POLAR DASH

Wairarapa Daily Times, 19 January 1932, Page 5

POLAR DASH

ACROSS ANTARCTIC YOUNG EXPLORER’S PLANS. Press Association Electric Telegraph Copyright LONDON, Monday. Among the many projects of the H. S. Watkins Antarctic expedition is a 1500-mile sledge journey across the unknown country from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea, on which the late Sir Ernest Shackleton was unsuccessful in 1914. Mr. Watkins, who- will be accompanied by Augustine Courtald’s rescuers, Rymill and Chapman, also Riley and four others, will be the first to take the British flag across the South Polar Continent to determine whether the uncharted tracts consist of land or a great sea connecting the Weddell and Ross Seas.

The expedition plans to leave England in the coming autumn and South Georgia at the end of December. It will land the trans-continental party at Prince Regent Lnitpold Land in January, 1933, and establish a base from which an aeroplane, fitted with skis, can make reeonnaisano.es.

The trip across the continent probably will be made in the following October. Mr. Watkins is confident that with specially trained dogs and help from tho ’plane, it will be possible to cross to Amundsen’s Ross Sea base in four and a half months, and rejfiin the ship in March, 1934. This will be the longest journey, minus depots, ever undertaken.

Mr. Watkins says he will be at least two years in the polar regions. He intends to establish a proper meteorological station from which he should obtain data of immense value to Australia. Mr. Watkins is only 24 years of age.