THE NORTH POLE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXI, Issue 9659, 17 September 1909, Page 3

THE NORTH POLE.

A QUEST OF CENTURIES

"SOME PREVIOUS EXPEDITIONS,

The coveted discovery of ttie North Pole —the goal of many ambitious, the grave of many hopes of men of mauy uatious throughout the ages—is reported to have now come to pass. It is claimed in some quarters that the first attempt 011 the fastnesses of the north was made in the days of Alfred the Great; at any rate, it can be stated with certainty that the Norsemen made voyaces to Greenland and the opposite coast of America in the 10th and following centuries. It was not, however, till the Kith century—that age of discovery, when men stood on the threshold of a great new world— that any genuine attempt was made to ascertain what was defended by the perpetual ice of the northern seas, and then attempts were made to discover what came to be known as tho northwest and north-east passages to Asia. Fired by the success ot Sebastian (Jabot's discovery of Newfoundland and Labrador,in i4S>f>,Gaspar Gorterenl and his brother threo years later made fhre.o separate voyages in f ho sumo direction, sailing northwards by Labrador, where they were stopped in (iO degrees N. latitude. li» an attempt to discover a way to Asia, Sir Hugh Willoughby led tin , way to the north-east passage in lfv>;>. He sighted Nova Zembla, but he and his men ultimately perished on the coast of Lapland. Other attempts were made in succeeding years to hud a northvast or north-west passage to Asia, but they were all doomed to failure, though many valuable geographical discoveries were made. In 1007 Hudson succeeded in reaching bldeg. oOinin. JN\ in the neighbourhood of Spitzbergeu. In the latter years of the 10th and the early part, of the 17th century many valuable discoveries were made north of America, the great navigator Davis in 1585-SS, coasting the west of Greenland, "the laud of desolation. "

When Peter the Great ascemied tue Muscovite tliroue. he took a gn-at iu-u-rest iv Arctic cxploratiou, aud various Russian oxpeditiond equipped in the IStli aud early part of the HHh centuries were instrumental in adding to tin; world's geographical knowledge regarding the Arctic seas. In the reign of George 111. ttiere was a nrw revival of Elizabetiiau zeal in uaval adventure, and for many years down to the middle of the last century many successful raids wore made on the Polar regions, the various expeditions gradually gettiug nearer the famous Pole. FKANKLIN'S EXPEDITION. In May, 1845, that ill-fated expedition nf Sir John i'rankliu's —so unfortunate to him aud his crew, so famous from the number of search parties which it occasioned—left England. Franklin's object was to •penetrate to Behring Strait from Lancaster Souud. In TOdeg. N. lat., US deg. oOin. W. long., on the west side of King William's Laud, the ships were beset, and Frauklin died in Juue, IS4T. The survivors abandoned their ship.?, but all perished. Many search expeditious were sent out. Oue of these, under Ooliusou and AleUlure. sailed from Plymouth to Beliriug Strait in ISSO. Fixed in the ice on its eastward voyage, McClure's

ship was rescued next spring by Sir Edward Belcher about sixty miles west of Barrow Strait. Belcher now returned towards the Atlantic, and thus McClure, with his crew, reached Englaud in 1554, after actually traversing the north-west passage from ocean to ocean. In 1579-S0 one of the Franklin search expeditions found / evideuea that Franklin had really jfijjkcompleted the discovery of thenortlipassage. In the meantime, ' many atteiujots had been made on the north-east passage, aud, finally, iv 1878, Professor Nordenkiold rounded Oape Chelyuskin, aud after wintering near Bebring Strait sailed into the Pacific. Thus, three centuries and a-quarter after the death of Willoughby, the north-east passage was at last completed. PUSHING NORTHWARD. During the ceutury various expeditious were gradually pushing northward, until iv 1853-55 the KaneHayes expedition readied in sledges Oape Constitution, in 82;1eg. 27m. N., and saw what appeared to be an open Polar sea. But still the onward march went ou, many brave men yielding up tiieir lives, or enduring great hardships in the cause of discovery. NANSEN'S EXPEDITION. For a few years Polar exploration somewhat languished, until iv June, 181ty, Dr Fridtjof Nauseu, a young .Norwegiau, made his celebrated voyage from Christiauia in the Fram. He %vas away from civilisation for three years, and got within one iiunaud seventy miles nearer to the iijjPole than any of his predecessors. He no discoveries of land, but the ocean area beyond the SOt-h parallel proved by him to be without laud or even small islands, is more extensive than the area of land and water together revealed to us by all former expeditious combined. On March 14ch, 1895, when the Fram was in latitude H'ddeg. 51) in., Nansen conceived the bold plan, adopted with partial success by subsequent explorers, of deserting his ship and travelling with his dog sledges across the ice towards the Pole. Nanseu aud his sole companion, Lieutenant Johauseu, after twentyfive days' arduous labour, had readied SGdey. 14m. X, 9.~.deg. E., when they found the whole pack was slowly drifting to tlie south, their daily progress thus scarcely exceeding four or live miles. They therefore gave up the attempt. ATTEMPT BY BALLOON. We now come to the ill-fated attempt of Herr An dree to reach the Pole by balloon. After an unsuccessful attempt a year or two before he with two companions got away from Dane's island on July ] lth, 1897, and was never seen again. He was report- ! e<l to have been killed by natives Polar exploration was at the close of wßke century carried on by Walter Welland by the Duke of Abruzzi. wh) made a good but unsuccessful attempt on the Pole. TWENTIETH CENTURY EFFORTS Various attempts have been made on the Pole during the current century. Mr Harrison made his way in the spring Of 1907 to Banks Land, from which he made some interesting observations. Mr Mikkelson, who was in command of the Danish expedition, had the misfortune in this year to lose i)i3 ship, iv which he and his party had wintered at FJaxuaan Island, aud this somewhat delayed his start on his sleage expedition over the ice to the udrth, but he pushed on for a considerable distance, and was enabled to gather some valuable additional information regarding the great ice regions. AIRSHIP EXPEDITION. Mr Wellman, who is political corrospondent at Washington for the Chicago -Herald, has led several Polar 4Wfepeditious. In 190(5 he organised an iTirship expedition for Ms paper. The airship was built in Paris, and was taken to Spitzbergen. In the foJlowiug year it was enlarged, and iv Septauitjer. ]!)07, Mr Wellman made a plucky attempt to reach the North i Polo. The expedition ended in di;-- j aster, the airship being partially I

wrecked, Ijut Mr Wellman, realising the difficulties and dangers, set about repairing the dirigible, aud preparing for another attempt. A few weeks ago he was to have made a start from Dane's Island, Spitzbergeu, but found on arrival there that the balloon shed had been wrecked. A few days ago it was reported that the bag containing provisions, and used as an equilibrator, had burst, aud compelled the return of the ship. Mr Wellman tlieu relinquished the attempt for the present year.