UNDER ICE TO THE POLE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 440, 17 February 1912, Page 6

UNDER ICE TO THE POLE.

MARVELLOUS ENTERPRISE

INTERVIEW WITH EXPLORER. Dr. Anschutz Kemp hopes to reach the North Pole in his submarine by the summer of this year. The boat has been built., and is especially designed for what it is supposed to do. "Some say," says Dr. Kemp, in an interview we have secured, "1 have copied my idea from Jules Verne's 'Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Gca' —but what of that, il I succeed ? Peary has gone to the top of the earth, but what did ke find ? Nothing but ice, just tin same as any other part of the Arctic. But in my submarine I can tell what is under the ice—and, after all, that is what everyone wants tc know, and all that makes the conquest worth while. "Many explorers think that the ice at the Pole is enormously thick. It is a fact that floating ice is twothirds submerged, but I believe thai the fields at 90 degrees north, are no' very thick. I base my conclusions upon the enormous pressure, which raises the, floes, and the rotary movement which is so pronounced at the poles, and which, if I may use th; illustration, may be likened to a gigantic egg-beater, lightening th« mass. It is a fact that Lieutenant Peary did not find it of any extraordinary thickness, and the open leads, which are steadily more numerous as the explorer goes northward, are very significant. "However that may be, my submarine is built to withstand immense pressures. There is room ic it for four persons comfortably. Everything has been simplified and sacrificed to strength. Its ribs arc of the toughest tempered bronze. Its lighting arrangements are unusual, and we will be enabled to see to great distances, both around us and beneath us. "It is my plan to carry the submarine by boat as far north as wc may be able to go. Then we will swing the craft over the side and start under the ice. We can attain an average speed of fifteen miles an hour, and as we should be able tc get within five hundred miles of th: Pole .by boat, we ought to be able to reach the goal within two days. The submarine will be equipped so that we can spend ten days on it without discomfort and without rising to the surface. "It is only because the method seems unusual that it is doubted. But is it not the foolish thing to try for the Pole by facing every difficulty nature presents ? And thi: . the over-ice explorers do. Is it not the reasonable thing to go under the cc if wc can ? I have invented also apparatus by which I will take my surroundings and bearings when lee-ply submerged. These have besn patented alidad}' in all civilised :ountries. "There will be no sledges on board. We see no use in having any. Wc trust our boat, and if it fails us, sledges would be of no use, anyway. [ believe our expedition will cenfer real benefits on science. As I said, wc will know what is really at the Pole, ill the water, and under the ice—not just the surface, which is all the overland explorers can ever tell. "What is the use of simply running a few instruments down through the ice at the Pole, as Peary did ? Nothing can be really discovered with the limited time at the command of the Dver-ice explorer. He has to dash to the Pole,, and as soon as he gets there he has to dash back again. But we in our cosy little submarine :an spend a week there. If there happens to be an open lead at the Pole wc can ascend and go about. "Personally, I do not care whether we ascend or not. With our lights of enormous power, our specially constructed machines for investigating, and our devices for resisting enormous pressures, we will be just is happy under the ice. Much happier, in fact, than any poor explorers over our heads."—"Popular Scj ence Sif tings."