NO HOPE FOR AMUNDSEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 395, 2 July 1928, Page 9

NO HOPE FOR AMUNDSEN

Hansen Mourns His Chief EXPLORER ATTACKS NOBILE “Not the Man for the Task” U nited P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian Press Association.) 1( l 30 a ; m ’ COPENHAGEN, Sunday. 1 ex P lorer Peter Freuchen declares that General Nobile was inexperienced and not the man for the task. , x. - ,Y as warned not to go, and has been morally and technically defeated. Freuchen deprecates the risk of valuable lives in searching for the expedition, which was a i ailure from its planning’.

Helmer Hansen, who was associated with Captain Amundsen in the Antarctic, is of the opinion that his chief perished and that his machine would Quickly sink if it came down in the sea. Captain Amundsen always hoped for a quick death. Other Arctic experts are of the opinion that there is no hope for Captain Amundsen. A Moscow message says that the Russian airman Babushkin, who took off from the ice-breaker Malygin on Friday night, flying toward Foyn Island, has not been sighted since. It is feared he is lost. An earlier message from Tromso, Norway, says some fishermen who have just returned from a fortnight's cruise declare they sighted the French seaplane in which Captain Amundsen and his companions set out to endea-

vour to rescue the marooned crew of the airship Italia. They say that .on the evening of June 18 they saw the plane 60 miles north-west of Bear Island, flying toward South Cape, Spitzbergen. The machine was flying very low, but the motor was working steadily. It is believed that Captain Amundsen and his companions landed on the southern shores of Spitzbergen. Ships have been ordered to search for them there. Captain Roald Amundsen left Tromso, Norway, on Monday, June 18, at 4 p.m., in a seaplane piloted by the French airman, Major Guilbaud, with Lieutenant Dietriclison as spare pilot. It was reported that he had also taken an old Arctic companion, Captain Wisting. The seaplane was due at King’s Bay, Spitzbergen, at 1 a.m. on Tuesday, June 19, but the whole population of the latter town waited in vain. It was therefore believed that the airmen must have attempted to reach General Nobile direct, but that was not the case.