EXPLORERS RETURN

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 944, 10 April 1930, Page 15

EXPLORERS RETURN

SURVEY OF DISCOVERY’S WORK IN ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY The British-Australian-New ZealandAntarctic Expedition, which has returned to Australia, was backed and supported in its work by the Governments of Britain, Australia and New Zealand. It was therefore a venture which operated under the highest auspices, and was led by a man who is acclaimed as the foremost Polar explorer of his day, Sir Douglas Mawson. Owing to the fact that news of the progress of the expedition has been strictly limited to official bulletins which, unlike the reports from the Byrd expedition, have been severely businesslike and very short, not much is known to the public of the general plan of the Discovery’s programme, of her movements “Down South,” and of the work which the expedition has performed (says a Melbourne writer). Until a detailed statement is issued covering all these points, the actual accomplishments of the expedition in respect to new discoveries of land, the oceanographical work, the researches into new fields of biology, botany, geology, meteorology and zoology and cognate subjects will not be fully known.

In the past, such scientific results have been published often several years after the “popular” account of the expedition has appeared, and the scientific data and conclusions of Scout’s expedition are only now seeing the light for the first time. On the other hand. Sir Douglas Mawson in his frequent communiques has kept the public informed of the day-to-day progress of the expedition and has supplied a mass of interesting facts and material from which much may be gleaned. In the first place, it is necessary to have some idea of the aims of the expedition when it set. out, and the limitations imposed by circumstances on a complete fulfilment of those aims. In a series of articles which he wrote before the departure of the expedition, Sir Douglas Mawson stressed the importance of the oceanographical work of the party, including a study of the depths, temperature, currents, life and composition of the sea. Meteorology was also to he an important field of study, together with an examination of ice formations and various climatic factors, believed by many to have a direct bearing on our New Zealand climate. Further, a study of the whales, their habits and location, was included, together with examination of the bird and fish life of the Antarctic and close analysis of the minute plankton life of the sea. In addition, it was proposed to close the land wherever possible and by airplane ascents to examine and survey that unknown coastline to which the vessel was bound. For the performance of this ambitious programme, Sir Douglas Mawson has been assisted by a staff of brilliant scientists who have for three months had ample opportunities of prosecuting their work with the aid of every scientific device and instruments of the latest pattern and design. It will not be surprising, therefore, if the expedition is found to have returned with a vast amount of new material, the examination of which will throw new light on the many scientific problems involved. The Discovery was for a portion of the time operating in virgin waters —in seas which have never been visited before. Much, therefore, of the data gleaned is absolutely new to mankind, and at one juncture the leader had the strange thrill of looking down from the airplane on land upon which no human eye had ever rested. In these circumstances it is inevitable that a well equipped ship, staffed by young and competent scientists, led by a savant of Sir Douglas Mawsou’s calibre and animated by a determination to seek fresh fields and pastures new, should have returned with a very rich store of knowledge, and it is precisely this which the expedition set out to win.

A secondary aim was the explora-. tion and discovery of new land. Though a dozen expeditions have been south since Captain Scott led the way 30 years ago, an enormous extent of the Antarctic coastline still remains unknown. The precise sector which the Discovery skirted was that known as Enderby and Kemp Land, which had only been sighted once from a great distance, and that 98 years ago. ,The Discovery closed these coastlines and for days on end her people were able to examine and explore this Terra Incognita, correcting the present charted position by many miles. Thus, from the day the ship entered the ice on December S until the beginning of February—a period of nearly 60 days —the Discovery was wholly In uncharted waters and alongside uncharted land, while her people were busily engaged in collecting and examining an enormous amount of new data a.nd new facts. Unfortunately, circumstances now made it imperative to leave the ice and to return to Kerguelen to coal. Coal is the bugbear of Antarctic navigators. The Discovery is a coal-burn-ing ship, and coal dominated the situation. The Discovery’s engines are not powerful, she had been for many weeks forcing her way through ice, twisting and turning to find a track, thus lengthening her mileage, and she was also attacked by furious blizzards, during which the engines often called upon. Thus the problem of coal hampered and limited her movements.

Those veterans, Sir Douglas Mawson and Captain Davis, had stacked the ship to the limit with coal before leaving Kerguelen for the South. The upper deck of the ship was laden with it; they had every pound on board that could be stowed anywhere, hut it proved inadequate. At the beginning of February, while still deep in their work and while off the

most interesting part of the coast of Bnderby Land, it became clear that a coal shortage necessitated an early return to Kerguelen for more. It was hoped to fill up and hasten south again, but on March 3 Sir Douglas Mawson reported from Kerguelen that his plans had been curtailed. “We have become reconciled to the fact that the brief respite which is summer has gone. The weather has relapsed to and endless succession of winter storms, and the only prudent course is to shape a course for Australia.’’ Hence the vessel’s return.

Many people were under the impression that when the Discovery set out she would be In the Antarctic for two years. Such, however, was never the intention. But it was never intended that the ship should be imprisoned in the ice during the coming winter. The past season’s work has been curtailed by bad weather, and an early break-up of the summer and by inadequate coal. The former causes are beyond human control; against the latter the leaders guarded themselves to an almost risky extent by taking a deck cargo of coal on a voyage across the stormiest ocean in the world. But they knew what they were about, for in Sir Douglas Mawson and Captain J. K. Davis, Australia possesses the most experienced explorer and the most experienced ice navigator of their time.