Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-05-16
NORGE DISCOVERS NO NEW LAND
ON FLIGHT ACROSS NORTH POLE

Continued from First Page)
within 400 miles of the pole of mac
feasibility. No others have approach
ed so close.
This was Amundsens third pole.
In 1911 he reached the South Pole.
On Tuesday he reached the North
Pole In 1906 and 1905 he spent -
months relocating with greater pre-
cision and studying the character
istics Of the magnetic North Pole,
which has q waver1ng position, in
Boothia Land, 1900 miles south of
the North Pole.
Ice Batted Through Ship.
The flyers seem to have anticipated
and guarded against every possible
source Of danger except the one
which nearly resulted In disaster.
The chance that the propeller blade
would bat chunks Of ice through the
skin of the ship and practically keep
them under bombardment had not re-
ceived sufficient attention. 1t was
not absolutely expected.
The possibility of such trouble had
been suggested, but it was minimized
That this danger was suggested but
message sent many weeks ago from
Rome which said: The gondolas are
about four yards from the side of the
ship, the tops OF the propellers being
about twice their diameter from the
sides of the gas bags
1T had been predicted that moisture
freezing on the propellers might be
| thrown off in tiny pieces of ice with
such force that the bag might be cut,
but when this was called to the atten.
| ton of the Italian constructors, extra
strips of fabric were fastened on the
sides of the bag"
Driven With Terrific Force.
| No one entertained the idea, how.
ever, that great chunks Of ice might
break off from the ships structure
and be driven with terrific force into
| the body Of the ship by the propeller
blades.
| Similarly a year ago. an unantici-
pated source of danger nearly caused
disaster to the Amundsen- Ellsworth
/ expedition. Motor trouble, exha ustion
OF fuel. crash in an attempted land
ing and other catastrophes were all
foreseen: the thing that did happen
a perfect landing in clear water fol
lowed by its immediate freezing and
! locking in the two airplanes-was not
among the risks calculated on.
The dispatch from the Norge at
| Teller gives 2:30 am, Greenwich
time, Wednesday 00:30 New York day
light saving time, Tuesday, as the
hour at which they were able, by OBJ
servation Of the sun, to confirm the
fact that they were at the North
| Pole.
Schedule Was Beaten.
Fredrik Ramm's dispatch from the
| North Pole on Wednesday gave the
time Of reaching the North Pole as
| am. Wednesday IS am. Eastern
| standard time). He explained that the
| Norge circled the Pole several times,
so that the Norge probably arrived
| there at Q am. Tuesday. New York
| daylight saving time, according to
compass and dead reckoning. but the
sun did not penetrate the fog to per
NIT them to verify their position at
| the North Pole absolutely until $50
pm. Tuesday eastern standard time).
One surprising feature OF the trip
was the lettering of the proposed
! schedule. In his dispatch Comdr.
Mobile said that he expected to make
the flight from the Pole to Point
Barrow in 20 hours. They covered
the entire flight TO the town Of Teller.
near Nome, in II hours. The time
schedule of the trip Is as follows
! by Eastern standard time:
| Left SpitZbergen 3:55 am. Tuesday,
verified position at Pole $50 pm.
| Tuesday, arrived at Point Barrow
;55 am. Thursday. arrived at Teller
$50 am. Friday.
The total distance covered by the
| Norge in the polar trip. not counting
the forced travel out of it's course.
was approximately 200 miles. The
! different stages of the trip were made
time:
Kings Bay to the Pole, $50 miles,
covered in Is hours.
Circling the Pole and taking OBJ.
servations consumed 212 hours.
North Pole TO Point Barrow, ESQ
miles. covered in 2S12 hours.
Point Barrow to Teller, ZOO miles,
covered in 2412 hours.
Allowing two hours and a half for
circling the Pole, the Norge's speed
over the course from Spitzbergen to
Alaska was approximately As miles
an hour. Due to snow and fog, the
pace from Point Barrow to Teller
was less than 80 miles an hour.
Amundsen Ran True to Form.
In turning up unexpectedly after
many persons had given him up for
lost, Capt. Amundsen ran true to
form. He had been gone three years,
and the world had long assumed him
to be another victim of the Arctic,
when in 1905 he arrived at Nome, at
the end of his long explorations Of
and his voyage in the Gjoa through
the Northwest Passage. When he
came out of the Antarctic in 1912
with the news that he had discovered
the South Pole, he took the world by
surprise again. Last year. % days
after he and Lincoln Ellsworth had
disappeared into the Arctic in two
airplanes, they came flying back in
one.
The flight Of the Norge bisected
the greatest UNEMPLOYED region on
earth. The explorers saw no land
below them. They proved that this
no great body of land. 1t may still
be that small islands or volcanic
peaks are to be found in parts Of the
area still unexplored, which lie on
either side of the planes path.
The unexplored area was some
thing less than 900 900 square miles
in area. Amundsen. Ellsworth and
explored path through the center of
it. varying In width from probably
10 to 100 miles, according to the
clearness or mistiness Of the atmos-
phere.
Allowing them a field Of vision
averaging SO miles wide, they ex-
plored an area Of $4,000 square miles
on the flight from the North Pole
over 1900 miles of unknown Arctic