FINDING THE SOUTH POLE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2156, 12 August 1907, Page 4

FINDING THE SOUTH POLE.

LIEUT. SHACKLETON’S expedition.

Mr. England, ,\yho was second in command of the Morning, which wont to the relief, of the Discovery in the last Antarctic Expedition has been appointed captain of. the Nimrod, the [vessel ffor Lieutenant Slinckleton’s Antarctic Expedition.

“First let ino say a word about the ship,” he said to a Press representative in London a few weeks ago. “She lias been engaged in sealing from Newfoundland, and hor record is nearly 400,000 seals, and she has stood the beat of many a gale. She is in every way suited for a voyage. Hor oaken walls will withstand much pressure, and whereas an iron-plated ship would be crushed by the impact of a collision with the' ice, she would escape practically undamaged. She is at present schooner-rigged, but will be altered to a' barquentinc. The preparations are well advanced, and tho provisions and epuipment- are ready to go on board. Wo hope to reach .Now Zealand in November, where we will 'take on board tho scientific party, who will be under, I believe, Sir Philip Broekleliurst. We shall then make for King Edward VII. Land—a place which has been sighted on a previous occasion, but has never been explored. This is to be the base from which the future operations will be conducted. We shall build huts, and after all preparations have been made at this spot the Endurance will return to New Zealand and twtelve months later return for the explorers. I am very sanguine of success of the expedition. Though it is not primarily a dash for the South Polo, but chiefly for the purpose of geographical survey arid discovery, I am of course, hopeful that we may, if not actually reach the Pole itself, at least come nearer t'o it than has ever been done before. The Discovery, I would point out, got • within 465 miles. There is one striking innovation which we are making in Antartic exploration, and that is of availing ourselves of a motor car. The vehicle will be specially constructed with the view of its adaptability to the conditions of these regions. It .can, for instance, be converted into a sledge. Then we are taking a number of the famous sturdy Manchurian ponies in the place of dogs. Dogs have not been entirely successful, as for example, in the case of the Discovery they all succumbed to, the rigour and terrible strain necessarily imposed upon them. We hope that the ponies will be more suitable for work on tho icefields.” The Nimrod will be re-christened the Endurance.