ADRIFT IN ARCTIC

Southland Times, Issue 22217, 9 January 1934, Page 5

ADRIFT IN ARCTIC

PARTY ON ICE-BREAKER

. RESCUE BY AIR TOO DANGEROUS

WEEKS OF DARKNESS

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.)

Moscow, January 7.

Ninety-two Russians, including five women and one child, on board the icebreaker Cheluskin, must drift in the Arctic for the remainder of the winter.

The advent of the “Polar night” has made the projected aerial rescues too dangerous, but two aeroplanes, each capa.ble of carrying 30 passengers, will be available at Providence Bay and ready to attempt rescue work in the darkness if the commander calls for help. Otherwise the Cheluskin’s crew and her passengers will pass four to five months herded together in a drifting, ice-bound prison. They will spend several weeks in total darkness.

A message received on December 28 stated: A wireless S.O.S. revealed that the icebreaker Cheluskin is now near Wrangel Island, having drifted the unprecedented distance of 1250 miles since she was first imprisoned in the ice three months ago. Aeroplanes are being sent in the hope or rescuing the crew and passengers. Hutments have been built, and eight months’ stores for sixty persons have been accumulated at Providence Bay, on Chukotsk Peninsula.