FOR ANTARCTICA

Hokitika Guardian, 17 August 1933, Page 8

FOR ANTARCTICA

PLAN TO GROSS CONTINENT.

EXPLORING UNKNOWN LAND

■Bound upon what promises to be a history-making flight from sea to sea across the frozen wastes of the Antarctic. continent, Mr Lincoln Ellsworih, the famous American explorer, reached ,|uckland from San Francisco last week.

With' tanned face, cl ea *’ blue e .vas an d ready smile, M r Ellsworth belies his 52 years, .into which he has crowded enough adventure to fill two °r three ordinary lifetimes. Beyond doubt he is as happy a® a schoolboy a fc the prospect of a journey such as might daunt the stoutest-hearted.

A -seasoned Arctic explorer, Mr Ellsworth ha 6 never seen -the Antarctic. He accompanied Amundsen upon his unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole by air in 1925, Was co-leader of ■tfha Amiin'dsemEllsworth-Nlobile aeroplane flight to the pole in 1926, flew with Amundsen in the airship Norge from Spitzbergan to Alaska, and took p *rt in the Arctic flight of the Graf Zeppelin two years ago.

TO PROBE A MYSTERY

His ambition to-day is to penetrate what .Shackleton called “the last great abode of mystery left on ear.h”—the great Antarctic Continent, and to write a few nimes in the only large -blank ’ space that human daring and endurance have left upon.the map. So .happy is he-'in the prospect that he speaks freely about it, in the right..belief that others are as interested os he. “It will be truly a pioneer flight,” he said in -a conversation on the Mariposa yesterday. “There are 5,000,000 square •rnileg -of the Antarctic Continent; but except around the fringes and a-long the tracks of Amundsen, -Scott and Byrd, between the Ross Sea and the -Pole, no:hi.ng is known about it. The flight we are planning is across the continent from Bay of Whales, in the Ross Sea, to the Weddell Sea ar.d ■back .without a stop. This is the journey that Shackleton hoped to make with -dog-teams and sledges. He had to abandon- it when his ship was crushed • in the ice of the Weddell Sea and he made that' wonderful boat -(voyage to get help from South Georgia. It would he fine to make the eross-in-cr- on foot, and ; there is nothing I would Mfike'‘-better,; but we have the aeroplane and we; can do more useful work- that ds;ay.” ' ‘ . TWO continents OR ONE? 1

Mr Ellsworth i explained that one ■of the -yet unsolved geographical questions was whether the - sector of 'Antarctica facing-.'South America was .or-was not ipart-. of . the ■ s3me-land mass as tßfe other a-nd mjuch larger half of the con’tjinent. The region between the Ross and Weddell':Seas, which his flight would cover;'-was wholly unexplored. He -hoped that, the flight; of 1450 miles and back,:mi.would show whether the great central plateau bn 1 which was the Pole, extended across in that direction, or whether there was only ice between ocean and ocean. He hoped also to determine.' whether the Queen Maud •Range, running south-eastward from .the Ross Sea, was an isolated mountain mass'o r whether it was connected .with the of Graham Land, which had been demonstrated geologically to be a continuation of the Andes. • i -

“Our purpose is simply to photograph and locate the main features along the .route,” said , Mr Ellsworth. “We cannot do mo>’6 than that on such a flight. More detailed surveys will have to be left for other expeditions, working in the air and on the ground. We shall carry several camera, s . one iof ■ them fixed obliquely in the bottom of the plane and taking picture 6 every 10 seconds on a continuous strip of film.”

A 20 HOURS’ FLIGHT

He hoped to assemble the aeroplane on the ship 'at the Ross Sea ice barrier, making it unnecessary to establish a shore base. The flight would be started at any time after December 15, depending upon weather conditions, which were best usually when the wind •was blowing from the Pole. It -would •be impossible to get distant weather reports, except possibly from the Riiser. Larsan expedition at Coates Land, near the Weddell ‘Sea. Fop navigation it would be necessary to 'have sunshine, iso that “shots” could be taken at intervals. All being well, the trip should take 20 hours. Winds U P to 100 miles an hour were tio be expected, but the machine had la cruising range of 1000 miles to sp.re. Flying at 10,0001't., it be possible to see 300 mile 6 on either side. “We do not want to land if we can help it,” remarked Mr Ellsworth. “We shall carry plenty of food and gear .far all emergencies, and nearly enough spare parts to build a second engine.

Speaking of his ship, the Wyatt (Earp, Mr Ellsworth' said he did not know exactly when she would reach Dunedin- She comirtg out from Xor way -by the Gape of Good Hope. Except for the wireless operator the crew were all Norwegians from Antarctic whale-ships, whose experience would be valuable. The wireless pi nt would communicate direct wi-h the Ujnited States, and press messages would be sent whenever there wag anything to record.