Southward Ho!

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 547, 27 December 1928, Page 16

Southward Ho!

BYRD THROUGH ICE-PACK Whalers Begin Work • t S. S. CITY*OF NEW YORK. Wednesdav .

(By Russell Owen, special Press representative with the Byrd Expedition)

WE are out ol‘ the ice pack, sailing along in a calm sea, with blue sky overhead. The sun is so warm that we can stay on deck without a hat or gloves, and not feel uncomfortable.

The pack ice is behind us, and only one iceberg shows to the east, shining white in the sun. Oddly enough in this lonely sea we can see the smoke of a ship on the horizon. It is from one of those whalers which come. here each year. All the way across the Pacific we did not see a single ship, and now we have three large ships and 15 small chasers moving about within 100 miles of us.

We came through the ice pack in seven and a-half days, towed by the C. A, Larsen, the large whaler which brought Commander Byrd and some of his men from California to New Zealand.

We have been towed nearly 2,000 miles by the C. A. Larsen, a vessel of 17,000 tons, which goes through the ice every year. We were very fortunate in being able to make use of the pathway she left ahead when her powerful engines forced aside the ice which we could not have passed. As a result we came through quickly and easily, using very little coal, and if the good weather holds we should be at the Barrier several days before it has been reached by other expeditions. We hope to be at Discovery Inlet in the ice barrier on Christmas night, but we do not know how much ice lies between us and that point. The barometer is high and steady for the first time, and we hope it will stay there. LAST DAY IN PACK

Our last day In the ice pack was one of the most interesting of the entire trip. The ice was heavy, and with all our we could not avoid some violent collisions. Once we slid up to a huge tloe, and scraped along it, trying to go round the corner, but we nearly knocked off our port lifeboat against the top of the floe. severa*. false alarms of “sea ahead, and wh'.n we did actually meet the edge of the pack it came upon us so suddenly that we were taken by surprise. This- was due to several reasons, the most important of which was a peculiar alignment of the bergs along its edge. For some time before we reached the bergs we had seen them outlined against the sky, and wondered what caused this. They stretched to right and left of us as far as we could see. They were small *able befrgs with perfectly flat tops, which rose about . 30ft. above the water. They formed a j perfect natural wall, which reminded one of the Great Wall of China. As I we drew nearer we could see dark

water between some of them, and realised that we were only a few miles from the open water. The heavy bergs had completely stopped the swell which usually .warns one that the edge of the pack is near, although we learned when we had passed through them that the Ross Sea was almost as calm as Long Island Sound on a pleasant summer day. As we drew abreast of this ice rampart through an opening between two of the largest bergs we began to rise and fall on a little swell, and we were outside in the midst of the mushy ice that was to seaward of the bergs for upward of a mile. SMILING ROSS SEA Before us lay the smiling, smooth surface of the Ross Sea, which after the storms of the higher altitudes, and the threatening pack ice, was as pleasant a sight as «we had ever looked upon. We turned to look back at the pack, and that grim, white wall of bergs was even more imposing from the open water beyond than was the unbroken stretch of white. The passage through which we had come might almost have had written upon it, "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here,” so desolate it looked after our swift release. The C. A. Larsen cast us off, and in a short time the little chasers were dashing away, stretching out like skirmishers, looking for whales. In not more than an hour there was the report of a gun to the windward, and fishing had begun again. WHALER’S FAREWELL Captain Nilsen. of the C. A. Larsen, came on board the City of New York for a moment, to bid Commander Byrd good-bye, and to wish him good luck. We toasted him as one of the finest sportsmen and friends anyone could wish for in these forsaken waters. Busy as he has been, he has found time to give us good advice and to help us in innumerable ways which did not interfere with his operations. He has given us much whale meat, which has been a welcome addition to our fresh meat supply, and we have had it in almost every form that George Tennant, our cook, could devise. It seems best cut thin and fried. or chopped up with onions in meat balls. It is as tender and as good meat as one could desire. About two tons of it is hung in our rigging, and some will be dried for use on the trail. It is fed to the dogs as well as to the crew, and both are thriving on it. “Pass the whale” is one of the phrases at mess at which we have long ceased to laugh. Captain Nilsen was of the opinion that the berg barrier at the edge of the j ice pack, which he had never seen before, was caused by the breaking off of a large but low piece of the barrier ! ice, which had floated to the edge of the pack before disintegrating.