ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1933, Page 10

ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION

THE VALUE OF AEROPLANES CONTINENT’S POSSIBILITIES. SIR P. BROCKLEHURST’S OPINION. “Almost like returning home,” was the way Sir Philip Lee Brocklehurst, of Swythamley Park, near Macclesfield, England, described his passage up the Lyttelton Harbour in the ferry steamer Rangatira. Twenty-six years ago Sir Philip saw a great deal of both Lyttelton and Christchurch, as. it was from there that Sir Ernest Shackleton’s British Antarctic Expedition, of which he was a member, left for the southern seas. He told a representative of the Christchurch Press that he had been greatly impressed by the development of New Zealand cities, and with the Dominion’s scenic and sporting attractions.

With Lady Brocklehurst, Sir Philip is on a two months’ tour of the Dominion. It has become a matter of some dlsapponitment to Sir Philip that he has npt again had the opportunity of taking part in an. expedition to the Antarctie. He describes the 1907 expedition as a great success, thanks to the leadership of Sir Ernest Shackleton who, he says, was an inspiration to all who served under him. He was unable to accept the invitation of Sir Douglas Mawson to join the latter’s expedition in 1910, and in 1914 when he and his brother were preparing another party, the war broke out. He served in the war from 1914 to 1917, with the Ist Life Guards, and to 1920 with the Egyptian Army, and since then has done a good deal of travelling. He has made trips to the Arctic, and shot big game in Africa and elsewhere. “The Antarctic, however, is the most interesting region I have ever been in,” said Sir Philip, who added that the frozen wastes of the south would exercise an irresistible fascination for all who ever had experience of it. “Unfortunately expeditions are all too rare in these days. There is not the money available now to finance the ventures, and I do not think that any expeditions are projected in England at the present time. In any case, when you do go you want a Shackleton or a Mawson as a leader. It is no game for a novice." REVIVAL OF INTEREST. Sir Philip predicted, nevertheless, that when economic conditions recovered there would be a . revival of interest in the Antarctic continent for several reasons. He considered that there was a fair possibility of its commercial exploitation for its mineral wealth, while the establishment of scientific research stations there would be undertaken at no very distant date. “It has been established by eminent scientists that the Antarctic continent is the nursery for the fierce storms and abrupt climatic changes that periodically affect New Zealand and Australia. The systematic observation of conditions in the Antarctic regions would therefore be of great benefit in determining in advance the weather conditions likely to prevail in the Southern Hemisphere. Such meteorological stations have been established in the Arctic, but far less expense is entailed in this case. For one thing there is not 2000 miles of icebound sea to traverse'to reach the observation points.” Sir Philip said that the Arctic meteorological stations had proved of practical scientific advantage to the countries in the Northern Hemisphere. MINERAL WEALTH. /‘/■“Contrary to-general belief, the. Ant-, arctic is not entirely snowbound,” he said,-in referring to the possibilities of exploiting the mineral wealth that' the southern continent was believed to contain. “There are many dry valleys and mountains that in the summer are. riot entirely covered in snow. Coal has already been found in the mountains of Victoria Land, and there is no reason to suppose that there are not deposits of other minerals. The continent is very old geologically, and the same processes that have taken place elsewhere must have taken place there also.” Sir Philip mentioned that he had inspected the coal mines of Spitsbergen, where the reefs were- worked horizontally from the sides of the mountains. It appeared to him that the same system could be applied to the working of the coal-bearing country of the Antarctic. “Once coal is obtained from any given region, there are no limits to the extent to which it may be developed,” said Sir Philip. He said that the difficulty was 'again one of finance. In the first place access was so difficult, in addition to which there were the problems of location of the mineral-bearing areas and the establishment of suitable bases. for their working. Under present conditions he recognised that the difficulties made the project almost impracticable, but he could not believe that this area and whatever wealth it might contain would remai nfor long unconquered in face of man’s advance. USE OF THE AEROPLANE. Speaking of the use of the aeroplane in Antarctic exploration, Sir Philip said that its value in opening up country and in the mapping of unknown regions could be estimated from the fact that Byrd covered in 19 hours a journey that took Shackleton five months and Amundsen four. The actual investigation of the country would still have to be carried out by means of dog teams. Until the aeroplane was able to land in a much smaller space than it now ' requires it would have severe limitations in its use in the Antarctic. It was too vulnerable in a country subject to fierce gales.. On one or two occasions Byrd’s machines were blown away by sudden storms. Again the aeroplane was useless when it came to actual examination of the rocks in inaccessible regions. It would, however, be invaluable in mapping the four million square miles of the Antarctic Continent, and thus opening up the way to the more thorough investigation that could be made only on foot. Sir Philip was a little sceptical of the practicability of the suggestion, advanced occasionally in America,. that there were commercial possibilities in the conduct of tourist trips to the Antarctic. Similar trips were conducted at Spitzbergen, but they merely skirted the pack ice. In the case o f Antarctica there would be nothing whatever to. see on such a trip unless an excursion was made, for instance, into the Gulf of Antarctica, where there was always the risk of being caught in the pack ice. Macmurdo Sound, running between Victoria Land and Ross Island, on which were the active volcanoes Mounts Erebus and always navigable in certain times of the year, but. here the danger of being caught in the pack ice was much greater. Such a risk was one that no tourist company would dream of taking. . “Then again there is the question of the type of ship to be used," said Sir hilip. “You can not take a steel ship of 2000 or 4000 tons into ice. Exploration vessels have to be of wood and as small as 300 or 400 tons in order to offer the least possible resistance to the ice. Conditions on such vessels are not such as to be likely to appeal to tourists.” Sir Philip mentioned as an example of the • vulnerability of large steel ships to ice

the case, of the Titanic, whose hull was ripped open by the submerged tongue of an iceberg. Even the “chasers” of the whaling factory ships never ventured into the pack ice. The possibilities, too, of women and children being on a vessel that was jammed in the ice through an Antarctic winter were too appalling to contemplate. Sir Philip also pointed out that the trip of 200 miles through the heavy southern seas in a small vessel would be sufficient to deter the average tourist at the' outset.