THRILLING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17571, 23 June 1925, Page 8

THRILLING.

AMUNDSEN’S DIARY. STORY OF GREAT FLIGHT. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Aus. & N.Z. Cable Association. (Received June 23, 3 p.m-) LONDON. June 22. A copyright wireless message from King’s Bay gives Captain Amundsen’s thrilling personal narrative. It describes how, soon after setting out on May 21, the party traversed for two hours a sunlit expanse of gleaming ice, probably over the eighty-third degree. a fresh north-easter curtailing the speed. “ We came down in fine calm weather and noticed that the ice was most uninviting, even for a forced landing. Hard snow filled the crevices in the ice packs; therefore we recognised that the trip was more hazardous than we had thought. Hours passed with no sight of land, and it was apparent that we had gone over-far to the westward, so we turned eastward. Still there was no sign of a suitable landing. “ Fouchl, at one o’clock on the morning of May 22, reported that half his petrol was gone, and it was decided to land and verify our position. The plane went down to the 100 metres level. “ The ice fioe seems a most attractive landing, but Rissor Larsen’s engine back-fired and we were compelled to alight on the branch of an ice lane between lofty walls. The machine pressing down the ice blocks with its wings overlapping the walls came to a stoppage at the extreme end of the lane with the nose against the floe, but undamaged-” The story proceeds:—“We landed and attempted to remove the machine to the main ice Line. It was most fatiguing, and the walls, coming together like lobster claws, caught us in. “ Dietiiehsen meanwhile thought that Riiser Larsen had gone mad to attempt a descent in such a terrible spot. Diet richsen alighted in the main lane unknown to us. We. feared that the pack ice would screw up and destroy plane N 25. Observations taken during the night shewed our position to be 87deg 4Cm in north, lOdeg 19min west.”