ANTARCTIC ROMANCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 922, 15 March 1930, Page 5

ANTARCTIC ROMANCE

HOW ROSS DEPENDENCY WAS DISCOVERED

AMERICAN WAS FIRST r pHE assurance given in Dunedin by Rear-Admiral R. E. Byrd that there should be very little

rivalry in connection with claims to land in the Antarctic recalls an interesting story of the discovery of the Ross D e p e ndency, over which New Zealand exercises dominion how it was discovered by a young American 20 years before

Sir James Ross sailed south with the Erebus and Terror expedition. The young American was Nat Palmer, son of a lawyer of Long Island. Nat ran away to sea when he was 14 years of age;’ and at the age of 18 years he was second mate on the sealer brig Hersilia, bound for the sealing area south of the Horn. Whaling was then profitable, and sealing more so, but the Hersilia did not know the picked grounds. Nat was left at Falkland Islands to kill meat while his ship went out on spec. ’ At that time all forecastles buzzed with stories of the fabled islands of Auroras, in the south, where gems strewed the beach, and ducats cumbered the strand, spilled, so the story ran, from a wrecked Spanish galleon. Many whalers spent more time looking for it than in whaling. While Nat was obtaining meat, the Espirito Santo, from Buenos Ayres, put in, and Nat learned that she could get a cargo of sealskins any time, hut try as he might, he could not find out where. Half suspecting that the ship could get to the island of Auroras, Nat observed the direction in which she sailed, and when his captain returned, induced him to go in the same direction. ' They found the ship in a hay in the South Shetlands, then unknown in Europe or America. It was a surprised Espirito that saw the American come into the bay. In an effort to secure secrecy for the grounds, the Spaniard gave the Hersilia a full load of sealskins. However, the news spread like wildfire when the ship got to port, and there was a wild rush for the Shetlands. In ISI9 Nat was captain of the Hero, a boat “rising 40 tons,” as tender to the Hersilia, hound for the Shetlands. In 1821 he was one of a party of six ships on the same errand, but the “-•ounds had been depleted, so he sec-

sailed to the south in search of new grounds. He came on an uncharted land, which he found was not an island, hut he did not find whales or seals. MYSTERIOUS ECHO One night, with the fog so thick that he could not see a man a few j feet away, and cold so keen that | everything was almost frozen, the i captain was due for the midnight ! watch. At one bell he was startled to hear an echo. His crew, in superstitious terror, wanted him to move, but, as he pertinently asked, “where?” All through the night, as his ship struck bells, there came the echo. In the morning a break in the fog revealed two warships, one on either side. From their flags they were Russian. The commander sent his launch to the Hero. It was so big that the commanding lieutenant stepped from the gunwale of his boat to the deck of the Hero. The officer spoke fluent English, and invited Nat aboard. He went in his sou-wester and sea hoots, and met Commander Belinghausen in his spacious cabin. The commander asked for all information, and Nat had his log brought aboard, where it was carefully examined. Belinghausen then rose from his seat, and, placing his hand on Nat’s'shoulder, said: “I name the land you discovered ‘Palmer Land’ in your honour, hut what will my august masI ter say when he learns that I was ; cruising for two years in search of land that has been discovered by a hoy. in a sloop but little larger than |my launch?” Palmer Land it rei mained for many years, even if now it I is from New Zealand.- that Byrd has |to seek permission before taking ! seals.

| Captain Palmer became a famous I commander of trading ships in both I Pacific aud Atlantic Oceans, and when i he quitted sea-life he became an enI thusiastic yachtsman, at various times owning 15 yachts, a . distinction that | will appeal to many New Zealanders..