ANTARCTIC CRUISE

Taranaki Daily News, 7 November 1930, Page 7

ANTARCTIC CRUISE

ARRANGEMENTS MADE. • London, Oct. 30. At least one woman will accompany Commander Stenliouse in his Antarctic cruise in the Stella Polaris to the Rose Sea —the first "Antarctic tourist cruise—in December. Commander - Stenliouse stated to-day that he expects to reach Auckland, New Zealand, via 'Panama, on January 25. He will said next day for the Ross Sea, via Campbell Island. He will go to King Edward VII. Land and cal\at the Bay” of Whales and Amundsen’s and Byrd’s bases and Discovery Inlet. Then he will skirt the Great Ice Barrier, going into McMurdo Sound to see Scott’s and Shackleton’s huts, and landing on the barrier at the Bay of Whales. “Mr. Henry Ford asked me to bring back the engines of Admiral Byrd’s monoplane, which he was compelled to abandon last summer,” said Commander Stenliouse. He added that the Antarctic was the world’s greatest health resort. At least one explorer lost his consumption there. The Stella Polaris will reach Hobart on February 19, Sydney on February 22, and thence go via Java, India and the Suez Canal home. Commander Worsley, a New Zealander, also a Norwegian whaling expert and Dorothy, Countess of Lanesborough, are going to see whales electrocuted, the latest method of slaughter which is being successfully tried out in the Ross Sea. It is claimed that there is no better cure for rheumatism than being rolled up in a blanket of fresh blubber. The minimum fare for the cruise will be £5OO.

The Stella Polaris is a motor-ship of 5020 gross tonnage, and was built as a tourist ship in 1927. She is a “luxury ship,” and was the first to be propelled by internal-combustion engines.

Commander Stenhouse was a member of Sir Ernest Shakleton’s expeditions to the Antarctic.