FLYING ACROSS POLE

Otaki Mail, 4 January 1924, Page 3

FLYING ACROSS POLE

AMUNDSEN'S PLANS FAIL,

EXCITING EXPERIENCES IN THE ARCTIC. SHIP JAMMED IN ICE. The year 1923 proved to be a bad one for Baold Amundsen, the discoverer of the North-West Passage and the conqueror of the South Pole. His ice steamer, the Maud, has been blown back, and his aeroplane smashed in the Arctic. But he is not a man to be deterred by disappointments. Amundsen is a man whose whele life, whether in the laboratory or on board ship, has been one long preparation for polar research. For centuries it had been tire dream of Arctic explorers to sail through the North-AVest Passage, a voyage through frozen waters from the Atlantic to the Pacific, But j it remained for this modest Norweg-

[ inn to grasp the coveted prize. I Treaty years ago he set sail in a tiny vessel, the cabin of which measured nine feet by six, on a voyage never before accomplished. After three long years of imprisonment in the ice and of battling with the elements, the Goja, with her crew of six, emerged from tire Arctic wilderness and reached the Pacific. Thus Amundsen gained the first of the four great prizes of Polar exploration. Some years later, on a memorable evening, he appeared before the Royal Geographical Society to give a modest account of his second achievement, the attainment of the South Polo. He and his companions had travelled over the 50 miles to their goal at a speed never before equalled in the history of Polar exploration, and over land which had never been traversed before. It wjas a feat which Marquis Curzon, president of tire society, described as a miracle of foresight and organisation. Amundsen at once stepped into the front rank of Polar explorers, but his ambitions wore unsatisfied, and he turned his eyes to the North again. Nansen's Ship Used. i

True, Peary was generally believed to have traversed the 600 miles from Cape Columbia to the Pole, but owing to certain technical reasons, and to the fact that ho had no white companions, he was not in a position to give irrefutable proofs of his success. About the conquest of the Pole there still lingered some doubt. Amundsen determined to set it at rest. Not only would he go to tho Pole, but the manner of his passage would leave no loophope for the sceptics. His plan was as dramatic in its conception as was Shackleton's proposal to march across the South Polar continent. Yet both failed.

Coincident with his flight across the top of the world, Amundsen determined to send Nansen's old ship, the Fram, drifting on a voyage across the Pole. By going out in the ship on the first portion of her voyage, ho was enabled to see her safely started through the Behring Strait on her drift across the ice, while at the same time assembling the equipment for his flight. His own venture (failed, and now a wireless message from the ship (re-named the Maud) states that she has been driven south.

When Nansoir, 30 years ago, set out in the same ship, his plan was to work the vessel along the Siberian coast unti. he was abreast of the Bohring Strait. By this means he hoped to get caught in the current which is generally believed to set from the Strait right across the Polo down the Greenland coast. Ice Pressure. The Frarn, however, was unable to get so far, and was jammed in the ice to the west of the Siberian Islands. On the present occasion the ship entered the ice from the Behring Strait itself, but thus far sho has not nret with the same measure of suceess which attended Nansen, who went nearer the Polo than any of his predecessors. The Maud is now beset iu the iee !'j n. position away from the main Polar current, and it remains to be seen v.-ji*-'-the fate of the expedition wilj J.v This is not the fust tm, thai a shir,; has entered the iee I'rc'isi ir.e Behring S-trait in an attempt to »ass across the Pole. Over 40 years ago the American ship. Tear ivas beset in the same locality as th\r in which the Maud now find-s hc.se'i... was overwhelmed by the iee and Sho, however, was not construcJed to withstand iee pressure, whereas the Maud has already made ose historic voyage across the Polar sea. Whether she will achieve another only time e<;n tell.