Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1913-05-07
AMUNDSEN
THE FEARLESS
Plans For a Seven Years Trip
to the Arctic Req ions
I'm The Future.

III u8C 1utO1 &c
6 The coming of the world famous
2oald Amundsen to Willmar, May
18th, makes the following inform
alton in regard to the plans Of this
intrepid Scandinavian explorer of
much local interest:
Washington, D. C. Star, April Is,
1913-Captain Amundsen is not partic- |
ularly seeking an honor in his desire to |
have the Fran pass through the Pan |
anna Canal late this Summer or early |
Fall. The point of whether the ship
shall do so, by the way has not been
settled, as all depends on how nearly
the canal is finished at the time the
FRAN is ready to go through. The ex-
plorer is, however, seeking such a per-
mission, for highly practical reasons,
and he outlines them in an article he
has written for the American-Scandin-
avian Review. He writes as follows:
1.-The Fran is now at Buenos Aires.
Before setting sail again she must be
thoroughly Overhauled and cleaned, and
this operation will probably have to be
repeated in San Francisco, especially if
the vessel is to pass through southern
waters, where the barnacles accumulate
rapidly. I hope to leave San Francisco
in June, 1914, but this will depend
somewhat on whether it will be possible
to take the Fran through the Panama
Canal or whether it will be necessary
to make the long voyage around the
Horn.
I'm the later case the trip would take
four or five months at the best, and it
might be that the stormy waters near
the Horn would delay us indefinitely or
even prove impossible. 1t is one of the
most dangerous places known to nav
igators and many vessels of the size OF
the Fran have been forced to seek har-
Dor on the eastern coast of South AM
erica for months at time 1t has ev'
en- happened that they have been buff
feted so long by the constant westerly
winds and the heavy seas of the Pacific
that they have turned back and sought
their destination on the western side
of South America by skirting south of
Africa and Australia and thus almost
acknowledging the globe. This is the
problem that is causing me the deepest
concern at present and it is my dearest
wish that the United States government
may have the Panama canal sufficiently
advanced by the fall of 1913 to allow
smaller craft to pass through or to make
test voyages, and that the Fran may
be permitted to pass through among the
earlier vessels. This would mean so in
finitely much to me-"
GIVES OTHER DETAILS.
Writing in this article of other de-
tails Of his coming expedition, Captain
Amundsen has the following to say:
1T is the polar basin that holds the
key to the Atlantic Ocean, and without
it our knowledge must always remain
fragmentary. It is clear, I think; so
that he who runs may read, what great
practical benefits may come to the toll
ers of the world from that expedition
which we are about to undertake.
THE meteorological observations will
constitute another important phase of
our expedition. In this am working in
conjunction with Prof. Hergesell, Count
Zeppelins partner, who is thoroughly in
sympathy with the project.
II propose to take wireless appar-
atus with me, and Prof. Hergesell hopes
| through the generosity of some of his
German friends to establish four or
more meteorological stations, to be plac-
ed in such way that they encompass
the polar basin, where I shall be closed
in-one probably in Alaska, one in ST.
IBERIA, one in Spitzbergen and one in
| Labrador.
| IN CONSTANT COMMUNICATION.
| IF this can be done, the Fran will
through her wireless apparatus, be in
| constant communication with these
| stations; we shall all make our Obser-
vations as to wind and weather at the
same time, and in this way cover a
much larger area for a longer period
and in a much more exhaustive man
ner than would otherwise have been
possible. What I have said of the polar
currents in the water holds good of the
currents in the air; they give the key
to the weather conditions the world
over.
1.-The observations which we shat
make ought, therefore, to be Of tremen
dous value to future weather prophet:
in forecasting climatic changes.
There will be much opportunity fo
: his majesty, the prince Of darkness, t.
find mischief for our idle hands to do
In the antarctic regions the time passet
all too quickly; we hardly knew hov
to make it reach to our numerous task
Of hut building, hunting, preparing foo
and laying dep0ts. During our nort]
polar trip, on the contrary, we shall b.
cooped up Unfortunately in the tiny ship
and shall face the most difficult tasl
Of an arctic explorer, to keep. the mind
Of his men occupied and their finger
busy.
with this in view all my men ar
now engaged in acquiring some ne1
I trade One is learning bookbinding; h
r will cover the 1000 volumes that con
stituted the Fram's original library an
the 1000 additional volumes she has &C
cumulated on her travels. Another i
learning matchmaking, another tailor
ing, another shoemaking. They will al
be ex perts in some line or other.
| TO TAKE ONLY TWENTY-FIVE pOG
I'VE shall take only twenty-five dogs
as against the ninety-seven with whic
started for the South Pole, and thes
shall pick up in Alaska, from tn
same excellent Greenland breed that
! have used before. They increase $
rapidly that 7 am not afraid Of I'll