BYRD EXPEDITION

Hokitika Guardian, 28 December 1928, Page 7

BYRD EXPEDITION

OTHER CRAFT IN SIGHT. ’ MOSS SEA SEARCHED. NEW YORK. December 25, :< Our last day in the pack was one of the most interesting of the entire trip. The ice was heavy and -with ail our manoeuvring we could not avoid some violent collisions. Once we sidled up to a huge flee, and scraped along it, trying to go round the corner, but nearly knocked off our lifeboat against •the top. m “\Ye ! I!U j several false alarms of sea ahead, and when we actually did meet the edge of the pack it came upon us so suddenly that we were taken by‘surprise. This is due to several reasons, the most important of which was the nectiliar alignment of the bergs along its edge. For some time before we reached the bergs we had seen them outlined against the sky and wondered at their cause. They stretched to the right and left of us as far as we could see- small table bergs. with perfectly lint tops, which rose about 3D feet above the water. They formed a perfectly natural wall, which reminded one of the Great Wall of China. As we drew nearer we could sec dark water between some of them, and realised that we were only a few miles from the open water.

“The heavy bergs had completely stopped the swell which usually warns one that the edge of the pack is near, alhouigh we learned when we had passed through them flint the Ross Sea was almost as calm as Long Island Sound on a pleasant summer day.

“As we drew abreast of this ice rampart, through an opening between two of the largest bergß, we began to rise and fall on a little swell, and in a moment we were outside in the midst of the mushy ice that was to the seaward of the bergs for upwards of a mile. Before us lay the smiling, smooth surface of Ross Sea which, afer the storms of higher latitudes and the threatening pack ice, was the pleasantest sight w n had ever looked uprn. “Wo turned to look hack at the pack, that grim, white wall of bergs looked even more imposing from the open water. Beyond them was an unbroken stretch of white,, and the passage through which we had come might almost have had writen upon it: ‘Abandon hope, all ye who enter here, ’ so desolate it looked after our swift release.

WHALE-CHASERS AT WORK.. “The C. A. Larsen cut us off and in a short time tin* little chasers wore dashing away, stretching out like skirmishers and looking for whales. Tn not more than an hour there was the hanging of a gun to windward and the fishing had begun again. “Captain Ncilson. of the C. A. Larsen. came aboard the City of New York for a moment to bid Commander Byrd good-bye and wish him luck, and we toasted him as one of the finest sportsmen and' friends any one could wish in those forsaken waters. Busy as ho lir.s been, he has found time to give it? good advice and help us in innumerable ways which did not intorefcrc with liis operations.

“Ho lias given us a lot of whale •neat which has boon a welcome addition to our fresh meat supply, and we have had it in almost every form that George. Tennant, our cook, could dev:so. It seems to bo best when cut thin and fried or chopped up with onions in meat balls. It is as tender and as good meat as one could desire. About two tons of it is hung in our rigging and some will lie dried for use on the trail. It is feed for the dogs as well as the crew and botli are thriving on it. ‘Pass the whale’ is one of the phrases at mess at which wo have long ceased to laugh. “Captain Neilson was of the opinion that the berg barrier at the edge of the ice pack, which he had never seen before, was due to the breaking off of a large but low piece of barrier ice which had floated to the edge of the pack before disintegrating.”