Seward daily gateway., 1925-05-07
Amundsen Planning To Spend "A Hours
 At the North Pole

OSLO, Norway, May b.-CaptalA
 Roald Amundsen. veteran explorer
 and Norway's entry in the 1925 race
 to reach the North Pole by Air, has virtually completed his preparations for the airplane flight from Lanes
 Island, off the northwest coast of
 Spitzbergen, and if all goes we'll hopes to hop off on his adventurous journey late in May or early in June He expects that the trip may be
 made within 24 hours at the most, with an extra 24 hours at the Pole if ice conditions permit landing there.
 Captain Amundsen's flight will be true race for the Pole, for Grettir Al garsson, a young British Columbian, has organized a polar expedition which sails shortly from Liverpool, England, and will attempt obeat the Norwegian explorer at his own game. Algarsson plans to use small, non- IlSlu dil ouip, o4iuIldi " sAC OliHip, and has openly announced that he intends to reach his goal before Cap tain Amundsen if it is humanly pos sible.
 Twice before Captain Amundsen, who discovered the South Pole and
 was first of all explorers to circum- navigate the globe by sailing to the northWard of the continents of Flu
 rope, Asia and North America, has attempted to fly to the northern tip
 of the world. His first attempt, from Wainwright, Alaska, failed when
 his plane was damaged in a test flight from the base and could not
 be repaired. The second, which was to have started from Spitzbergen last year, had to be given up because of lack of finances.
 The third attempt, friends of the explorer believe, will be made un- der the most favorable auspices and, barring accident, should succeed A force of forty men will be stationed at Danes Island to establish base, tune up the machines, and give them the expert attention they require. Sufficient spare parts have been as- sembled to take care of any possi-
 bility of breakage except the actual smashup of the planes, and the two planes that will be used in the flight
 have been given every test that in genuity could devise, passing them
 all without flaw being found. Skill ed aviators will pilot them and it is
 probable that Captain Amundsen himself, he has already qualified as an aviator in the Norwegian army test will handle the controls of the leading machine for a part of the flight at least.
 The explorers principal aide in his 1 flight will be Lincoln Ellsworth, a young American aviator who served in the French and American air ser vices during the.war. Carl Schulte-
 F'roklinde, chief of the Dornier plants in Pisa, Italy, and a noted mechan- ical expert, will supervise the fitting out of the machines at Danes Isl- and, and H. Volt, German mechan- ical engineer, will act as mechani- elan in Captain Amundsen's plane
 Lieutenants Auerdel and Dietrich sen, we'll known pilots, also will be
 members of the expedition.
 The explorer hopes to fly the ap-
 proximately 500 miles from Danes
 Island toethe Pole, remain there for a day for the purpose of scientific investigation, and return direct to
 Danes Island. Provisions for six weeks will be carried in the planes,
 which will be fitted with skis for landing on the frozen icefields of the Arctic, and guns and ammunition
 will be carried so that in case of ac-
 cident the lives of the members of
 the party may be sustained by shoot
 ing game, which is said to exist even
 in the extreme north.
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