Byrd Turns North

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 903, 21 February 1930, Page 11

Byrd Turns North

CITY OF NEW YORK READY Farewell to Little America BATTLE WITH ANTARCTIC GALE LEAVING the empty huts of Little America and two abandoned airplanes “like two giant birds resting,” RearAdmiral Byrd and his party have loaded and boarded the City of New York for their return to civilisation. The explorers are working hastily, for the season is late and the ice is forming. A thrilling story of the ice-eoated supply-ship’s battle to the Bay of Whales through a tearing gale is told by her commander, Captain Melville. “It was a rough ride while it lasted,” he says.

By RUSSELL OWEN Copyrighted, 1928, by the “New York Times” company and the St. Louis “PostDispatch.” All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to the “New York Times.” Reed. 9 a.m. BAY OF WHALES, Wed. Weather-beaten as she is, the City of New York, which reached here last evening, means to us letters from home and the way back to civilisation. No sooner was the vessel alongside the ice than the gear piled there was tumbled aboard. It came over the side in a steady steam, records and scientific gear first, then personal baggage, and finally otber things which were piled up in between decks until she was full to the hatch. All night the loading went on, and by breakfast time this morning it was finished, except for a few things which did not long delay the ship. There was need for haste, for <the season is getting late, and the ice pack has not disappeared this year. RUSH FOR MAIL Breakfast was a sadly interrupted meal, however, because the arriving mail was distributed then. There were bags and bags of it. It had been piled in Rear-Admiral Byrd’s cabin to keep it dry, and it seemed as if there would be no end to the amount of letters and bundles and bags. Men staggered away from the drnr with bags that they could hardly lift. There will never be another mail day like it for most of us, and even then there was not time at first to read them, and men grabbed letters, scanning the handwriting on them and hurriedly stuck them in their pockets until the ship should be at sea, and there would be time to look them over at leisure, at least for those who would not be seasick. Most of us Barrier lubbers who have been afloat for a year but might as well have been on land, expect to be indisposed to a greater or less degree almost immediately. “WITH WINGS OUTSPREAD” Just before the camp was finally deserted Rear-Admiral Byrd and Captain McKinley hauled down the flag which has flown over the camp ever since the sun came up, and saluted it. Then Byrd turned toward the hill on which lay his two planes which carried him and his men to the South Pole and on other lights, and with a wave of his hand, half in salute and half in farewell, turned away from them. He hated to leave them, but there was no way out of it. They pei-ched on the hilltop, with wide wings outspread against the sky, like two giant birds ressing. The ship bore marks of her battle with the ice. All along her sides her sheathing was cut and scarred where blocks of ice hit her in the gales,

and holes were punched right through ihe bulwarks. There was no doubt that she had had a rough passage, and as Captain Melville said: “One more day and we would have had to turn north and run out of it. She could not have stood much more.” Both Captain Melville and Johansen, the ice pilot, were enthusiastic about the ship. They doubted if another could have stood the battering she received and come through, and Byrd was equally as pleased with the way the crew had handled her and stuck by their guns in the difficulties. GALE AND SNOWSTORM “We got along well until February 7,” said Captain Melville, “when the gale began which lasted all the way to the Barrier. It started with a blizzard, and when it was not blowing great guns, it was snowing. New ice was forming fast also, and through the latter part of it we ran through a lot of ice and slush. The swell increased, and I figured that we were near open water. Finally we came out at night with a gale blowing at nearly hurricane strength. I have been around the Horn several times, and I never saw such seas as those. To make matters worse, big pieces of Ice were being thrown about. They lifted high above the rail when the seas roared alongside, and I admit I was nervous about them. If the ship had fallen off and some of these chunks had come aboard, they might have sunk us.

Finally we decided to turn tail to the storm and run for shelter. It took nearly an hour to get around, but we made it, and then ran for three hours to the north-west, until we got back into the pack and slush ice, and hove-to in a clear place in the lee of the ice. THROUGH SLUSH ICE “The next day, February S, the gale began to moderate a little, and we made our way out and again started south. Wo had to run through 16 miles of pack and slush again before reaching the open water, and came out in longitude 177 degrees, and latitude 69 degrees, 15 minutes south. “From that time we saw only a few scattered bergs, but we had no observation from February 11 until February 16. The ship began to ice up on the 13th. Of course we had had some ice before, but it was not serious. From then on it' began _ to gather in earnest, and the ’ crew worked all the time, chopping and smashing it from the sides and from every place they could reach. There were 27 inches of ice on the poop deck when we reached shelter, so you can imagine how much we gathered. Tt was worse forward, for there we could not get at it. The seas came over solidly, and went aft, and the ice increased until there was a mass

around the martingale, -which a man could not put his arms around. There j must have been 20 tons on the head- ! gear of the ship alone. and that j weight made her stick her nose into \ every sea. CAPTAIN MELVILLE'S FEARS *'l was afraid we might lose the headgear and, if that had gone, it would have pulled our masts over, j It was a tough time in those days. All we could do was to keep her ! head into the wind, even with the engine full ahead, and with no solar observations and the compass ‘acting crazy* as it always does in these latitudes, it was hard to tell where we were, but it was a shock on the 15th, when we sighted land, to realise how far we had been blown oft our course. I knew' it happened before under such conditions, but just the same I was disappointed. “The weather was clearer soon, and then we saw* the high peaks of what turned out to be Ross Island. Once under the lee of the land we got to work chopping away the ice. and must have cleared 200 tons off her. But it was a rough ride while it lasted.**