INTO THE ARCTIC

Southland Times, Issue 22333, 26 May 1934, Page 5

INTO THE ARCTIC

BRITISH EXPEDITION GEOLOGICAL SURVEY VISIT TO UNKNOWN LANDS (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, May 24. An Arctic expedition, led by Mr J. M. Wordie of St. John’s College, Cambridge, and consisting of 10 Englishmen, all of whom have had experience in similar expeditions, left Aberdeen to-day in the Norwegian sealer Neimen, a small vessel of 129 tons gross with an auxiliary motor. The expedition, which is a private venture, will follow in the tracks of Sir John Franklin, the famous explorer, and its main aim will be to make geological and other collections and to map the coastline of the Canadian Arctic Islands.

Exploration will be done almost entirely from the ship or in the pack-ice. The explorers are heading first for Disko Island in North-west Greenland. Later the unknown interior of Ellesmere Island will be explored and an attempt to reach Melville Island will also be made. Permission has been received to make collections in the Canadian Arctic preserves, within which lies most of the region which it is hoped to explore. The party includes Dr Longstaff, who has travelled widely in Greenland, C. Dalgety, one of the late H. G. Watkins’ colleagues on Doe Island, Sir John Hanham and H. P. Hanham, both of whom have Arctic experience. This is the seventh Arctic voyage made by the leader, Mr Wordie.