in leaving for-the southern port,' The nature of the work which Mr Orbell will be required to do was not disclosed in the telegram, but he anticipates that he will be engaged chiefly in maintenance work in connection with the extensive apparatus carried by the expedition. Whatever the nature of the work he was determined not to miss the chance of attaching himself to the expedition. _Mr Orbell attributes the invitation to his acquaintance with the wireless operators of the expedition whom he met last year during a holiday in Dunedin while the expedition was at Port Chalmers. He gained a close professional friendship with Mr Lloyd Berkner, the chief radio expert, who was keenly interested in Mr Orbell’s work.

A New Zealander by birth, Mr Orbell has lived in Auckland for many years and is known as one of the - foremost wireless pioneers in- the Dominion. He was one of the first experimenters to establish two-way communication between New Zealand and England, and he has also gained recognition for his work in receiving Australian morse on a crystal'set during the infancy of radio activity in New Zealand. He was engaged at the former IYA station in Queen street, and was for a time associated with the Radio Broadcasting Company. He is recognised as an authority on all matters connected with radio. He is technical editor of New Zealand Radio, and is construction engineer to Radio, Ltd., Auckland. Mr Orbell expects to return from the Antarctic in February.

DUNEDIN?S CONGRATULATIONS. The Mayor of Dunedin (Mr R. S. Black) has despatched the following by radio to Captain Byrd:— “ Heartiest congratulations on your great achievement, which crowns your years of patient study and strenuous effort iH' the field of Polar aviation and exploration. May your highest hopes in furthering the cause of science and increasing the store of knowledge of the white wastes of Antarctica be abundantly realised.”