LATEST PLAN TO REACH THE POLE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6132, 19 March 1898, Page 7

LATEST PLAN TO REACH THE POLE.

A story which the. Washington correspondent of the London Daily Chronicle sends suggests that fact is about to plagiarise the fiction of Mr Stockton's last book. It seems that Mr Alfred Riedel, of Baltimore, has a plan for reaching the North Pole which he has submitted to the Faculty of John Hopkins University, who have given it careful consideration, and will examine it at great length before pronouncing judgment. Mr Riedel's plan (says a Chronicle telegram) is to construct a submarine boat similar to the designs of the Lake submarine boat which has recently been carefully tested in Baltimore Harbour and pronounced a success. The boat would be taken to Spitsbergen ; from there Mr Riedel proposes to follow Nansen's route up to the time when the Fram was frozen in the ice. Then the boat, submerged, would proceed under the ice. Scientific instruments would determine when the Pole is reached. If there is an open polar sea the boat would be brought to the surface ; if ice surrounds the pole Mr Riedel claims that with the aid of a steel screw of large dimensions a hole might be bored through the ice, and the occupants of the boat would ascend through this opening. This story has a fine open countenance which should beget genial goodwill and admiration in all who have the good fortune to become acquainted with it.