THE FAR SOUTH

Southland Times, Issue 22192, 7 December 1933, Page 8

THE FAR SOUTH

STUDY OF CONDITIONS BYRD’S EXPEDITION I OUTLINE OF PLANS (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, December 6. The Jacob Ruppert berthed at 10 o’clock and remains till next week, sailing probably on Tuesday. The Bear is expected on December 27. During the Ruppert’s stay in Wellington various details of the organization will be carried further and probably 10 or 12 New Zealanders will be taken on as members of the crew, the majority of whom will return with the Ruppert, though some may go on the ice during the winter months. It is too early yet for the steel-built Ruppert to penetrate the ice and approach the Barrier and Admiral Byrd’s intentions are to carry out oceanographic work. He will be met later by the Bear, which is a wooden vessel, and will precede the Ruppert through the ice pack if necessary', to the Bay of Whales. It is intended to place the Ruppert alongside the Barrier, if this can be done. Commodore Jortsen, a captain in the Norwegian Navy, who has had a great deal of experience, will have charge of this operation and will be the first man to take a steel ship through the ice in the Ross Sea. In the event of the conditions making it impossible, to take the Ruppert alongside the Barrier, it will be necessary to tranship the goods to the Bear, a iong task. The main camp will be Little America, where it is expected to find the big Ford aeroplane, for which new engines are being taken, also a considerable quantity of stores. It is proposed to establish an advance base 400 miles to the south, where two men will spend the winter months in the loneliest outpost in the world, carrying out weather- observations.

Rear-Admiral Byrd’s main object is to fly over and map out the vast territory so far completely unexplored. Various parties of scientists will be transported to the plateau and to the Maude and Edsell Ford Ranges, possibly by aeroplane. Tractors and snowmobiles will be used, as well as 150 dogs, which will be in charge of Captain Innis Taylor, formerly of the North-West Mounted Police. The scientific personnel and equipment and plans are by far the most elaborate of any Polar expedition. The food question has been tackled in the light of Rear-Admiral Byrd’s previous expeditions. A number of the officers and men have been with Rear-Admiral Byrd for several years and have a wide experience. Four aeroplanes are carried, including an autogiro, which will be used chiefly for scientific observations at the base. Three cows are on board. They will be the first to enter the Antarctic and a calf is due to be born shortly after arrival in Antarctic waters. Nearly 100 tons of dog food is being taken. A United States Post Office is to be established in Little America.

The heavy stores include 15,000 gallons of petrol, several hundred gallons of lubricants, 12,500 tons of crude oil and as ballast 2,500 tons of coal for the Bear. Among quite unusual stores is a very large supply of artificial Vitamin C, sufficient to meet all possible requirements in guarding against scurvy. This was prepared at Oslo from oranges. The Ruppert’s forepeak has been strengthened by stanchions and concrete. Mr H. R. Young, who was recently engaged in diving work at the Arapuni hydro-electric works, joined the Byrd expedition at Wellington to-day. Mr Young was with Rear-Admiral Byrd on his last expedition in the City of New York. He is a Royal Navy diver of 16 years standing. “BACK AMONGST FRIENDS” REAR-ADMIRAL BYRD INTERVIEWED. (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, December 6. “I cannot express how very glad I am to be once more in New Zealand,” said Rear-Admiral Byrd in an interview. “I shall never forget the unbounded hospitality shown us when I last visited the Dominion and the debt I owe for the assistance rendered to us then can never be repaid. In 1928-29 I learned that the nearness of New Zealand to the Antarctic was not the only thing that recommended it to explorers. The members of that expedition, some of whom have returned with me, carried away memories of unstinted kindness, friendliness and co-operation.” Rear-Admiral Byrd, who does not look a year older than when he was last here, expressed great appreciation of the many privileges and great assistance already extended to the expedition by the New Zealand Government and the Wellington and Otago Harbour Boards, and also of the friendly offers of help from private individuals. It was really like coming back to old friends. Questioned as to the plans of the expedition, Rear-Admiral Byrd said it was very completely manned and equipped and he hoped that much work of geographical’ and scientific value would be accomplished. Many new things had been discovered by the last expedition which had perforce left many gaps which it hoped would be filled in this time. Plans had been laid for further exploration of regions to the eastward and south-east of the expedition’s base at Little America. Parties of geologists, physicists and other scientists would go out to investigate problems in the new land discovered to the eastward, and also in the Queen Maude mountain ranges and on the polar plateau itself. Efforts would be made to ascertain by geophysical methods the depth of the great ice cap covering the Antarctic continent. The meteorological programme of the expedition planned to carry out extensive observations over a wide area which it was hoped would be of the greatest value in determining the influence of Antarctic conditions on the weather in the Southern Hemisphere. Zoological and biological investigations would also be extensively carried out. It was planned also to make oceanographical surveys in the Ross Sea. ARTIST ON BOARD A GIFTED AMERICAN. (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, December 6. The distinction of being the first professional artist to go to the Antarctic falls to Mr David Paige, a member of the Byrd Antarctic expedition, the main body of which ’is in Wellington on the Jacob Ruppert. Mr Paige is a gifted New York artist and following the arrival back of the first Byrd expedition, he painted a number of remarkable Antarctic scenes solely from imagination, not even using photographs. Mr Paige has constructed his own studio on the Jacob Ruppert and is at present engaged on a picture of part of the Edsel Ford range in Antarctica which he has never seen, but it presents a striking and vivid portrayal of the southern icebound regions, - '