BOTTOM OF THE WORLD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17126, 5 December 1929, Page 5

BOTTOM OF THE WORLD

BYRD’S HISTORIC FLIGHT CONTINUATION OF NARRATIVE CEREMONY OVER ROLE (Copyright 1929 by the Now York Times (Jo., and the St. Louis Pout-Dispatch. All rights for publication reserved throughout the world.) (Hy Wireless to the New York Times.) (By Commander Byrd.) BAY OF WHALES, Dee. 3, There was hot less than 300 miles between us ami the Pole. If sunshine remained, the sun compass and wind drift indicator should take us there as straight as the bee flies. We would have to ride the engines all the way. The plateau was so high that if one of the three engines should .stop we would have to land on the snow, which at places was nearly two miles above sea level; an uncertain thing at any time, and more uncertain with the load aboard. The engines must keep going. 1 was saying this to myself when the starboard engine began to sputter. Bernt nosed down. Harold rushed to the gas tank, valves, and stood looking at the engine and listening to the jarring interruptions the missing cylinders caused in the rhythm. 'Mac for once -hesitated in his mapping work. After winning our hardest struggle, was our flight to be ended so ’ .near! bur objective! Bernt hurriedly manipulated the altitude control. In an 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 miss ing a boat. Flying on a flight of this kind is full of -contrasts —everything perfect one minute, the next every thing black. All was well again. 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 tlie months we had wondered about it, and the, hundreds of times we had asked ourselves if we would ever be lucky enough to reach it. To the left were great mountain masses looming high above our level. I would hesitate to estimate their altitude, but they are very high, since at this place the plateau itself was about 10,000 ft. above sea level. Mac’s photographs must tell the story. Beyond this mass were separated peaks of many different shapes, running to the south-eastward. NATURE’S GREAT DAM There was one great isolated peak completely snow-covered and looking like a great inverted white porcelain bowl. 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 over to the right and got one of those kicks that pull a man away from civilisation, and which repays him for his efforts. There was a new mountain range in the distance running north and south, a new bit of land to add to the map of the world. Mac -would “shoot” it 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. At present we' can only guess what lies beneath that great ice cap, and what its depth is. it is one of the world’s mysteries. HEAD WIND INCREASES NEARING POLE

That imaginary point, the South Pole, is ia the centre of the uplifted plain hundreds of miles in diameter, r magnificent edifice seemingly built ■to make more inviolable the tiny ;pot which we were seeking. The plateau seems to range from 7000 to 11,000 ft. altitude. Beyond the new mountain mass we saw a small peak sticking 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 0000 ft.. above sea level. On we went flying at the rate of 100 miles through the air towards our goal. Our drift, indicator showed wind from the left. We had to head the plane a dozen degrees to the 'eft ia order to fly straight south. It ,vas impossible to tell our exact altitude above the plateau, and therefore not easy to get our actual ground speed, as it would have been even above water or ice near sea level, but there was a way with the stop-watch. We got the tiimvit took a smoke bomb beneath to traverse the length of a 12iu. wire in the bottom of the plane. Turning south, wc 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. The .strong wind coining up through it quickly number our faces. ‘ THE DEVIL’S BALLROOM.” Wo observed that it was 10 degrees below zero and getting colder as we approached the Pole. We found the wind against us, and instead of Hying 100 miles an hour over the plateau we were making only 84 or 85. This wat a disappointment. It would take us longer to reach the Pole than we had calculated, but we would come back faster. We took a look back at the mountains, and when wo saw their great height, we realised that we must he very careful to allow for the wind. Unless we reached our pass on the Axel Heilberp glacier, and Hew through down to the Barrier, we. might be trapped toy mountains we could not scale. * There were many very important reasons then why the wind drift indicator and sun compass should be used with the greatest care, and why Bernt. and Harold should steer carefully. Suppose the clouds should close in around the mountains before our return ? That would indeed trap us, but it was one of those chances we had to take. The character of the plateau surface varied greatly from time to time. We saw to the left the foot of a magnificent glacier running down from the mountains and showing masses of crevassed ice shining blue against the white snow. This may have been the ‘‘Devil’s ballroom,” that dangerous area which Amundsen traversed. We passed over groups of “haycocks," those small domes of snow which cover bottomless pits. There were wind-formed sastragi, arrowshaped, which appeared hard with knife edges and glistening more in the sun than in other snow surfaces. That arda must have been one of violent winds. Landing there would have been like land ing among rocks. It was in great contrast to the surface we reached later which was smooth, and had the appearance of soft, snow in an arya of light winds. AMUNDSEN'S TRAIL While the mountains were still loom ing large on the left we left to shoot the sun with the sextant to get the altitude, and so give us a sun line that

would cut out, the line of the flight, and at the intersection tell us what the sun : had to. say about oui* progress, but the j air was not smooth enough. The 525 ; horse power engines in the nose of the | plane were exerting great force to keep' | us two miles high and seemed to add to i the weaving motion of the plane. It i was impossible at this time to keep the | sun' and the bubble in the sextant to- | gether long enough to get a dependable i sight. We hoped that things would be | favorable later on, but this did not worry us, for our distance was so short that wo could hardly miss our objective, i Our altimeter showed ns to be keep ; nig about the same atmospheric pres- ] sure, and we were therefore not changI ing our altitude very much. The snow j beneath us seemed to bo getting farther j away, so we judged that the plateau was ! sliding down with a gentle incline baijk. In the tail of the plane was a meteorograph recording the changes in temperature, pressure and humidity which, after the flight, would tell the whole story. Wo 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 Vis somewhere was the trail that Amundsen had blazed to the South Pole, a trail now buried far beneath tho snow. My admiration for that great explorer increased tremendously when 1 saw what lie had to contend with. In his honor, and in honor of Bernt and other Norwegians at Little America, and the 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 hart not forgotten the extraordinary hospitality France showed Hie trails-Atlantic fliers, nor. the friendship demonstrated for America at that time and the sportsmanship displayed at the success of *the Americans in the v - false of the. loss of their gallant flier who lmd set out on a more difficult feat. DANGER OF A STORM. 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, a position that was good, but there was still enough movement in the plane to prevent our being certain of that sight. There was probably an error in it, but just how much we could not tell. We felt confidence in our suii compass and drift-indicator and. luckily our sight did not; change our calculations. The temperature seemed to be falling as .we neared the role. The mountains abaft the beam were fading now, and clouds which may have covered unseen mountains showed on the horizon off the port lx>w, Harold was piloting, and Bernt came aft to toll me that it was not quite so cloa 1 ’ 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. With the great plane, with great engines, and with reasonable luck, we should beat that storm. We had extended the Grosvenor trail and now were so near the Pole that within easy vicinity lay Scott’s trail, who with his companions had perished on his way back—that great hero, who had shown there are things more important than life, who in failure, had won immortal success. In his memory, and that of his gallant comrades, and in honor of our cousin and our friend, the British Empire, we carried with us the British flag. There flashed through rnv mind the fact that some had attempted to start a wild controversy covering the territorial rights of the British Empire and the United States as the result of our discoveries. What a pity would 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. felt, it would add its mite towards furthering the good fellowship so vitally important, now that our country has joined with other nations in a sincere effort to secure peace and harmony for the world. OVER THE POLE. Tho Barrier edge was now about four hours back. No wonder the hoys thought I was flying beyond the Pole, which was only a little more than 300 miles from the Barrier’s edge. The wind has caused us to take longer than we had expected, hut at last the big moment had come. That imaginary point, the very bottom of the world, was, according to ply dead reckoning, somewhere beneath, and within our view. I handed Harold the following message to radio to our comrades in Little America: “My calculations indicate that we have reached the vicinity of the South Pole. We are flying high for a survey and will soon turn north.” Bernt turned the nose of the plane to the right, while I attempted to get tire altitude of the sun with the sextant, but there was far too much movement of the plane for the results. We knew exactly what the altitude of tiie sun should be. sipce 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 2? minutes. The sun circles that point without any noticeable change in altitude. Wo flew on to the right for five or six miles, then circled and. flew left an equal distance and .followed our original line Of flight five or six miles further. I had wanted to go 50 miles beyond the Pole, instead of half a dozen, but we had been a long time reaching it. I saw Harold’s and Herat's anxious eyes on the gasoline gauges. It would not be fair to these fellows to go any further. ' THE' RETURN JOURNEY Wc turned the nose of the plane back towards Little America. When we reached tho place ait which we had turned right we opened a trapdoor and' dropped, the American flag weighted«with a stone from Floyd Bennett’s grave. We stood and saluted in spirit our gallant comrade and our country’s flag, that little silk flag and that small stone tied together at the bottom of the world. We were about 2500 ft. above the Pole, and- the temperature had dropped to 10 degrees below zero. The visibility, was good in most directions, but What was direction? All directions are north from the Pole. When we passed over the P.ve we .had changed our time a whole day. Now we changed it back. Again we still had a job to do. The wind’s were gathering in force. In a short, time we could see morp patches, of drifting snow beneath us. Wc wa died the sun compass and drift indicator like hawks. Wo must hit the mountain pass. On and on we went. Time that had seemed long before crawled Ifrovir. The first mountains to the right, which had been clear on the outward, journey, were half covered with clouds. Mac photographed them. Apparently the storm had just reached there. Bernt had increased the motor revolution and the great cyclone engine was doing its stuff. JjWe aimed our course a few degrees to the right so as to reach the Bari rier more to the eastward than we had left it to get a better view of Carmen Land, and to obtain survey photographs geographically of great importance,

Suddenly Bernt gave a shout of joy. A little to our left was the pass we had come through, only partly cloud-cpvemt, and what, wo took for the Axel Hcilberg glacier was almost ahead'. Clouds were beginning to form. We were just in time. We were thankful we did not have to waste precious time and gasoline looking for a way through the mountains. Soon wc were 'sliding' down the Axel Hell berg glacier. It was very rough and the plane was light. In another few minutes Harold brought her down gracefully on tho ice-hard sastrugi at our little mountain base. We put 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 the camp. Wo took off for the north over the rolling, white plain, and it seemed left behind. A few more weeks’ work and then home,