THE LOST ITALIA

Hokitika Guardian, 9 July 1931, Page 8

THE LOST ITALIA

AMUNDSEN’S QUEST. Captain Roald Amundsen a famous Norwegian explorer, left Tromso at' 4 a.mi, on June 18, 1928, to assist in.the search for the missing members of the crew-i of the ill-fateu airship Italia,which liad come to grief among the ice floes north of Spitsbergen. With the exception of a fisherman's- report that the machine was seen later in the .same \lay, flying low in the fog, over rough water, he has not been heard of since. A widespread and careful search was made for many months, representative? of several countries joining in the Russian ice-breakers Malygin and Krassin playing the principal part.

HOPE REVIVED. In October, 1928, an aerupL.no petru. tauK was u..icuv'ei'eu near 1 ruiiUnjcns, winch, was tnoughi to be iroiu uk. Latham maemne in which Aiiiunusen

was nying. it had been wrenched from the machine, and had on it what appeared to lie pencil marks, but they ivere indecipherable. It was considered at tfie time that this sli wed that the explorer, and liis companions had not been killed when the aeroplane was forced down. This spark of hope coupled with the knowledge that Amundsen was possessed of unrivalled experience in the Arctic, gave weight to the belief that he might not be dead. Amundsen was accompanied by Captain pietrichsen, a Norwegian, a close

personal friend of the explorer, Commandant Gilbaud ,one of France’s most famous airmen, the pilot and two others. Amundsen had made a number of trips through the Arctic ice, and attempts, to reach the North Pole in such .well known ships as the Maud and the Fram. ft was felt by some people - that he would he able o maintain himself and party on the ice for a considerable period. '

- PERSONAL RELATIONS. The personal relations ol General Nobile, who was in command of tne leaha, and Amundsen are perhaps me most interesting sidelight of the whole auair. Only two years previously, Nobile and Amundsen hud been the closest of friends and had collaborated in the night'made by the airship i IV-rde over the 'North Pole, from Spitzbergeii to Alaska, between May 12 and May 15, lu-.,. However, the trip resulted in the two p'onlers nn king vio'ent atta k„ upon eacli other, and the end ol tbeii friendship. In 1928 Captain Amundsen' forgot the' supposed insults and made all haste to the Arctic when he heard that Nobile was m danger, and apparently made [the supreme sacrifice,while .-.vaiviiing for'Nobile, Their flight over the Pole in the Norge wafP an exciting journey and lasted seventy-one hours, before the landing wak made at Teller, in Alaska T< wards The end of the flight ice forme on the (ff-opellors and flew off tearing the gas-bag. The helium began to escape, but Teller was readied before the loss of gas could be fatal. 1 After bis return from • this epoch-making flight Nobile was loaded with honours in Ttalv, promoted to the rank of general, dven the title of Marquis and appointed professor at the Naples Technical College.

THE ARGUMENT in die following July, a controver y began in New York us to who should have the credit of piloting the Norge Mr Lincoln Elisworth, who accompanied the expedition which his lather had financed, denied that Nobile had acted as 'navigator, but the latter asserted tlgit the course was laid by him and fol lowed di king the flight and that every one in .th ship was under his orders Amundsen in his book ‘‘My Life as an E plorer” qlso attacked Nobile with ex. treme violence for his alleged inoon p fence as a navigator, as wel as on othr or ands, asserting that the airship was actually navigated by Lieutenant ] iiser-Larsen.

Captain R:iser- T ar-en, of the Norwegian Air, Force, look a prominent part in the Ttnlin res-ue operations and the search far Amundsen. Nob.le, as a result of the Italia d s:ute. ( ix men mis - iand one killed), was di mssed fromhis post as Chief of the Italian Air F resigned his commission.

. Anthony Fiala, the American exp m-er, led the Ziegler Polar Expedition in 1t).,3-).’but this was not his first venture north. In .adition ‘lie accompanied Thecd re Roosevelt on his tiip through the Bnvdlian wilderness „ in 11)131-4. Mr Fiala has had a varied career; having been a lithographer, assjsta.pt in a chemical laboratory, news paper artist, cartoonist and war correspondent.