UNDER THE ICE

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 62, 14 March 1934, Page 10

UNDER THE ICE

IN POLAR REGIONS

VALUE OF SUBMARINES

SIR H. WILKINS'S VIEWS

"There is one thing that has rather surprised me since I have been in New Zealand, that being the impression you seem to have in this part of the world that my submarine expedition in the Arctic was a failure," remarked Sir Hubert Wilkins, tho noted polar explorer, to a "Post" representative today. "It was .by-no means a failure, and witness to that is the fact that scientific bodies in the United States immediately put up ten thousand dollars when I leturned in order to enable me to publich my results. Seeing that the results of some other polar expeditions of many years ago are not even published yet, that shows that these bodies appreciated the value of my work. "It was not our primary object to reach the North Pole by submarine, but to demonstrate that a submarine could remain under the ice in polar regions in. comparative safety and comfort, and that it could be used for scientific observation and obtain results worth getting and attainable in no other way. That expedition, and all my polar exploration work by aeroplane, has been part of the programme outlined by the-Royal Meteorological Society in 1919. WILL BE CONVINCED. "I personally am now convinced of the feasibility of using a submarine in pojar regions, but perhaps the Royal Meteorological Society has yet to be convinced. My nest submarine, built for the purpose, will convince them, I am sure. The one that I used, the Nautilus, was not scrapped-- after its return because it was a failure, for it was not a failure, but for the reason that the terms of the contract under which I obtained the loan of it from the United States Navy decreed that it should be scrapped after its / return. And it has to be remembered that no immediate success has ever met any polar exploration of any kind. The attack has to be.returned to time and time again, and I hope to return to the attack with a much greater measure "of success than before." Sir Hubert said that by using the Nautilus, an old submarine, for exploring under the polar ice, he was. enabled to save a considerable sum of money. "I got it for a dollar, so to speak, whereas a submarine specially built for the purpose would have cost me thousands of dollars," he said. "Now, with the experience of that expedition behind me, I know exactly tho type of submarine required for such work. Had I originally built a new submarine for • the work I would not have known what was really required, and much money would have been wasted. But now I do know, and I have submitted plans to contractors for a new submarine foT the work, and this may be built next year.'' THE SUBMARINE'S ADVANTAGES. The submarine, Sir Hubert" holds, ;is the ideal method for the study of polar regions. Scientific equipment in quantity can be carried—the Nautilus took 35 tons of it—and two or three years' food supply can also be taken. Aeroplanes or sledge expeditions cannot do this. "Besides," added Sir Hubert, "when you winter under the ice you find the temperature about 100 degrees warmer than i\ is on the top, and this is no mean consideration. The ice in north polar regions out at sea has a maximum. thickness of only 15 feet, although nearer to the shore it may be as much as 100 feet thick. And there are no icebergs as' there are in tho Antarctic. ■ . . "People called my expedition in the Nautilus crazy or impossible^ But Ii have proved that a submarine expedition of, this type is a feasible proposition, and public opinion on the subject has changed. To have changed public opinion in a year is something to have achieved, and when I renew my exploraitions in a new type of submarine suitable for the purpose there is no doubt that the scientific results will bo very valuable indeed." ■ VALUE OF POLAR RESEARCH. Discussing polar exploration in gemeral, of which he has had several years' experience, having spent three years flying in the Arctic and two years in the Antarctic, Sir Hubert Wilkins said that modern polar exploration was very diSerent from what it used to be. In the old days explorers set out to discover what they could, with no very definite objective, except perhaps the Pole itself. Now they set out with a definite scientific programme in. view. "When the scientific resuits of all these expeditions are correlated they will have an^ immense economic value for the world," he said. "But such expeditions, for their results to be valuable, must be continuous: it is of no use going to the polar regions for ono year and making observations and then leaving them alone for a few years. Observations must be ■carried oil continuously, and perhaps in twenty or. twenty-five years their value will be realised and tho results put to practical use. "The value of polar exploration to meteorology .needs no stressing," continued Sir Hubert. "A fuller knowledge about the weather would be of enor-' mous value. Polar exploration, in conjunction with continuous meteorological observations in. other parts of the "world, will give us a fuller knowledge as to the causes of weather changes. If we could know in advance.the type .of weather to be^expected six months hence, it would mean a saving of a tremendous sum of money. Such foreknowledge, a leading rubber manufacturer once told me, would be worth a million dollars a year to Kirn. Perseverance in polar exploration must be maintained until all the gaps left by the pioneers are filled in, and not least among tho methods used in furthering our knowledge of the polar, regions and in wresting the .secrets from the ice will be exploration in and observation from a submarine." LINK WITH KINGSFORD SMITH. Sir Hubert expressed himself as awed by the majestic grandeur of tho scenery of New Zealand's Southern Alps. "Antarctic scenery,. however," he said, "is three times as grand, and to the glaciers in those regions you can go right up to the foot in boats." In his flights over the frozen wastes round the North Pole, Sir Hubert "Wilkins some eight or nine years ago used the aeroplane which subsequently achieved fame as< the Southern Cross, and Sir Charles Kingsford Smith was an interested spectator this morning of that part of the film which Sir Hubert Wilkins is showing depicting the Southern Cross taking off and landing in snow fields' amongst excited Eskimos, who had never seen an aeroplane before. " • ■