Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-05-23
SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON
PLANS TRIAL ARCTIC TRIP
Will Test Rations for His Dash
Across the Antarctic
Continent.
lsy The Associated Press.

oaghness which has always charac-
terized his work, Sir Ernest Shack
Teton is about to make a preliminary
trial expedition under Arctic condi-
lions in the glaciers of Norway. This
will be for the special purpose of
testing the rations for his trip across
the Antarctic continent, which ne
hopes to make in four and a half
months time. No party ever started
out, without having food depots, to
make such a distance as that in
straight line, but Sir Ernest and his
men have made special preparations
for the attempt.
They have, with the aid of the
Royal Army Medical Corps. evolved
the perfect ration" 1t will average
only thirty-five ounces daily, as COM
pared with the three pounds or more
consumed by the average man, but it
is believed 1t represents the highest
nutritive value for polar travel.
Sir Ernest will be accompanied by
five members of his staff when he
goes to Norway to conduct expert
ments with these rations and also
test his tents and motor sledges. The
party will don polar kit and travel
among the glaciers. While the cold
will not be as intense as in the polar
regions, the country will furnish the
same sort of sudden blizzards as are
experienced in the Antarctic.
The party will test the effect and
potency of the rations in most de-
tailed fashion Such an experiment
never has been made before.
Shackletons new ship, the Endur-
ance. has been almost completely fit
ted in Norway and will arrive at the
London docks this month. she Is
eighteen feet longer than his last
ship, Nimrod. She is n beautiful
specimen of wooden ship building
and probably the last of her class
that will be constructed. Her whole
keel is made of solid oak five and
half feet thick, and her sides are two
feet thick She belongs to the bark
antine class, has the latest triple eX-
pansion engines, and will steam ten
knots an hour. She is fitted to con-
sumo both oil and coal. When in the
ice oil will be substituted for coal,
which will mean economy If she is |
delayed in the pack, as the boilers
can be kept warm and full heat
generated quickly. When the oil has
been used the tanks will be filled with
water ballast. The Endurance will
take on 100 tons of coal briquettes at
the South Shetland islands, SO she
will enter the Weddell sea with full
bunkers.
The second ship, Aurora, intended |
for the Ross Sea side of the eXpedi- !
ton, has been purchased and will be !
delivered at Hobart, Tasmania, at |
the end of August.
The Endurance, which is TO operate /
Oh the opposite side of the Antarctic, !
p1a IN AM of !
for Buenos Ayres, whence she will |
finally start for the Antarctic base !
in October. Most of the members of |
the expedition will leave England in
the Endurance, but Sir Ernest !
will travel later by ma .
steamer and join his ship at Buenos /
Ayres.
The dogs, which constitute an i'm
pcrtant factor in the expedition, are
a cross between a wolf and a Scotch |
stag hound, and have been bred in
Northern Canada, The Hghtest of
them will turn the scales at eighty
pounds, whereas, the heaviest dog
with the last Shackleton expedition
weighed forty-fiye pounds. They have
been selected by the experts of the
Hudson Bay Company, and will be
under the charge of one of the most
experienced drivers from Canada, who
was chosen by the commissioners of
the Northwest mounted police.
The latest appointments to the ex-
staff are Sir Philip Lee
who was with Shaclile-
ton in 1907 and 1909, and who made
the first ascent of Mount Erebus, and
his brother, Lieutenant Courtney
of the Eleventh Hus-
sars. Hundreds of applica tons for
positions with the expedition have
been received.
BERLIN, May pa discussion in
the Reichstag has lust shown that
there is widespread opposition in
Germany to compulsory vaccination.
On a motion to appoint 8 commission
composed equally of friends and OPP |
ponents of vaccination FOR the pur-
pose of studying the whole question
party lines were completely Obliter-
ated, and the motion failed only by I
a tie vote. 1t was brought forward |
in answer to numerous petitions for |
a change in the present law, which |
has been In force for forty years.
The Observation-Disclosures claimed !
that hundreds of cases occur where |
health is injured by the practise. and !
1t was pointed out that the official /
statistics show that thirty-two deaths
were thus caused in Prussia in 1912. /
They further asserted that managers /
of stations for obtaining lymph from /
calves have themselves admitted the
-------------