Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1921-08-01
WIRELESS TO II
Be USED AT
NORTHPOLE
Capt Arnundsen DeterTnin-
"a to Garry Wireless on
/. Next Trip. .

sebAE4tE E4hgYea
Seattle, wash, Aug. from the
reniatest most Inaccessible spot or
earth-the North pole-a wireless
message viii. he flashed to the civil-
led world, II the plans of Captain
RoAld Amundsen. ~discoverer OF h
South pole and famous Arctic ex-
plnrer. are carried out.
sG@& Captain Amundsen,s schooner Maud.
d which he hoped to drift past the
pole with the ice foes. was disabled,
by broken propeller on Cape Serdze,
Siberia. after he had spent two years
IN pushing around the eastward Arc
tic passage from. Norway. The <
plorer left his vessel and her crew to
await q break in the ice and proceeded
recent trip.
No Wireless.
The Maud has no wireless appar-
Atus, but Captain Amundsen expects
to install one when the craft Is
brought here. some time this summer.
to be repaired and rented. Captain
Amundsen explained that his party
had been cut of from communication.
with other human beings for two
years. with but one Ibreak-his trip
out to Nome last year-two years OF
ice-bound horizons. of bitter cold. OF
almost endless night.
The war was raging in its most
critical period when we left the world
most Of ydu know" he recalled. and
for many months we specialized in
vain on the course OF events. It was
In December. 1913, more than a year
After the signing of the armistice,
that we finally met a Russian trader
[ who told US what had happened. hen
~ determined we would carry wire
less
Captain Amundsen told the Asoci-
ated Press he would spend the next
yea In the United States. probably
| most of 1t around Seattle. and would
sail from this port mex summer. He
will strike back for Cape Serdze. he
said. trusting 70 meet with better luck
than the furious Arctic storm which
last year hurled the Maud into a. ice
bank on the Siberian coast.
The explorer affirmed hat his voy-
3 had tended only to confirm his
/ previous theories about magnetic
properties of the polar basin. He ex-
1 pressed faith in his belief that an
ocean current running ~northeastefly
past the pole and eventually into the
Atlantic cea
When we reached Nome a year
ago, and started back" he said. the
trouble was that an unprecedented
Jam Of ice prevented ussfrom pushing
11r enough north. we drifted too
much to the eaa-and the currents
eastward from Siberia are extraordi-
nary-it is a sort Of whirlpool, where
n wander around in circles instead
OF following any course"
May Take Three Years.
II will take three years-perhaps
longer" he predicted.
Captain Amundsen said that an inn
portant part Of his equipment CON
sisted of books. hundreds OF them.
II read mostly fiction" he said.
Under such circumstances a mans
mind needs diversion. I want some
thing light-but not too light. it must
be plausible"
The party experienced no serious
Illness the entire trip. Nor did the
coid cause suffering, the explorer said.
tor all were well equipped. on the
tortuous voyage from Norway to
e Siberia they encountered few
natives.
1T is a desolate shore on the north
OF Siberia" he pointed out I'VE Jaw
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 been
trapping for skins we could have
made a small fortune"
The Maud's crew includes Dr. II.
Y. Sverdrup, a scientist; Oscar wist-
Ing, G. Olonikin and seven natives
They left Norway in 1918 and re-
mained buried in the ice nineteen
months