UNDER ARCTIC SEAS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 630, 5 April 1929, Page 9

UNDER ARCTIC SEAS

POINT BARROW TO SPITZBERGEN WILKINS FINALISES PLANS (Australian and. N.Z. Press Association) NEW YORK, Wednesday. Sir Hubert Wilkins’s plans for a submarine voyage in the Arctic have been practically completed, following a conference between Mr. George Putnam and Commander Sloan Dannenhower, who is part owner of the only submarine in private hands. Commander Dannenhower said the

financial arrangements were nearly completed and he and Mr. Simon Lake were awaiting word from Sir Hubert Wilkins to prepare for the trip. New engines and batteries would have to be installed in the submarine, Avhich would be manned by 10 men, with Commander Dannenhower in command. The trip of 2,000 miles from Point Barrow to Spitzbergen, part of the time beneath the ice, would take about 30 days.

Sir Hubert Wilkins has already made the journey from Point Barrow to Spitzbergen by air. He used the former place as his base when with Lieut. Carl Eielson he flew across the North Pole in 1927. Mr. Simon Lake invented an even-keel type of submarine torpedo-boat, and in 1897 built one of the first submarines to operate successfully in the open sea. He spent several years in England, Germany and Russia building and acting in an advisory capacity in the construction of submarine torpedo-boats, and also invented a submarine apparatus for locating and recovering sunken vessels and their cargoes. A submarine apparatus for pearl and sponge fishing is also among his inventions. He is president of the Lake Submarine Company.