The Pioche record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1908-1925, 1921-08-05
ATTIC EXPLORER
TO USE WIRELESS
CAPTAIN AmUNosEh TO INSTALL
MODERN MEANS OF SHIP
COMMUNICATION
South Pole oiscoverer Proposes To
Keep in Touch With World Civ.
iiization BY Use OF Air
Route

Statte. wash From the rem0test
most inaccessible spot on earth the
North Pole--a wIrfless message wiil- be
flashed TO the civilized world. IL The
plans OF Captain Ronald Amundsen,
discoverer OF The S1ath Pole anu fam
Gus Arctic explorer are carried out.
Captain ATnhseu's schooner Maud.
on which he hoped to Gr1rt past the
pole with the icr tiocs. Was disabled
by broken propeller on Cape Serdze
Siberia after he had spent two years
In pushing around the eastward Arctic
passage from Norway. The explorer
left his vessel and her crew to await
q break 10 the Ice and proceeded to
Nome, later coming TO Seattle On a re-
cent ship.
The Maud has no wireless apparat.
us but Captain Amundsen expects to
install one when the craft Is brought
here, sometime this summer. to be
repaired and refitted. Captain
Amundsen explained that his party
had been cast off from communica-
! Niou "i'h VthCi pNiD6o loi
two years, with but 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, "an,l
| for many months we specialized in
vain on the course of events. 1t was
in December, 1919, more than year
| after the signing OF the armistice,
that we finally met Russian trader
who told us what had happened. Then
] determined we would carry wireless.
| Captain Amundsen has said that he
| would spend the next year in the
United States, probably most of 1t
around Seattle. and would sail from
this port next summer. He will strike
back for Cape Sertlze, he said, trust.
| ing to meet with better luck than the
furious Arctic storm which last veal
hurled the Maud into an icebank on
| the Siberian coast
| The explorer affirmed that his voy
| age had tended only to confirm hi'
previous theories about magnetic
Of the Polar basin. He expressed
| faith in his belief that an 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
ago, and started back" he said. 9Th
trouble was that an unprecedented jan
Of ice prevented us from pushing RAJ
enough north. We drifted too mucl
to the east.--and the currents east
ward from Siberia are extraordinary
| 1t is a sort OF whirlpool, where on'
wanders around in circles instead
following any course.
at will take three years ---pcrhap
longer he predicted.
Captain Amundsen said that an i'm
nortant part Of his equipment con
sisted of books hundreds Of them.
II read mostly fiction" he said
"Under such circumstances a man
mind needs diversion. ! want some
thing light--but not too light,
must be plausible"
The party experienced no seriou
illness the entire trip. Nor did tn
cold cause suffering. the explore
said, for MI were we'll equipped. 0
the tortuous voyage from Norway t
eastern Siberia they encountered fey
natives.
at is a deSolate shore on the mort
Of Siberia he pointed out. 1--WE sa'
few signs Of life except occasions
polar bears. At one point we sht
forty, skinned them and used tn
meat for steaks. II we had bee
trapping for skins we could have mad
q small fortune"
The Maud's crew includes DR.. IL.
Sverdrup. scientist; Oscar Wistin
G. Olonikin, and seven natives. The
left Norway In 1918 and remained bu
led 10 the ice nineteen months.
i 49,