The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-03-27
New Bedford (Mass) Correspondent of
 Tr;t,,

New Bedford (Mass) Correspondent of
 New York Tribune
 NN APT. GEORGE FRED HILTON, ~ of Marthas Vineyard, the man
 N who. walked 26Oo miles across Alaska in the winter of 1898. will soon make a dash for the north pole. For this purpose 25O-ton steel brig will be built for him in Maine and fitted out in this
 city for a long arctic cruise
 Old whalemen in New Bedford say that if any one is we'll equipped for the search
 for the pole Captain Triton is the man
 When he left the whalers caught in the
 ice in 1898, for his six months walk
 through the arctic wilderness not one of his companions believed he could get
 back to civilization and tell the story of
 their experience. But Captain Triton has
 always had a faculty for doing whatever
 he set out in earnest to do, and his
 courage and endurance succeeded in the
 task of getting the relief that the in1-
 prisoned w'haiemen awaited so eagerly
 For some years Captain Hilton has had
 the north pole project in mind, but up to the present time something or other
 has always interfered with 1t. Before the
 America, under the command of Captain
 Coffin, sailed on her disastrous voyage Captain Hilton offered to go In her for price, and guaranteed to go nearer to the
 pole than any other man in the party or
 forfeit his salary. The price was not forth
 coming. and Captain Hilton wlntered that
 year at the Vineyard.
 On his last voyage to the arctic in 1904
 the steam whaler he commanded lost her
 propeller just as she entered the arctic, but her determined commander bucked
 her through the ice pack under sail, and
 brought out a rich cargo of oil and
 bone And still another story that his friends like to tell of the doughty skip
 per is that of his rough and tumble
 victory over no less well known pugi-
 list than Joe Choynski.
 A company of whalemen were lined up
 along the bar of a San Francisco saloon,
 when a big brute of a man under the influence of liquor swept all the glasses off the bar. Fill them again." said Cap tain Triton, approaching the stranger. The latter was about to repeat the per- formance when Triton picked him off the floor and flung him on his back. 1 Choynskl, as the sailors afterward found
 the man to be. took the full count.
 Captain Tilton's plans for his arctic trip have been we'll formulated. His voy- age is to be made in the customary way, by entering the arctic through the Boring Strait It is his intention to ship com- | potent first officer, who will engage in
 whaling after he leaves the vessel to
 make his dash north. He plans to take along with him a scientist and one other companion who will make Banks Land their starting point for the long walk. The three men will purchase 250 dogs from the natives, and put in an entire year at Banks Land, breeding dogs and training for the contemplate dash. All this time they will live on dog meat and accustom themselves to this kind of food
 which will be their principal diet on this
 journey. The start from Banks Land will be made with 300 dogs, and men and beasts will live on the same sort of food.
 Captain Tilton calculates that the pro- posed expedition will require three years. It was in the winter of 1898 that Triton performed the feat that has established the confidence of his friends that he will get nearer the pole than any one else everI did, even if he does not reach it. The season he shipped as mate on the whaler Belvedere, which he afterward commanded. The ship left San Francisco the last of a fleet of eight, and reached her destination, Point Barrow, on Octo- Der f. The ice had not cleared, as is usu- ally the case at that time of the year, and soon after her arrival the Belvedere was caught fast in its clutches.
 The other vessels were equally unfor- tunate, and the worst feature was the scarcity of provisions. With the Belve- dere were the orka, the Newport the Rosario, the Genie, the Fearless and the Jessie H. Freeman. Frequent trips were