FAMOUS EXPLORER’S END

Hokitika Guardian, 24 September 1929, Page 8

FAMOUS EXPLORER’S END

COMMANDER WILD’S REGRET. Commander Frank Wild a hero of five Antarctic expeditions and famed throughout the world as the result of a mo of adventure in the cause of scientific exploration, was discovered by a South African newspaper correspondent working as a barman and porter in a tin shanty hotel at Gollel, in Zululand.

Commander Wild is the only living descendant of Captain Cook, and is the only person in the world to have a South Pole medal with four bars. The late Ernest Shackleton and Mr E. Joyce’s medals have only three bans. Other honours won by Commander wild include' a David Livingstone Patrol medal, of which there are only ten in existance, that of a patron of the Royal Geographical Society’s silver medals and silver medals from the Scotch Geographical Society, as well as similar bodies in Delgium and France.

The story of the vicissitudes which ruined the explorer has already been told. During the interview with a correspondent he pointed to the rugged reborn bo range of mountains. “The South Pole is guarded by a range such as that,’’ he said. “When nr#, we tried to find it, we thought the Pole was on the sea level, like the North Pole, but a great range of mountains, 11,000 ft high, barred our way. By the way,” he added, “I don’t believe the North Pole has ever been reached overland. Admiral Peary is supposed to have discovered it in 1906, but to some of us who knew what Polar conditions are like, his description was most unconvincing. “The little band of Antarctic pioneers” he said, “is getting smaller. Poor o]d Amundsen! I remember there was some talk of his not having played the game fairly by slipping in ahead of Captain Scott, but I knew Amundsen personally, and take it frimi me, that no man could have played the game more fairly than he did. He actually offered Scott ' two teams of dogs, and advised him to put his trust in dogs. But Scott persisted in his motor sledges and his other equipment, declining to use the depot already made.

Amundsen blazed a fresh trail to the South, and his' arrival first at the South Pole was a fine piece of work. Captain Scott, himself one of the finest of men, would have been the first to congratulate his rival. “Amunden’s end must have been terrible, and I well/ remember the shock I got when the news came through. There is no doubt that a forced landing was made on the ice and that the petrol tank of the airplane was removed and floated away with Amundsen’s bearings scratched on it. Then the ice broke and the airplane and Amundsen were dropped into the icy water.”