COMMANDER BYRD

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 289, 1 August 1932, Page 2

COMMANDER BYRD

PREPARATION FCR ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION NEXT WINTER. The roar of tractor engines and the crunching of their treads upon hard- | ened snow will mingle with the bark1 ing of sled dogs and the whir of airJ plane motors when -Rear-Admiral i Richard E. Byrd's second polar expe- ! dition heads into the Antarctic wastes i next winter. j Admiral Byrd recently stated in Boston, his home town, that plans for s his expedition included the use of I tractors in covering some of the vast ^ stretches of barren, unexplored land and for the establishment of bases in j the shadow of the South Pole. ! Conditions permitting, he said, he would sail from Boston early in the ! autumn on a two-year voyage of exploration. The expedition would be smaller, he said, than the first, experience having assisted him in planning a more compact outfit. However, 150 dogs, a larger number than that taken before, will be carried in addition to two planes and several tractors. One ship, the cutter Bear, built in the 'seventies and used for years by the coastguard, will be taken instead of two as in the first trip1. The Bear is larger than any he had used before, he said, and easily would carry all equipment. She is being fitted in Oakland (Cal.), and is expected to arrive in Boston on July 1. Lincoln Ellsworth, polar explorer, also plans an expedition to the region about the same time, and has reeeived permission to use the base at Little America. While the two groups might meet at the bottom of the world, there would be no competitian between them, Admiral Byrd said. Their objectives, he added, were, for the most part, dissimilar. "The object of our trip," he said, "is to study more closely the territory Mary Byrd Land, named for Mrs. Byrd, which was discovered on our previous stay in the Antarctic. In addition we will attempt to elaborate on the sciontific data gained previously. About 90 per cent. of my old crew of scientists will accompany me.' Among them will be Harold I. June, senior pilot, and Captain Ashley McKinley, aerial survey. Paul Siple, of Erie (Pa.), no longer a Boy Scout, also will go. (Siple went on the first trip as a Boy Scout ohserver.) "We hope to salvage the Stars and Stripes and Floyd Bennett, two planes left behind after th'e previous trip. We hope to use these planes to carry freight to opr various bases. "June will alternate with me at the controls. I expect to act as my own pilot in a flight to and beyond the Pole. We also will establish a base near the Pole from which explorations may be made for scientific data, "This voyage will be on my own, financially. Present conditions have. handicapped scientific progress, which I beliey'e should go on, However, I do not believe money needed for other purposes should he expended now, and therefore J am endeayouring to finance this expedition myself. "Should we he able to start from Bqstqn in t|ie autumn we will he compelled to spend thb next winter in a permanent base in Little America. If the Bear can be frozen in the ice we will make our headquarters on the ship. If that is npt feasihle we will spendi the pmqd an the ice.