Evening star., 1926-06-05
Amundsent Ellsworth and
Mobile Drop National
EmbIemS on Ice.
BY CAPT. ROALD AMUNDSEN AND
LINCOLN ELLSWORTH
BY Wireless and Cable to The Star.

| NOUS Dig glaciers ana the SI1OW-COV-
cred mountains glittering In the sun,
which was strong enough to penetrate
| the slight clouds that like a veil hid
| the blue sky
Further on we passed Danish Island
and Amsterdam Island, with Virgo
! Iarbor, where last year the landing
| party spent the weeks waiting on our
return from the polar flight. North
of Amsterdam Island we controlled
the different compasses through bear
/ ings. The sun compass was settled for
! the North Pole, and a little later on
I the airplane of the Byrd expedition
| turned southwark. From this place
we, through slight fog covering the
! north coast of SpitZbergen. thought
we c~lld see the western ice cupola Of
| North East Land, where we landed in
! 1925.
Every Man to His Duty.
AS soon as we had left Kings Bay
! every man on board commenced his
| service. Most of us had to be in the
| narrow cabin. and now, remembering
| how crowded ii was, we wondered that
| ii was possible to do any work there
at all.
In the cabins forward part was the
! side rudder, where Bergen spent most
/ of the Il hours the flight lasted Be
! hind the side rudder on the cabin $
| right. was the elevator. that most of
the time was handled by Visiting. On
| the left side, opposite the elevator, was
IA slate where was installed all the
| strings of the signal wires leading to
the engines. besides the elevators
| strings going to the gas valves and
! the air balloons. thus permitting No
! bile TO be in constant communication
| with the engineers, and 10 open the
gas ventils and to fill or empty the bal,
! loon when necessary.
! The forward part of the cabin was
| divided from the rest by a canvas wall,
| in which, however. was an opening so
big that in reality the whole of the
| cabin was one room.
On the right side Of the Cabins s cen
trail part was "A working place for the
navigator, serLarsen, where he
! had his maps covering the North
| Pole basin and maps showing the
| lSogoneS over the unknown regions
| we should pass. AS we shall mention
later on in this narrative. in section
| dealing with the navigation principles
| of the expedition. the iSogones proved
! to he drawn correctly. Il circumstance
! of the greatest importance when fog
! made il Impossible to use the sun com
| pass.
This instrument was installed Just
, outside the cabin. almost in front of
| 1t. Just in the cabins center was a
hole in the floor, where the drift meas
ures were placed. ,Cn the outside
| front wall of the raG.o room-that
| also was in the Cabin--hung a wooden
| plate. where Malmeren could work out
, MS weather maps, according to the re-
! ports received during the flight as long
as the wireless worked regularly be.
/ In:IdpG 6nu.n
| Hard job for Wireless Men.
Gottwaldt and Strom johnson had
a hard job on the flight They re-
ceived several hundred weather re
| ports and took radio bearings as
often as the navigator thought it
necessary. When not receiving,
Strom Johnson transmitted press tele-
grams from Ramm. These he sent
Scrihing the Ice, weather conditions
and life on board.
! Besides these 10 men there was
also in the cabin the only female
| being on the Norge, a little terrier
| named Titana, a mascot of Mobiles.
| She generally occupied the only chair
| in the cabin, clothed In a wooden jer-
sey and covered by her masters sleep
| ing bag.
| In addition. on the cabin floors.
were placed about so thermos bottles
and several cases Of pemican biscuit,
/ while on the walls were hung fly
! ing suits and overalls. Therefore we
think people may understand that it
j was difficult to move about, the cabin
| being only 80 feet long and feet
| broad.
Little Sleep at the Engines.
| In the engine room and keel worked
| the engineers and riggers. Cecioni,
Omdahl. Arduino, Caratti, Pomela
and Alessandrini had an exceedingly
tedious job during the flight, for In
| II hours they went almost without
| sleeping TO see that the engines ran
| regularly. They did it in such q way
| that the small troubles We're easily
renaired during the flight and were
! without importance.
| About one hour after we had left
! Kings Bay we deserted the ice lying
some miles north of the Spitzbergen
coast on latitude 80. At 10;43 we
passed the edge and only few min
! utes lates we had the polar ice
| under us.
The slight clouds disappeared and
as far as we could see northward,
eastward and westward there was
| nothing but the blue sky and the
| snow-cOvered ice. Southwark we saw
| the high peaks of northern SpitZ-
bergen, but soon they also disappeared.
Ice Fields OF Every Hand.
| And now the outlook commenced.
In spite of the results of our expedi-
| ton in 1925, we eagerly looked for
land all the way, even before we had
reached the Pole, this time flying a
| stX a Sf
wear. But we saw nothing. The ice
gave the same impression as last
| wear It's surface was broken up in
all directions, especially in the west
| and east, and the leads were small.
few and crooked, and almost all of
them covered by new frozen ice.
| All of us abroad the dirigible, espe-
cially the members Of last years ex-
pedition, were happy that we didn't
make the transpolar flight in an air
plane, with safety depending on good
| landing places of which none was to
be seen.
| Recalling now the first hours of the
transpolar flight we have the impress
sion of wonderful voyage over~sun-
elittering. endless ice in an aerial
| train going with an average speed OF
about so miles an hour. The engines
went constantly like clockwork.
In spite of the low temperature we
didn't freeze, partially because the
| cabin was a little heated by the sun
and partially because we were well
protected against the cold by our furs
and thick woolen jerseys. Also we
had some good meals, our friends in
Kings Bay having filled small baskets
with eggs, meat cakes and sandwiches,
so that it was not necessary to open
the cans of pemmican and dry milk.
| In this way we passed the greater
part of the distance between Kings
I To- n,,r