The Lehi sun. [volume] (Lehi, Utah) 1913-1949, 1921-08-04
ATTIC EXPLORER
TO USE WIRELESS
CAPTAIN AMUNosEN TO INSTALL
MODERN MEANS Of SHIP
COMMUNICATION
South Pole oiseoVerer Proposes To
Keep in Touch With World Civ.
iiizstlon BY Use Of Ar
Route

Seattle, Wash From The remotest
most inaccessible spo' on earth the
North pole---a wireless message viii he
flushed TO the civilized Wurlj If the
plans OF Captain R0nNld Amundscn.
discoverer of the S0nth Pole ANA fam.
Gus Arctic explorer. ARE carried out.
Captain Auuhsru'S schooner Alaud.
on which he hoped To Grit past the
pole with the nee ,tuCs, was disabled
by n broken propeller m Cape Scrdle
Siberia after be- had spent two years
In pushing around the eastward Arctic
passage from Norway. The explorer
left his vessel and her crew TO await
break IN the Zee and proceeded To
Nome. later coming to Seattle on re
cent ship.
The Maud has no wireless uppnrat.
us but Captain AmundScn expects to
install one when The craft - brought
here. sometime this summer. 10 be
repaired and rehttcd. Captain
Amundsen explained that his party
had been cast of from communca.
ton with other human beings for
two years. with hut one break his
trip out to Nome last year-two years
Of icebound horizons Of bitter cold,
of almost endless night.
"The war was raging In its most
critical period when we left the world
most Of you know" he recalled, "and
for many months we Speculated in
vain on the course Of events. II was
In December. 1919 more than year
after the signing OF the armstice.
that we finally met n Russian trader
who told us what had happened. Then
! determined we would carry wireless
Captnin Amundsen has said that he
would spend the next year In the
United States, probably most Of It
around Seattle. and would sail from
this port next summer. He wifi strike
back for Cape Serdze, he said. trust
Ing to meet with better luck than the
furious Arctic storm which last year
hurled the Maud into an icebank on
The Siberian coast
The explorer affirmed that his voy
nge had tended only to confirm his
previous theories about magnetic
Of the Polar basin. He expressed
faith In his belief that nm ocean cur
rent running northeasterly from Cape
Serdze would carry him past the pole
and eventually into the Atlantic
ocean
"When we reached Nome. n yea
ngo, and started back he said, "tht
trouble was that an unprecedented jam
Of ice prevented us from pushing far
enough north. We drlfted too much
To the east--and the currents enSt.
ward from siberia are extraordinary
II Is sort Of whirlpool, where one
wanders around in circles inStend OF
following any course
ut will take three ycars--pcrhNp'
longer" he predicted.
Captain Amundsen said that an Inn
portant pnrt OF his equipment con
sisted OF books. hundreds OF them.
81 read mostly fiction" he said.
"Under such circumstances a mans
mind needs diversion. want some
thing llght--but not too light, II
must be plausible"
The party experienced no serious
illness the entire trip. Nor did the
cold cause suffering. the explorer
said, for all were well equipped. On
the tortuous voyage from Norway 10
eastern Siberia they encountered few
natives.
ct is a deSolate shore on the north
Of Siberia he pointed out. 1--WE saw
few signs OF life except occasional
polar bears. At one point we shot
forty. skinned them and used the
meat for steaks. II we had beeu
trapping for skins we could have nude
q small fortune"
The Mouds crew includes DIR. ii. v
Sverdrup. n scientist; Oscar Visiting
G.. Olonlkln, and seven natives. They
left Norway In 1918 and remained bur