BYRD ON THE ICE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 556, 8 January 1929, Page 14

BYRD ON THE ICE

Stars and Stripes Fly for First Time on the Antarctic Continent

CAPRICES OF NATURE

By COMMAXDER R. E. BYRD Copyrighted, 192*, by the "Xew York Times” c-jmpany and the St. Louis osr-Dispatch.” All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless the ”N"ew York Times." BAY OF WHALES, Saturday. TO-DAY we moved our main base. It is the first time the Stars and Stripes have ever been flown on the Antarctic Continent. Our adventures continue, and we are learning something about this extraordinary part of the world. December 21 was our midsummer day and yet, even now, ice fills the Bay of Whales.

A leader in the Antarctic is unfair to his shipmates if he does not exercise much patience with the elements. Each day brings a new caprice of nature. Yesterday a 10ft crack opened in the ice in the bay between the ship and the main base seven miles away, and so to-day we have to send our nine heavily-loaded dog-teams to the westward to get around this lead. Now the total distance we must haul our loads is nine miles. This makes IS miles a day for the teams. To-mor-row wo expect to have 10 dog-teams on the job and still the transfer of our material will be a long, slow process. Our shipmates understand the problem and those not on watch on the ship and at the camp have volunteered to man-haul the equipment to the base ■with sleds. From noon to 7 p.m. they managed to pull a ton and a-half of

material a third of the way to the base. CONSTANT LOOK-OUT To-morrow they have got to haul at least five tons the same distance. The dogs will then take it the rest of the way. It will be some days before we can do any flying, as we must give our efforts to getting our material to the shore and to erecting houses. The firi% of four houses should be up within 4s hours. It will then take at least a week to prepare a landing field and several weeks more before we can do any flying. It is only by proceeding with thoroughness that we will be able to succeed. The ice between us and our base may begin to break up at any time, and so we must be on the job continuously with the radio, a lookout and strict rules to prevent the transportation party from getting caught on the ice-floe. The men are safe as long as we can keep our glasses on them, but in case of fog or

snow the ice party and the ship lookout may lose track of each other. ICE MENACES SHIP A navigator with a compass is sent in with the dog-teams. The route is marked with orange-yellow flags, which are the most visible on snow, and all hands have instructions to make rapidly for the camp in case of fog or snow. Without flags it would be quite easy to get lost in a snowstorm, which might last for days. Every member of the transportation party is required to take his reindeer nkin sleeping-bag with him, so that he can weather a storm if necessary. No one is permitted on the unexplored part of the Barrier without a companion tied to him with an alpine rope. After the dog-teams left yesterday a huge icefield of enormous jagged cakes drifted rapidly on to us from the east. To prevent having our ship injured by it we had to leave our berth alongside the ice and to put out to sea.

We could not drift with the wind, as that would have taken us against the Ice Barrier, so we hoisted sail and moved about all night. In this way we saved coal, for we are 2, <OO miles from the nearest coaling station and are nursing our precious fuel with the greatest possible care. A SIX MONTHS’ NIGHT

We must leave 75 tons of coal on the Barrier for fuel during the six months’ night, and so, from the beginning, the preservation of coal has been one of our serious problems. This would not have been possible without the tow of 1,600 miles on the voyage from New Zealand.

A party is out every day: We expect to use sea blubber for fuel and light during the six months’ night, and the meat we are feeding to the dogs. From skins we will make warm clotiling.

We would be well supplied with oil if we could procure some of the great schools of killer and finner whales which are blowing and snorting day and night along the edge of the ice. When they dive under the water after blowing their great fins look like the periscopes of submarines submerging.

Our expedition ship, the Eleanor Boling, will head for us on her 3000-mile voyage on January 10. We have postponed her departure from New Zealand from January 1 owing to the unusually bad pack-ice which lies in our path for several hundred miles. We think that by the time the Eleanor Boling reaches the pack it will have drifted away, mostly to westward.