ANTARCTICA CONQUERED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 834, 30 November 1929, Page 1

ANTARCTICA CONQUERED

Plane Roars Across Waste VAST PLATEAU SAFELY CROSSED Safe Return to Barrier Base Copyrighted, by the “New York Times” company and the St. Louis ••Post-Diapateh.” Ail rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to the “New York Times.” By COMMANDER R. E. BYRD. Received 3 p.m. SOUTH POLE, Saturday. BY my calculations, we have reached the South Pole. We are flying high for a survey. “Our airplane is in good shape, and the crew are all well. We are now turning north again. “We can see the almost limitless Polar plateau. Our departure from the South Pole is at 1.25 a.m.” A later message from Mr. Russell Owen said Commander Byrd’s party returned safely from the Pole to the base at the Bay of Whales.

Byrd made a complete tour and a survey of the surroundings. He turned north again, landed at the yueen Maud Mountains, and picked up the extra gasoline, and flew home. “All well; feeling fine,” were uniform signals from the great Ford plane, named the Floyd Bennett in honour of Byrd’s old friend, who accompanied him to the North Pole. Following Byrd’s message dated from the South Pole, he sent a radio through Little America:—“Flying well, motor flue. We are over the mountain now on return trip, and starting down to land.” The next bulletin read: —“Departure from mountains made at six o’clock for Little America. Flying well. Motors fine.” The next bulletin, an hour later, waa: —“About 100 miles north of the mountains.” Another, an hour later, said; “About 20 miles south of crevassed area; flying well; motors fine.” Another hour gave the final bulletin: “We are only ten miles out now. Almost ready for making a landing. Home again.” By RUSSELL OWEN Reed. 9 a.m. BAY OF WHALES, Fri. Commander Byrd took off for the Pole In the big Ford plane at 3 p.m. yesterday, Antarctic time. With him are Bernt Balchen, pilot, Harold June, wireless operator, and Captain McKinley, photographer. Dr. Gould’s geological party reported good flying conditions at the edge of the polar plateau. The following wireless messages were received from the airplane, signed by June: — • "4 p.m.: On the trail, flying well. Just passed the 45 miles depot. The motors are going well. "4.25 p.m.: Flying well. Passed the snowmobile. "4.50 p.m.: Flying well, at 100 miles.” “Flying well, motors going fine. At crevasses at 5.30 p.m.” Commander Byrd himself signed the next message:—“Friday morning: Flying well. Motors going fine. We are headed south in the vicinity of the South Pole.” Byrd carried messages for the geological party on the trail, and it was planned to drop them with a parachute. In the package of messages was also a packet of photographs of the mountains of the Queen Maud Range, made by McKinley on the other flight, which, it was hoped, would help Dr. Gould in his geological work. Soon after the plane reached the neighbourhood of the Queen Maud Mountains, there was an hour or two. during which June’s signals faded so badly that the Little America station could not hear them. The plane must have risen from 10,000 to 12,000 feet to clear the mountains, and this apparently affected the radio. Then, with the coming of daylight to the tones north of Little America there was some fading, as is customary with messages at that hour. SIGNALS FADE OUT At 5.15 a.m. the “New York Times” again got a clear message from Little America, saying the plane’s signals had not been heard for an hour. Before 8 o’clock. New York time, however, Byrd reported himself to be going fine, in the vicinity of the South Pole. Commander Byrd sent the followihg message to the personnel of the supply ships City of New York and Eleanor Boling, which are in New Zealand waters: “As we take off for the flight to the Pole 1 send the best of good wishes t 0 you. j want you all to know that T°u are playing just as important a Part as any one of us down here.” into the silent south RIG AIRPLANE HOPS OFF FROM GLEAMING FIELD A MEMORABLE SIGHT By RUSSELL OWEN BAY OF WHALES, Friday. Thursday s start from Little America was a scene never to be forgotten, There were few handshakes, or Commander Byrd, like most pliots, oteUkoH last-minute farewells. Pats on the back for the others, and the furred and bulky figures

climbed into the plane. The door was slammed, the pilot waved his hand and opened the throttles wide to break the plane loose from the snow, while the mechanics in the windy blast, with snow whirling about them so as almost to conceal them in its smother, loosened the skis of the heavy machine. The plane jerked forward and slipped smoothly over the ground, was carefully turned, and taxied up to one end of the field. The flying field lies in a sort of hollow. It has a long, fairly level surface, with the scattered materials of the camp and the snow-buried houses on one side, and on the other a long slope. . This was apparently at one time an indentation in the Barrier—a sort of a bay—and it has been built up through the years until now it is 30ft above the water, but still some distance below the top of the Barrier. SPECTACLE DESCRIBED At the end of the runway, beyond where the plane leaves the ground, was a line of haycocks. The whole field gleamed under the sun, dappled in patches of grey and a cream colour, where the snow lay soft, or blown hard and crushed by the wind. A few little ridges only inches high ran across it, throwing grey shadows in the line of the general wind direction. At the end of the field, on the slope up to the edge of the Barrier, the plane was turned about, and the pilot opened her up. The motors burst into a crescendo of sound, from a low growl to a deep, tearing note, and the propellers flashed in circles of Are as the sun hit their invisible blades. The plane began to move, and the group of men standing on the snow, oblivious to the cold, watched like Faster and faster the great machine shot forward, its wings dipping slightly as the skis met inequalities in the surface. It seemed an age, although it was but a few moments, before it was sliding with terrific speed and so smoothly that the almost imperceptible skis lifted, and a small space showed between them and the snow. Then the big ship leaped into life, and despite its heavy load soon lifted high above the field and the hill beyond. t Then a long, smooth glide outward and a slow turn —the great wing grew

smaller, the sound of the motors a muffled hum out of the sky. The plaue diminished rapidly against the clear blue above it, became a thin, dark line, graceful as a soaring gull, and then, as the eyes strained alter it, it vanished into the silent south.

BYRD THIRD AT THE POLE ROALD AMUNDSEN’S DASH RECALLED SCOTT PARTY’S HEROISM First to reach the South Pole v,as Roald Amundsen, the famous Norwegian .explorer, who sacrificed his life last year in the Arctic in trying to succour the survivors o- the wrecked airship Italia. 1" IMO ii f“ , ; e nd r r Ln and reached tne 1 Bay'of wLrUes where Byrd has estabHshed base, on ' • 17, the Axel Heiberg Glaciei

climbed, and the Pole 'was reached on December 16, 1911. A month later, on January 17, 1912, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his four gallant companions—Wilson, Bowers, Oates, and Evans —reached the Pole. They found the tent left there by Amundsen, and the flag of Norway, hanging above, told them that despite their courageous battle against the dread Antarctic elements the great Norwegian had won the race. On the journey back, Evans died at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier, on February 17. On March 17, his birthday, Oates walked out from the tent to lay down his life as a gallant English gentleman. Scott, Wilson, and Bowers fought on, but were forced to camp by a terrible blizzard, and perished about March 29, 1912. Commander Byrd, if he succeeds now, will be the third to reach the Pole. The first flight ever made in the Antarctic was that of Sir Hubert Wilkins, the Australian explorer, when he made an aerial survey of Graham Land some months ago.