EXPEDITION PLAN!

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2730, 27 March 1916, Page 6

EXPEDITION PLAN!

ACROSS THE ANTARCTIC

The plan laid down was to crosß the

Antarctic Continent via the South Pole, from the Weddell Sea to the Rosb Sea. This meant opening up a new route, lis previous expeditions had attacked tho Pole from the Ross Sea. The distance from sea to' sea is about 1700 miles. The Endurance, previously named Polaris, carrying part of the staff, left England early in August, 1914. Sir Ernest Shackleton volunteered his services to tho Admiralty, but the abandonment of the expedition was not thought necessary, and on September 18 he sailed for Buenos Aires to join the Endurance. The Bhip proceeded on her journey to the Weddell Sea. Tho scheme of operations then was for two parties, each comprising a geologist, a biologist, an a physicist, to be detached, one going west to explore Graham Land and to ascertain the continuation of the Land mountains, the other east, to Enderby Land. Two ol the staff, a geologist and a meteorologist, were to remain at the base to carry on continuous meteorological and magnetic observations and other scientific work. The Endurance, after carrying on oceanographical work in tho Weddell,Sea in tho summer, was to go north for tho winter, and return this summer to bring off tho Weddell Sea party. Tho trans-continental party, headed by Sir Ernest Shackleton, ivas' expected to start soon after tho establishment of tho base, if the conditions were favourable. Otherwise, the party would remain for the wintor at tho base, and start in tho following season. Had they adhered to the earlier plan they would probably hnvo returned last autumn; but in thfe event | of the delayed start they were not expected to reach tho lloss Soa till this I March.

In order to facilitate the transcontinental project a second ship was used. This is the Aurora, which was used by Sir Douglas Mawson, and which, after bringing back his expedition, early in 1914, went 'to England, and left again in September for the South, via .Tasmania. The scientific party on this ship were to make a base at the Beardmore Glacier to await Shackleton's arrival, and l the ship was to bo used in ocean survey work in the summer months. The expedition is splendidly equipped with apparatus, the value of which the leader had learned from his previous experience. It has a wireless equipment, with which it was hoped to establish communication with the Macquaric Island station. This station l/.as, however, had to he abandoned. The equipment includes quite a variety of motor vehicles. ono is a high-sjieed sledge, driven by a 55 h.p. Anzani aero-engine and propeller like the equipment of an aeroplane. This machine was desigued to travel at a maximum speed of 40 miles per hour, with a normal speed of 20 miles per hour. There are two tractors, each able to draw three sledges at ft moderate speed; and one of these was taken to the Ross Sea base to travel towards the Pole, so as to prepare the way for the trans-continental party. A third machine was to attempt the transcontinental journey, and l was to he run until its fuel supply was exhausted. The two first-meutioned tractors are of the Girling make with 9 h.p. engines; the thii'd is a special application of the Douglas 2J. h.p. engine, as adapted hy a Swedish inventor, Mr. Harold Hakanflon, to the requirements of sledging. The three tractors all travel upon runners, and are propelled by "paddlewheels," which grip tho surface of the snow. The trans-continental party was to consist of six men. Fourteen men, with eighty dogs, were to land at tho wed!dell Se.i, which is 900 miles from the Pole. Before the start of Shackleton s party of six, the motor-sledges were t? set out to establish depots, each of one ton of stores, and distances of 100, 200, 300, and 400 miles. The sledges would thus start light, and the dogs be fairly trained as they proceeded. At each depot the stores would he collected, and at the 400-mile depot one ton <f stores would have been consumed, leaving a total load of three tons to he drawn hy .the ddgs, by. this time m perfect training. On the bea B1 «®> depots were to he made for 300 nnl.es, so that tho party would be without supplies, other than what they carried, for 1300 miles. On tlie outward journey nearly 800 miles of tlie way is over territory never before traversed.

CAPTAIN MACKINTOSH'S PARTY. Captain Aeneas Mackintosh, R.N.R., who is in command of the „R« SB Sea party, was a member of the Shackleton expedition of 1907-9, as a second officer of the Nimrod, and was subsequently with the land party. The officers, the staff, and the crew of thg, expedition that left aboard the Aurora (which is only half the party).were as follow:— • Aeneas A. Mackintosh,,R.N.R., commanding the party. ... J. R. Stonhouse, R.N.R., chief officer, S.Y. Aurora. . ■ A. H. Larlcman, M.I.M.E, chief enrrineer, Aurora. «... ° A. Stevens, M.A., 8.50., lecturer in geography in the University, of Glasgow, geofogist and chief of the scientific staff. Rev. A. P. Spencer-Smith, 8.A., F. R. Hist.S., chaplain and photo--BrjPllL.rjPllL. Cope, 8.A., M.8., Cambridge, SU A Se °Keith Jack, M.Sc., of Brighton, Victoria, physicist and assistant biolog'lt W. Richards, of Ballarat, Victoria, O. Gaze, of Melbourne, commissariat officer. . Ernest Joyce, of Sydney, in charge of A. H. Ninnis, cousin of the explorer who lost his lifo in tlio Mawson expedition, in charge of motors. ' H. E. Wild, brother of Frank Wild (with tho main party), in charge of stores. V. G. Hayward, secretary. 'C. C. Mauger, carpenter. — Hooke, wireless operator. James Paton, boatswain. S. Atkin, W. Kavanagh. A. Warren, J. Downing, C./Glidden, S. Grady, W. Mugridge, I. "Wise, J. Gates.