IMPENDING FIGHT WITH ICE

Taranaki Daily News, 18 December 1933, Page 5

IMPENDING FIGHT WITH ICE

BYRD EXPEDITION PREPARING. FALSE ICEBERG ALARM GIVEN. The Jacob Ruppert is making full speed on a south-easterly course and the twenty-four hour run at noon was 240 miles, states a special message to the Press Association from the Byrd Antarctic expedition. The days grow perceptibly longer and colder. It will be Thursday all day to-morrow as well as to-day, as the ship is cressing the 18Oth. meridian.

The energies of the crew are being directed to preparing for the impending struggle with the ice-pack. There is the feeling of a warship being cleared for action. Rear-Admiral Byrd also issued strict orders for the »conservation of food and materials.

“We are entering a great noh-shop area of the world,” he said, “and whatever is wasted or lost cannot be replaced.” He scolded a new man who tossed a stray piece of timber overboard. “You might have to wait a hundred year for the Antarctic to produce a .piece of wood as big as that,” he said., ■ There was another interesting incident to-day as, steaming ahead, the ship’s bell set up a strident clamouring and upon the bridge the engine-room telegraph was swung full speed astern. The whole ship shuddered and the men raised themselves in their bunks, wondering when the crash, would come. Then up from the engine-room came homeric laughter. An inexperienced hand had struck eight bells, and the vagrant wind had carried the sound to the bridge, where it .sounded like an iceberg alarm from the forecastle head.