To Probe Sea Mysteries Under Polar Pack-Ice

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 626, 1 April 1929, Page 9

To Probe Sea Mysteries Under Polar Pack-Ice

Wilkins Plans Risky Voyage in Submarine

U.S. EXPERTS DOUBTFUL

(Australian, and N.Z. Prtss Association) NEW YORK. March 3d. Sir Hubert Wilkins, the wellknown Arctic explorer, informed a representative of the New York Times that he is conducting active inquiries into the possibility of making a submarine trip across the Arctic Sea.

However, he lias no definite plans yet for undertaking the trip this year. The explorer said he would like to bore liis way through the waters beneath the polar ice in order to study the ocean depths and currents. He said he had this trip in mind for 15 years. He believed the journey could be made in a month and that July would be the most favourable period. It would be possible to do it this summer and be back in time to resume his Antarctic work next October. i4ir Hubert was non-committal when he was asked whether he had planned the expedition for the coming summer, but lie admitted that he would require the aid of some Government and had been making inquiries. He said Stefansson hud suggested the idea in 1913. “HIGHLY IMPRACTICABLE" American naval submarine experts | regard Sir Hubert’s plan as highly impracticable. It is learned that the explorer asked the Navy Department recently to provide a submarine for the venture, but the request was not looked upon favourably. The great depth of the Arctic icefield and the limited under-water cruising range for submarines were considered to be the outstanding deterrents to the accomplishment of the plan. It is pointed out that Arctic icebergs often extend many hundred feet below the surface of the sea.

The greatest depth ever attained by an American under-water craft is 318 ft. The under-water cruising range of a submarine is only 200 miles and should Sir Hubert’s boat exhaust the batteries while beneath the ice-floe he would be trapped unless he could blast his way out. It is seriously doubted that a depth bomb would be sufficiently powerful to work through a Heavy sheet of ice. STEFANSSON WORRIED Sir Hubert says he is consulting the Lake Torpedo Company about procuring a submarine. He estimates the distance in the Arctic Sea to be traversed by the vessel at about 2.000 miles. One type of craft is already available with an “air-lock” which would enable egress to be made while it is submerged. The cost of the expedition would be £50,000. . Vilhjalmur Stefansson. in commenting upon Sir Hubert's plan, said: “Of course it pleases me very much that he should think of adopting my idea, but I am also worried because it would be a very dangerous enterprise.” Ten or twenty years from now, said Stefansson, a submarine voyage of that nature will be a commonplace thing without danger, but at present it is a mighty dangerous thing. It is feasible to blast ice upwards from a submarine.