Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980, 1921-08-08
Wireless
Will Flash
Fro1nPole
Roald Amundsen Will
Sail for Northland
From Seattle Next
] Summer


the remotest, most inaccessible
spot on earth--the North Pole-a
wireless message win be flashed To
the civilized world, If the plans Of
Captain Ronald Amundson, discoy
erer of the South Pole and fa anoua
Arctic explorer, are carried out.
Captain Amundsen's schooner
Maud, on which he hoped to drift
past the pole with the ice floes
was disabled by broken proDel-
ior off Cape Serdez, Siberia, after
he had spent two years in push
ing around the eastward Arctic
passage from Norway. The ex-
plorer left his vessel and her crew
to await break in the ice and
proceeded to Nome, later coming
to Seattle on recent ship.
The Maud has no wireIal IS ap-
paratus, but Captain Amundsen ex
poets TO install one when ehe craft
is brought here, some time this
summer, to be repaired and refit-
ted. Captain Amundsen explained
that his party had been cut off
from communication with other
human beings for two years, with
But one break--his trip out to
Nome last year--two years OF Ice
bound horizons, Of bitter cold, OF
rllmost endless night.
THE war was raging In It's riost
critical period when we left the
world most OF you know" he re-
called, "and for many months we
speculated in vain on the course OF
events. It was in December, 1919.
more than year after the signing
OF the armistice. tina; we finally
met Russia trader who told us
what had happened. Then de-
tcrmined we would carry wire.
less"
Captain Amundsen told the AS
ISOLATED Press he would spend tho
next year in the United States.
probably most of IL around Seat
tie, and would sail from this port
next summer. He will strike hack
for Cape Serdez, he said, trusting
to meet with better luck than the
furious Arctic storm which last
year hurled the Maud into an Ice
bank on the Siberian coast.
The explorer affirmed that his
voyage had tended only to confirm
his previous theories about mag
netic properties OF the Polar basin.
He expressed faith in his belief
that an ocean current running
northeasterly from Cape Serdez
would carry him past the Pole and
eventually into the Atlantic ocean.
When we reached Nome year
ago. and started back" he said,
the trouble was that an unprece-
dented jam OF ice prevented us
from pushing far enough north.
We drifted too much to the east.
and the currents eastward from
Siberia are extraordinary--it Is a
sort OF whirlpool, where one wan
ders around in circles instead OF
following any course"
1T will take three years-per-
haps longer" he predicted.
Captain Amundsen said that an
important part OF his equipment
consisted Of books. hundreds OF
Them. II
Il read mostly fiction" he said
Under such circumstances a
mans mind needs diversion. II
want something light--but not too
light, Il must be plausible"
The party experienced no seri- !
ous Illness the entire trip. Norlf
lid the cold cause suffering. the
explorer said. for all were well /
On the tortuous voyage I
rom Norway to eastern Siberia !
hey encountered few natives.
"lt was desolate shore on thel I
,orth of Siberia" he pointed out. 4
We saw few signs OF life, except /
'ccasional polar bears. At one | h
'oint we shot forty. skinned them r
md used the meat for steaks. II n
70 had been trapping for skins we 4
ould have made a small fortune.
The Maud's crew includes DR.. II
!. V. sverdrup. a scientist; Oscar s.
@. Olonikin and seven D
'atiyes. They left Norway in 1918 n
nd remained buried in the ice 10 Il
nonths. I,