The Story of a Great Rescue of an Expedition In the Arctic

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18922, 25 January 1936, Page 9

The Story of a Great Rescue of an Expedition In the Arctic

i 4 A SINGLE heroic failure is often more effective in making known the scope of ;i large enterprise than many slow steps toward success, and the loss of the Chelyuskin .and the rescue of iTs crew were, if nothing else, u vivid signnl of the impressive effort 'which the Russians are making to convert the North-East Passage into a trade route.

" 'The Voyage of the Chelyuskin/ by members of the expedition, translated by Alec Brown, is an epic of co-operation, says the News-Chronicle. In 1933 and 1934 the Soviet Government sent a cargo boat, the Chelyuskin, to get through the North-East Passage from Leningrad to the Pacific to test the possibilities of a new and far .shorter trade route between east and west.

"Near the Bering Straits the ship was crushed and sunk, and for two months the crew camped on the ice until taken off with great difficulty by air. The book tells the .story of the expedition in short accounts by many of those who took part and the airmen who finally rescued them. ".Most of the writers are almost fanatically conscious of the purpose of the expedition; it is not merely an isolated exploration, but is bound up with the progress of the Soviet Union and of communism as a. whole; they are not adventurers, but are just doing their work to advance the new order."

Coming of the Rescue Plane Here is an account by one of the party of the rescue:— "The minutes passed. . . . Now every eye 'was lixed campwnrds—but upwards, too, seeking the aeroplane. Then in the distance over the camp ihere appeared a scarcely discernible speck. There were cries—'.Found us, making straight for the camp.' "Every moment now the speck became bigger and bigger. A few minutes more, and a fine, new American aeroplane roared over our heads. It came lower, circled, then again foul clearly could not make up its mind to alight—there was a powerful side wind..A third time it turned, then flew right back off the aerodrome, and then it, was clear that the pilot had decided to come down at all. costs. Less and less space divided it from the ground—the wind still carrying sideways.

"The engine, was cut off, tin- runners touched the landing surface, the machine leapt, up slightly and once again was rushing on at great speed, leaving a whirl of snow dust, behind it. The landing ground was too small for so largo a machine, and, still at, a fairly high speed, it, reached the end of the ground, and then began 'counting' floes. Then its strength gave out, a ridge of floes ahead barred the way, and the aeroplane settled down like a wounded bird, resting on its Jeff. wing. "We were all, as it -were, frozen dumb with dismay. "We were done, and our deathly pale lips could make no sound. Then, one by one. as if it were our fault, we made for the aeroplane. The arrival of the long-awaited steel bird had turned out all wrong. Each man, each woman, was think--ing, 'What if the men are killed, what if the aeroplane is ruined.' No Serious Damage

"Then Oushakov clambered out of tlie cockpit, and pilot Slepnyov after him, and then one )>y one the clogs "they had brought. They shook hands with Comrade Schmidt and all others present. A cursory inspection showed that there was no serious damage done, and that in a day or two we should be quite able to repair it. An hour and a half later a track had been cut through the packed tloes, and the machine brought to the landing ground. Then the smoke went up -again in the camp—Molokov and Kamanin had left Vankarem. Our spirits rose.

" Before another hour had gone they were both over us, and after a second turn the machines came straight to lauding. Their runners touched the landing ground without a sound, thou settled [irmly lo the frozen surface and in a U'w seconds the machines were stationary in the centre of the aerodrome. The camp Was in triumph. 'We had won, our Soviet steel birds and their implacable pilots had won. . . . "

The crushing of the ship in the ice, the privations when marooned, are described with a spiritual fervor that is .almost fierce at times. There has been at times cause for criticism of the Soviet Government, but there can be nothing but praise for the arrangements -which made the gallant 'rescue possible and for the ideals which inspired the enterprise.