MAROONED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20231, 15 February 1934, Page 1

MAROONED.

PARTY ON ARCTIC ICE IN TENTS. Soviet Ice-breaker Sinks. CREW CALMLY UNLOAD STORES FROM SHIP. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received February 15, 11.30 a.m.) MOSCOW, February 14. Captain Schmidt, leader of the Russian expedition aboard the Soviet icebreaker Cheluskin in a radio message stated that after a stormy voyage the vessel sank in the Okhotsk Sea. following frequent ramming by heavy ice blocks, which tore the port side and burst the steam pipes, immobilising the pumps. The crew of ninety-four calmly unloaded emergency supplies, tents, sleeping bags, the aeroplane and wireless before the vessel disappeared. A beam crushed one sailor, who was drowned. The .crew are now marooned on the icefields. Their rescue is expected by air and dog sleighs. With about one hundred persons aboard, the Cheluskin had been in the grip of the ice for almost a year. She originally set out to pick up a party' of scientists who had been working inside the Arctic Circle. Thev were rescued, and it was then that the Cheluskin was trapped. For almost twelve months she drifted with the ice. covering more than 1000 miles. Efforts to rescue the party by plane so far have failed.