Evening star., 1926-04-25

could see the mouth of Kings Ray.
where the fog appeared TO he less
dense. Soon we should he over the
Kings Bay settlement. and on the
second lap of our journey.
For an instant there was a slight
| variation in the regular hum of the
engine. and then, without moment :
warning. it stopped. No time to think
about landing: we had no height in
| which to maneuVer. Spla Sh-we were
down, about a quarter of a mile TO the
north of Michael Sars Point. having
been in the air for exactly 50 minutes.
The pilot had no more idea than
as to the nature of the engine failure.
| We tried to start up again. but there
was no compression the propeller was
as free as windmill. SO much for
our high hopes.
4 minute before we were tasting the
most exquisite wine of self -Sa tisfac-
ton. the realization of our hopes. and
here we we're. 50 seconds later float.
ing in the water. poWerless and dis
abled. at the mercy of those elements
over which we fondly dreamed we
were triumphinI. We both quoted
Rudyard Kipling's lines about 'Tri-
umph and Disaster" II WAS a situ-
alton full of irony, and suggested
| cigarette.
We were so intent on trying to dis
! cover the cause OF the breakdown that
we only took a cursory glance At our
surroundings. but awoke to the full
significance of the situation when we
| observed, about 10 minutes later. that,
| instead OF being only quarter of
mile from shore the distance had dou-
bled. and that we were now drifting
quickly northward. Seaplanes can
not be propelled like boats: their wings
act as sails perma nently set. and when
disabled they are at the mercy OF the
| wind.
No seaplane has ever been equipped
with oars or paddles. and ours was no
exception. But our only chance of
| making the shore was to construct
some form of oar. The wind. which
was light. was from the south and
gave additional speed to our rate OF
drift
Our sledging equipment included
| two ice-axes. These were packed
away in the fuselage aft with the
sedge and with some difficulty We dis
entanGled them from the sledging
harness and crampons. They gave us
stout shafts. to which we could affix
some form Of paddle blade. With the
! help of a saw from the engine tool kit
we cut the lid of three-ply metal
bound sledging box into two pieces to
act as blades.
The difficulty now was to secure
them The pilot found nail for his
paddle. while mine was held in place
by crampon bindings and string, the
crosspiece of the ice-aXes proving a
great assistance in keeping the blades
| firm.
1t must have taken us roughly an
hour to construct these two primitive
implements. The cabin was too small
to allow US both to work At. the same
time. BY the time the fist paddle
was made we were in the center of
1 the Foreland Sound. drifting north
ward at about three knots.
We were as far from one shore as
the other. and the question for us was
whether tc attempt to make Prince
Charles Foreland or the manila nd
We were perhaps a little nearer the
Foreland, but if we failed TO make
shore on that side. we should, after
rounding Vogel Hook, find ourselves
we'll out in the open sea.
The advantage of padding toward
| the mainland was that we were more
| likely to be observed at the small
meteorological alton at Quade Hook
| if we had not already been able to
| beach the machine. We felt certain
lldl the hinSS EbdH SetticIHcHl Nouiu
be informed that we were missing,
and would keep look-ou at the
mouth of the bay.
WE sat astride the floats and at
w tempted TO guide the sea plane to-
ward land. At first it seemed that we
should succeed. but the wind was
freshening, and we made very little
progress. At one time we must have
been only mile or so from the main
| land coast. but the current was our
master. and. despite our struggles and
eXhortations 10 one another, progress
was only to the north and to the open
| sea.
We could find no fault with out pad
| dies. which were cumbersome but
effective, and our bllstered hands testi-
fed to our unslackening efforts. With
| the rising wind the sea was soon
! fecked with waves, which broke over
us as we padded. Lest we should be
swept off the floats. We twined leg
and an arm round the undercarriage
strut.
We were very cold and wet through.
! We continued padding for three
! hours Occa casionally one Of us stopped
to bring circulation back to his legs.
while the other one redoubled his ef
| forts. 1t was queer race in which
| to row against current and wind, with
any land for the goal.
| Al one moment we were certain we
! had lessened the distance. quarter
of an hour later we both knew II was
false hope, though neither of uS
liked to say SO. Anyway, we were