THE POLAR FLIGHT

Hokitika Guardian, 18 May 1926, Page 2

THE POLAR FLIGHT

AMUNDSEN AT NOME. [Australia & N.Z. Cable Association.] , NOME, May IG. Captain Amundsen, Mr Ellsworth, Captain Wisting and Lieut. Ottdahl, have 'arrived here from Teller. They came board a launch at five o’clock 011 Sunday morning, after dragging the launch fourteen miles in the open.over the frozen Teller harbour. The trip to Nome was cold and gloomy. The balance of the crew were left with the Norge, which has now been deflated, and is being made ready for shipment to the United States by steamer.

There is a feeling of resentment against Captain Amundsen expressed bv many citizens of Nome over the failure to bring the Norge here, after his sending a message to the Norwegian Vice-Consul to arrange for the men and material to land the dirigible and also assuring the populace that Nome would be the landing place. The Nome Chamber of Commerce went to a considerable expenditure in placing a cable and four anchors, and they erected a triumphal arch, besides decorating the streets. Some suggested that the decorations be substituted by crepe, so deeply chagrined were they. Captain Amundstn’s Norwegian friends joined in the resentment. ANOTHER ACCOUNT. t_ NOME. May 16. Lieut. Hialnmn Riiser-Larsen, the Norwegian, who is second pilot of the Norge, said that thin ice and open water were found at the North Pole, hut no land was discovered in the Arctic wastes by tbe expedition. The Norge was in the air for 72 hours. A considerable time was spoilt at the Pole in observations. The Norge descended to within six hundred feet of the ice, and she rose to an altitude of four thousand feet. When she was over Point Barrow, ice formed on her propellers, and then broke off, cutting the gasbag. The loss of hydrogen made the Norge extremely heavy. A fair wind nidiM the voyage to Teller. The crew were very tired. Preparatory to landing, an anchor was dropped, and a mechanician descended to supervise. A strong wind blew while the airship "as being lowered. After motion pictures bad been taken, the vessel was deflated in thirty minutes. Amundsen and Weistling are the only two who have visited both the North and South Poles. NO POLAR LAND. NOME, May 17. Captain Amundsen'. Mr Ellsworth, and Lieut. Oscar Omdahl, who was in charge of the Norge’s engines, and Captain Oscar Wiestling, the former commander of Amundsen’s ship “Maud,” were weary and bedraggled when they arrived at Nome from Teller, after a difficult overland journey. Lieut. Omdahl said: “No land was discovered. We have demonstrated conclusively that there is no land north of Alaska. It was impossible for the airship to reach Nome, as there was such heavy fog and snow. We were very fortunate to sight Teller. The Norge made a forced landing in the ice there, after which the gas was let out. The Norge is now -almost totally dismantled. The remainder of the crew, under Lieut. Hjalnian. and Riiser-Larsen, the second in command, stayed at Teller, where the Norge will be prepared for shipment to the United States on tbe first available ship. LITTLE SLEEP ON FLIGHT. VANCOUVER, May IG. Amundsen’s party reached Nome worn out from want of sleep. Amundsen said it was a troublesome job landing upon tbe unstable ice floes in the vicinity of Teller. Everybody was literally dead from lack of sleep. They descended on shore ice, which extended fourteen miles from Teller. Everybody in the settlement of Teller came to meet them. After deflating the Norge, they walked over the ice to Teller. Sometimes they were ferried from floe to floe by native boatmen.

Amuhdsen paid a high tribute to the navigation of Larsen through blinding fog and snow. During the flight every man was almost constantly on duty and got very little sleep. AViestling the helmsman, did not sleep more than four hours during the entire flight of seventy-one hours. The wireless men were little better off. ns they were listening for communications from the outside world. The flight had proved how necessary were the strictest precautions and what simple defects might lead to disaster. But for the precautions taken against ice projectiles from the propellers, they would have been compelled to land on the polar ice long before reaching Point Barrow. In the last stretch of the journey, they had an exceptionally rough time, owing to had weather, and the bumpy condition of the atmosphere. They many times called up wireless stations, but vainly. Their machine drifted inland, and they had.to work back to the coast, and, owing to the heavy fog, they lost their exact position. They then heard the Nome and another wireless station calling, and thereby got their hearings once more, though the stations apparently could not hear their reply. Finally, they recognised C ape Prince of AA'ales, hut again they lost their position. Late Thursday afternoon they gave up looking for Nome and decided to land, if possible at Teller. Everybody was prepared ior the worst, as they did not know what kind of conditions they would meet. The vessel bumped and tore around terribly, but finally she came to rest on the ice.

_\nnmsiion aml Kilswort'h are jareparine io return to New York immediately.