BYRD’S SHIPS IN PERIL AMONG ANTARCTIC ICE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 536, 13 December 1928, Page 9

BYRD’S SHIPS IN PERIL AMONG ANTARCTIC ICE

COMMANDER SLIPS ON FROZEN DECK—IS KNOCKED OUT * (United Service) Reed. Noon. VANCOUVER, Wed. A message from the Byrd expedition says:—“We confirmed the existence of Scott Island, which has been in doubt ever since Scott first discovered it. “We nearly got lost in dangerous ice-packs. We lost a hawser and saw a whale caught. “Now we are alongside the pack and are preparing to enter it.” Finding Scott Island is a source of great gratification to Commander Byrd, as other ships reported passing over the spot where it was supposed to exist without seeing it. The island is the loneliest in the world, lost in the ice and a wilderness of troubled waters. In dodging the ice, the Eleanor Boling broke away from the City of New York. Both ships then made way singly through the ice packs. Navigation was difficult. The vessels once found themselves between the main pack and an enormous piece of pack, which Commander Byrd described as the worst he had ever seen. Both ships hurried out, for to have been caught there would have been serious. Commander Byrd slipped on the deck and was knocked out. He had been on duty continuously for two days in an attempt to take coal from the Eleanor Boling, but he abandoned the task owing to rough weather.