The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-11-03
WELLMAN TO MAKE
ANOTHER ATTEMPT
BELIEVES HE WILL REACH THE
POLE IN AN AIRSHIP.
First Came Into Prominence by LO-
eating the Landing Place of CO.
Iumbus ON Waiting (San Salvador)
Island, bahamas.


Since Andree, in 1897, tried to
sail through the air to the top of
the earth. no scientist has made such
serious attempts TO reach the North
Pole by aid of a balloon as Walter
Wellman, whose disastrous trip in
the America" last August is still
fresh in the public mind.
Mr.. Wellman and his friends are
passing today amid their scientific
experiments to celebrate his fifty
first birthday, for he was born in
Mentor. Ohio, November 3, 1858. Mr.
Wellman was known as newspaper
man before he became an explorer.
He ran a weekly paper as small
boy in Sutton, Neb. At the age of
twenty-one years he established the
Cincinnati Evening Post After 1884
he was political and Washington cor
respondent of the Chicago Herald,
later the Record-Herald.
His exploring activities first came
into notice when he located the land
ing place of Columbus on Waiting
(San SALVADOR Island, Bahamas. He
marked the spot with monument.
In 1894, Mr.. Wellman led an eXpe-
dition as far north as 81 degrees
northeast of Spitzbergen His party
in 1889 penetrated Franz Josef
Land and discovered a number of
new islands. The airship attempts be-
gan in 1906, under the auspices OF
the Record-Herald Danes Island,
Spitzbergen. was chosen for head
quarters.
For four years Walter Wellman
has been devoting his time to pre-
parations for an undertaking to reach
the North Pole in the airship, Amer
lea, but the vessel encountered a
storm and was driven back
He left New York on May y of
this year for Spitzbergen to complete
his preparations for the start. He es-
timated that under favorable condi-
lions the pole could be reached from
Spitzbergen in from two to five days.
Before leaving this country in May,
the aeronaut said the capital for his
undertaking had been supplied en-
tirely by Americans interested in the
enterprise on scientific and patriotic
grounds No change had been made
in the general plans of the expedition
He was to use the same airship he
had when he made the previous short
fight at Spitzbergen. Its name is
America. " The owners of the Chica-
go RecOrd-Herald turned over to
him. free of charge, the airship, plant
buildings, and machinery of the for
mer enterprise. The America the
second largest airship ever built,
about three-fifths the size of Count
Zeppelin's largest craft, and twice
the size of the largest French ships, f!
with a lifting capacity of nearly ten /
tons. was reconstructed and improved !
by the chief engineer, Vaniman, in
the EXPEDITION work shops at Paris. /.
On his first expedition northward, I
before he got the idea of using bal |
loon for travelling toward the pole I
Wellman was reported lost in the ice
foes. That was in 1894. For a long
time nothing was heard of his party,
but at last it showed up with a rec
ord OF successful discovery.
Then he made plans TO persist in .
the endeavOr to reach the Pole in a
balloon. He has been preparing ever /
since
incidentally the joke makers and /
scOffers have busted themselves at
Wellmans' expense in the interven
ing years. Apparently. he has not
been disheartened, however. by the /
manifested in the world
at large, for according to the latest /
he was confident as ever I
that some day he would reach the /
Pole