Evening star., 1925-05-26
THINK PLANES ABANDONED.
British Experts See Return by Air
Not Serious Plan.

Especial to The Star and North American
Newspaper AlHance.)
LONDON, May 25.-Capt. Glib Ellis.
the airman who last year piloted the
Oxford expedition to within a few
hundred miles of the Pole, is convinced
that Amundsen reached his objective
Il believe AmundSen reached the
North Pole, abandoned his planes and
is now making his way back afoot
across the desert of ice he said in an
interview here today. Il don't think
he can ever have seriously hoped to
return by air. The only real landing
places for his flying boats are lanes of
water in ice-gaps in the huge ice field
as broad as wide street-but these
are treacherous things. A shift in
the wind would close them up in half
an hour and the airplanes would be
crushed to pulp by the ice.
Abandoned Machines.
""Amundsen. with his two planes
must come down in one of those lanes.
on the roof of the world. He must
have landed his food and scientific in
StrumentS and then abandoned the
two machines. At this moment he is
probably on his three month journey
back across 500 miles of dangerous ice
toward SpitZbergen.
But there is plenty of food. His
party have guns with them. with
which they can kill the wild things of
the Arctic
Interviewed at Liverpool today, Com
mander Frank Arthur Worsley. who
captained Shackleton's Endurance, said
he would gladly participate in an
Amundsen rescue expedition. Worsley
is a member of the Algarsson polar
expedition, which plans to go north
ward in a dirigible airship of the Brit
ish 'blimp" type. Its departure.
scheduled for early May, has been de-
layed. but Worsley thinks it may still
reach Spitzbergen in time to help
search for Amundsen. IF Amundsen
landed on a smooth ice foe. he may
have been forced to make a long ski
run to the Pole, and good news may
still come during the next five days"
Worsley said. though the chances of
so simple an outcome are not alto
gether great"
Feels No Alarm.
Commander K Pestrud. Norwegian n
naval attache here who ACCOMPANIED
Amundsen on his South Polar expedi-
ton in 1912. today said he thought
there was no reason yet for worry
about the Danish explorer. II don't
ueiiN tidI II hight De possible IOI
AmundSen to get to the Pole. remain
there a few hours. and be back within
a day" he said, but if it were done.
1t would be a matter for wonder. I
prefer to consider possibilities that are
much more likely. Certainly at this
moment there is no justification for
undue alarm.
Assuming that everything went all
right after Amundsen's start he would
have reached the Pole in seven or
eight hours. But what would happen
then? When he went to the South
Pole it took him two days to verify
his position. He has to prove that he
actually has reached the North Pole
and it might easily be that at the out
set he was SO or so miles away from
! it when he landed. At the South Pole
men had to be sent out in four direc-
tionS. to march from % to SO miles, in
order to make necessary calculations.
In the present instance the observa.
tions called for will be at least as
great, and with cloudy weather might
require two or three days.
Copyright. 1925. by North American News
paper Alliance