ANTARCTICA.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1916, Page 3

ANTARCTICA.

NO NEWS OF SfIACKLETON'S PARTY. WHY THE WIRELESS HAS FAILED. CAPTAIN DAVIS EXPLAINS.

'•Tf all is well with Sir Ernest Shackleton's party they will probably have eaten their Christmas dinner at the South Pole, and now be sledging toward the Australia side of the Antarctic Continent."

Captain ,T. K. Davis, who was in command of the Aurora on the Mawson expedition, and who made the remark quoted in nn interview with a representative of the Sydney Morning Herald last week, discussed the prospects of the Shacklctou expedition, which is in the /South Polar regions, and is due to return to Hobart in March. He said that it was not to be inferred from the fact that no wireless communication had been received that anything untoward had happened. He saw no reason why tlte expedition should not come through safely.

It will be remembered, the Herald says, that one section of the party, under Captain Aenas Mackintosh, R.N.R., left Sydney in the Aurora in December of last year for the Ross Sea base, on this side of the Antarctic Continent, and the other, the main party, led bv Sir Ernest Shackleton himself/left from the South American side in the Endurance, for the Weddell Sea base. The objects of the great adventure were to cross Anarctica from sea to sea, securing for the British ilag the honor of being the first carried across the Soutlt Polar continent, to carry on similar scientific work by the parties operating from the two bases, and to trace unknown portions of the coastline. For over 700 utiles the region to be traversed is one that has never been penetrated before.

''Sir Ernest Shackleton would probably have started from the Weddell Sea on his long transcontinental jour ney in November," Captain Davis said. "It is qjiite likely, if all has gone well, that they would have had their Christmils dinner at the Polo, and now be making towards the Beardmore Glacier on their way to Ross Sea. Nothing is more uncertain than iee navigation, and it ia quite impossible to anticipate events in the Polar regions; but I see no reason why the pavtv should not come through all right. They are thoroughly well equipped and led by the most experienced of our Antarctic explorers, and, with ordinary luck, should turn up safely at the due time.

"As for the absence of news by wireless from the expedition, that may be accounted for very easily. They probably have experienced the same troubles as wo did during the first year of the Mawson expedition, when, owing to the difficulties in erecting masts and insulating them, wo found it impossible to get our wireless going. By-and-bye we gained greater experience of the weather conditions, and were able to rig our masts during the quieter weather of the summer months. At the preservt time the long daylight in the Far -*buth is a suflivient reason for the, messages not being received, as such conditions reduce the radius of the installation by about a third of its ordinary distance, and in any case the installation with which the Ross Sea party is equipped is not a high-power one," Among those with Sir Ernest Shackleton's own party are Mr. Frank Hurley, of Sydney; Mr. Frank Wild, also well known in Sydney, and Captain Orde Lees, of the Royal Marines, Those who went from Sydney with Captain Mackintosh in the Aurora Include Mr. J. R. Stenhonso, R.N.R., chief officer; Mr. A. 11. Larkman. chief engineer; Mr. A. Stevens, M.A., B.Sc, geologist and chief of the scientific staff'; the Rev. A. P. Sponeer Smith. 8.A., chaplain and photographer; Dr. J. L. Cope; Mr. A. Keith Jack, M.Sc, and Mr. K. W. Richards, both of Melbourne, physicists; Mr. Irvine 0. fiaze, commissariat officer; Mr. A. 11, Nlnnis, in charge of motors; Mr. Ernest Joyee, in charge of dogs: Mr. If. E. Wild, in charge of stores; Mr. Hookej wireless operator, and Mr. V. 0. Ilayward. T'aere were twelve in the crew,