CITY OF NEW YORK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20958, 22 February 1930, Page 13

CITY OF NEW YORK

HEADED FOR CIVILISATION. v , . ACCOUNT OF VOYAGE SOUTH. BATTLE WITH THE ELEMENTS, Special to Press Association from the Byrd Expedition •By Russell Owen i (Copyright). SHALES, February 19. City of New York was no sooner alongside the ice here than the gear which was piled at the spot was tumbled aboard. It came over the aide in a steady stream, the records and scientific gear first, then the personal baggage, and finally the other things, which were pile* 5 up in the 'tween decks until the space was full to the hatch. All night long the loading went on, mnd by breakfast this morning it was finished except for a few things which did not long delay the ship.' There was need for haste, because the season is getting late, : and tho ice pack has not disappeared this year. ■ Breakfast was a sadly interrupted meal, however, because tho arriving mail . was distributed then. ■ There were bags mid bags .of it. It had been piled in Rear-Admiral Byrd’s, cabin to keep it dry, and it seemed as if there would be no end to the amount of letters and bundles. The men staggered away from the door with bags that they could hardly lift. Even then, there was hot time at first to read the letters. The men grabbed a handful of them, scanned the handwriting, ano hurriedly stuck them in their pockets UDb L th , e ®hip should be at sea, and there would be time to, look them, over sit leisure, at least for those who would not be seasick. .Most .of ns barrier lubbers, wht have been afloat .for' a year, but might as well have been oh land, expect to be indisposed to a greater or less degree.

Just before the camp was finally deserted Rear-Admiral Byrd and Captain M Kmley hauled down the flag ..hich had flown over the camp, ever since the sun came up and saluted It. Them RearAdmiral Byrd turned towards the hill on ■which lay his two planes which had earned him. and his men to the South Pole: and on other 1 flights, and with a wave of the hand—half salute and half farewell—turned away 'rom them, He hated to leave thorn, but there was no They are perched on the hilltop, with their wide wings outspread against the sky like two giant birds resting.

, shij ? bears ft® , marks of her battle with the ice. All along her sides the sheathing is cut and scarred where blocks of ice Mt her in the gales, and holes were punched right through the bulwarks., Captain Melville stated: “One 1 more day and we would have had to turn north and run out, of it. She could not have stood much more.',’; Both Captain Melville and Johansen (the ibe pilot), were enthusiastic’ about the ship. .They doubted if another vessel coulii have stood thi battering that she received and came through.

.Rear-Admiral Byrd - was pleased with, the way the crew had handled her and stuck by riieir guns In difficulties. * Wtf gbt along well ; until the 7th,” said Captain Melville, “ when a gale began ■Which lasted all the way to the Barrier. .It started with a blizzard, and when it was not blowing great guns it was snowing and lee was forming fast, and through the latter part of, the Voyage. we tan through' a lot of that slush. The ysweU, Increased, .and I figured that we were near open water. Finally, we came put at night, with the gale blowing nearly at hurricane force.

■ ■' l have_ been around the Horn several rimes, but I never saw such seas as .those. To make matters worse big pieces of ice S. ft^wn,ahout ■ They were' lifted _high : above the rail when the seas roared alongside, and I .admit tha,t 1 was nervous About them. If the ship had fallen off and some of those chunks had eo <??n? b< ? ird tbey have Bun ij QB< : Finally wo decided to turn tail v to the storm and run for shelter; It took nearly an hour to get round, but we made it, and thep fan for three hours to the north-west-until we got', back, into the pack and slush Ice and hove to in a clear Place in the Tea of the ice. L . “ The “ext day. (the Bth) the gale began to moderate a little, and we made ;?J? r way out,, and again started south. We had to ran thronglj IQ miles of pack and slush again before -, reaching . open water, and we came out in longitude 177 degrees, latitude 69 degrees, 15 minutes south. ; From that time we have seen only a few scattered bergs, tout we have na observations from the 11th to the loth. . -, -

“ The ehi p began; to * ice up * on the idth. Of course, we had had some ice before, but, it was • not ■ serious. . From ften on It began to gather in earnest. The.crew, worked all the time, chopping and smashing it from the sides from -every place they could reach. There was 27 .inches of ice on the poop deck when wo reached shelter, so you can imagine; how much we gathered. It was worst forward, for there vre could not get at it. The seas came over solidly and went aft] and the ice increased until there was a mass around the martingale which a mm. could not -put bis arms around. “There must have been 20 tons on the headgear of the ship alone, and that weight made her stick her nose into every sea. 1 was afraid we might lose the headgear, and if that went it would pull our masts over. It was a tough time. All we could do was to keep her head into the wind even with the engine full ahead, and with no solar observations and the compass acting crazily,: as it always does in these latitudes, it was hard to tell where wo were, hut it was a shock on the 15th, when we sighted land, to realise how had been blown off our course I know it has happened before under such conditions, but just the same 1-. was disappointed. The weather cleared soon, and then wc saw the high peats of what turned out to be Ross Island. Once under the lee of the land we got to work, chopping away the ice, and we must have cleared 200 tons , off her, hut it was a tough ride while it lasted.”

THE MAYOR’S MESSAGE.

The mayor (Mr E, S. Black) has despatched the folowing radio message to Rear-Admiral Byrd, now on his way back from Antarctica in the City of New York:—‘The citizens,of Dunedin are delighted to learn that you arc homeward bound, and look forward to meeting yourself and party at an early date, safe and sound from your perilous adventures in Antarctica. Time alone will place at its true value the work accomplished and tbe risks undertaken to add to our knowledge of the world we live in.”