En Route to Pole

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 503, 5 November 1928, Page 1

En Route to Pole

Commander Byrd at Wellington

v Four Planes Brought

Press Association WELLINGTON, To-day

whaling factory ship, C. A. Larsen, with Commander Richard E. Byrd and fifteen members of his Polar expedition, arrived in the stream at daybreak this morning and berthed at noon at Pipitea Wharf, after the voyage from San Pedro, California.

The programme stands unaltered from what lias already been announced, and Commander Byrd had nothing to add to what has appeared .from time to time. The C. A. Larsen carries four planes —one large one and three small ones. Commander Byrd considers it probable that the altitudes estimated by Amundsen and others are excessive, and anticipates that probably the ex-treme-altitude required to cross the mountains will be 9,500 feet.

Commander Byrd will take 15,000 gallons of gas and 7,000 thousands gallons of oil south with him. He said' some of the maps describing the flights are now found to be inaccurate. The flight will not be entirely across Antarctica, but will be to the Pole and back at a slight angle, a series of such triangles enabling the mapping of the whole continent. The primary object of the trip was not an attack on the pole, but exploratory. REMAINDER OF PARTY The Eleanor Bolling is due here in about ten days’ time, and the City of New York should arrive in about three weeks, but being sailers, nothing can be stated definitely. These carry the bulk of the party. The C. A. Larsen will proceed almost at once to Dunedin, but. the members of the party who arrived in her will remain in Wellington for three weeks. The first week is expected to be taken up in checking loading stores etc., and the remaining portion of the stay will be available for touring New Zealand, golf and fishing, at both of which Byrd is proficient. The other two ships will both come to Wellington and remain here quite a while. There are eighty men in the two vessels, more than half of whom will come back after a short stay in the Arctic, only 35 or 40 men remaining till February in the following year, when they will have been practically fifteen months away. Commander Bvrd wishes it to be understood that he was not setting out with the intention of making wonderful additions to Antarctic knowledge, as so much has already been accomplished. He would be content, indeed, if he could add a little to the wonderful work already done by Scott, Shackleton, Mawson and others. Planes were the chief additions to the equipment possessed ' over other expeditions. It was hoped to acquire in New Zealand boring plant for the purpose of determining the depth of the ice cap in the straight between the Ross and Waddell seas.