Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-24
Expects Own Boat to Gel
Through, but Acts to Safe
guard His Men.
BELT 400 MILES WIDE
HOLDING TWO WHALE RS
Members of Expedition Express
Amusement at Story of Load
ing of Craft.
BY RUSSELL OWEN.

BY Radio to The star and the New York
Times
LITTLE AMERICA, Antarctica, jan
uary 24-News of the publicat ton in
the United States of story that the
Byrd expedition was loading one Of its
ships preparatory to coming home
caused various expressions of amuse-
ment and other emotions today among
the men in Little America, who are
waiting for the ships to appear. AS q
matter of fact we never seemed further
from home, unless the ice quickly breaks
up or the City of New York is assisted
through the pack.
Two unusual ice years have led to
this situation Last year the whalers
said that the ice belt, $50 miles wide
at the most favorable point of cross
ing, which they have used for years,
was the worst they had ever known.
This year it was 400 miles wide. at
the beginning of the season, near the
T80th meridian, within a degree or
two of which on either side the whal-
ers generally go through the pack.
In the whole history of exploration
in the Ross Sea, whenever PACK ice zoo
miles wide has been encountered, 1t has
been Tar to the east or west Of this line.
Season Was Unusual.
1t became evident early in the sea-
son., about month ago In. fact, that
the season was unusual. 1t was about
that time that whalers started through
the ice, huge ships with many thou
sand horsepower. They were going on
the general experience Of past years
in which last years ice was an aston-
ishtng phenomenon to tneIm-tliat by
Christmas the ice pack would be well
broken up.
But this year they went only q short
distance when they found the pack
heavy and wide, and two Of them, one
after having lost chaser, turned back
to fish on the northern side. Two are
at present stuck after again entering
the pack.
The whalers still believe that the pack
will open about February I. but whether
1t will do so sufficiently to permit q ship
OF $50 horsepower, such as the City Of
New York, to pentrate the pack which.
until the present, has presented dim
culties for ships of many thousand
horsepower. seems an open question.
The City Of New York has one great
advantage Of being able to stand 9reat
ice pressure which would crush most
ships, and that was why she was Sc
lected.
Beyond Understanding.
The ways Of pack ice are beyond
understanding As day after day went
by. when for the first time In the his
tory OF whaling, whales did not come
INTO the Ross Sea, with the exception
OF a few ice-scarred veterans which
managed to find their way through the
wide Ice belt, we began to realize that
something unusual had happened. The
records subStantiate that belief.
OF IL crossings of the ice pack bar
ring the entrance to the Ross Sea
since l84l Excluding the whaling fac
tories OF recent years which are In a
power class by themselves and far too
expensive for expeditions), all but one
were able to get through by the middle
Of January and most of them before
that time
This includes ships which had moth
ing but sail power, such as the old
Erebus, the ship in which Sir James
Clark Ross discovered the sea and
made the first passage of the pack.
On his flrst voyage he came down be-
tween the Hath and 175th lines Of
longitude and got through in four days,
beginning January 1. On his second
trip he got too far to the East, way
over in longitude 146 west. where the
pack ice sticks out from the land re-
Gently discovered. and spent ~ days
Continued on Page 2, Column A.