A LOST BRITISH OPPORTUNITY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18922, 25 January 1936, Page 15

A LOST BRITISH OPPORTUNITY

(To the Editor of the Herald.)

Sir, — It is perhaps not generally known that, the recent epic flight of Mr Lincoln Ellsworth and his .companion, with their subsequent rescue by the Discovery 11, has for a background one of the greatest tragedies in 'British polar exploration —the drowning on August 2, 1932, off the east Greenland coast, of Gino Watkins. This young man—he -was only 2o when he died—was then leading his fourth Arctic expedition, but, to his chagrin, a minor one, financed by Pan-American Airways, solely because neither his already high reputation as an explorer, nor the appeals of the Royal Geographical Society, and many famous explorers and scientists, had succeeded in convincing the British public that their aid was essential to solve' the greatest geographical pro: blcm that remained to man—whether the Antarctic was a continent or two large islands. How Watkins and his supporters worked for months to raise money for a national expedition, desiring to'use a British ship, the Discovery, and aeroplanes for mapping, but intending to travel with dogsledges the 1500 miles, .across the Antarctic from flic Weddell Sea to the Ray of Whales that Ellsworth was already planning to conquer by air; and how the financial depression put an end to his hopes, is related in the recent magnificent biography by Mr J. M. Scott. It is surely ironical that the Discovery committee, who had been unable to help Watkins beyond offering their ships, whose running expenses were about £IOOO a month, free of charter, should, have eventually contributed so much to the success of an American expedition which has claimed for its country territory that one can only feel should have been Great Britain's. —Vours, ot( , "F.R'.G.S."