THE WYATT EARP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22136, 14 December 1933, Page 9

THE WYATT EARP

LASHED BY INCESSANT RAIN -. LOW CLOUDS LIMIT VISION Special to Press Association. ' (Copyright.) (By radio from the Wyatt Earp.) December 12. ,vThrough terrific winds and lumpy seas the Wyatt Earp, bearing Mr Lincoln Ellsworth and the 16 members of his expedition, has since leaving Dunedin beaten her way midst white-capped waves almost 1000 miles towards the Antarctic pack ice. The driven spray lashes the deck and with incessant rain smothers the ship in dripping wetness. The slanting rain and soft low clouds limit vision " to a mile or so, and the hazards of navigation are enhanced, by the fact that only once in the last six days has Captain Holth been able to find by solar observation the ship’s position. Of such are the terrors of sub-polar ocean travel—to a landsman—but to all aboard, trained in and familiar with high latitude seas, it is all in the day’s work. There was careful selection of the ship and crew and adequate preparations were made to meet such conditions, so everything goes according to plan. All aboard are cheerful and sense no hardship. Had the decks been indiscriminately and loosely crammed the deck load would have been overboard some time ago. But in spite of the snappy rolling of the ship and the tumbling waters everything inboard goes smoothly. The temperature is now only five degrees centigrade above freezing point, which sounds much colder than 41 degrees Fahrenheit, yet so well fed and hearty are the men that most have not yet donned their heavy underwear. None has even taken out his woollen gloves or mittens. However, the conditions we now experience are not to be treated lightly. It is to be expected that in spite of Mr Ellsworth’s ample preparations discom- . forts and hardships will occur before he and Mr Balchen have commenced their U hazardous long flight of discovery. . *

LOOSE ICE PACK ENTERED. Special to tJnited Press Association. (Copyright.) ' > By Radio from Wyatt Earp, , December .13. ’ ' Two icebergs were sighted at 5 p.m. (local time) on Tuesday. Behind them loomed an ice link. By 7 o’clock we had passed 20 more, and we entered the edge of the loose pack in approx, lat, 63.17, long. 174.06, at 1 a.m. Loose pack is ahead as far as we can see.