Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-20
Explorer SaIutes Winged
Helpers as Little America
Is Abandoned.
SUN PIERCES ROSS SEA
FOG FOR FINAL GLIMPSE
Skipper of City of New York De-
scribes Battle to Reach Party,
There ID Months.
BY RUSSELL OWEN.


BY Radio to The star and to the New York
Times.
ABOARD THE BARK CITY OF
NEW YORK. ROSS SEA, Antarctica,
February l9.-Admiral Byrd's ship, the
City of New York, left the Bay Of
Whales at $50 o'clock this morning.
The night had been raw and cold and
the bay covered with dispiriting fog.
But with the coming of the sun, the
mists were swept away and those who
had lived for more than a year on the
Barrier and those who had come to take
them home had a final glimpse of the
white cliffs cleaning white and forbid
ding In the sun.
The last hours since the ship arrived
nave been so busy, so much has been
going on in the rush to get materials
aboard, that they seem like days. It is
really only short time since her masts
were seen above the frost smoke that
covered the harbor last evening and she
moved in half concealed, the ghost Of a
ship, until she neared the edge of the
ice and we could see her.
DeIirious Moment for All!
What delirious moment, one of those
moments when one stands quietly al
most without thought for the happiness
of it.
The weather-beaten and ice-sheathed
ship, gliStening in the fading sun, meant
letters and home and the way back to
civilization.
She came on up to the ice dock at
the west side of the bay, where a lit
tie group of men waited for her, for
she was far ahead of her schedule,
and as she neared them an arm was
waved, almost difidently, and some
body waved back from the ship,
Then, as she came closer, a voice
called across the water.
A little nearer and we could dis
tinguish the faces of men we knew,
Capt. Melville on the bridge. who had
taken his ship safely through one of
the worst passage an Antarctic ship
ever had; Bendik Johanssen, mate and
ice pilot, who had picked the leads
through the pack: man after man who
had been on the trip down last year
and who had stuck to the ship to bring
the expedition home.
Gear Starts Pouring Aboard.
oh, 1t was good to see them, to see
new faces and hear new voicesl It
had actually happened! We we're go
ing homel
The ship was no sooner alongside
the ice than gear which had been
piled there was tumbled aboard 1t
came over the side in a steady stream,
records and scientific gear first, then
baggage and finally the other
things which piled up in the tween
decks hold until it was full to the hatch
Al night the loading went on and by
Irfa net ~ xuoS A1i
except for few things which did not
long delay the ship.
There was need for haste, for the
season is getting late and the ice pack
has not disappeared this year.
Mail Interrupts Breakfast.
Breakfast was a sadly interrupted
meal, because the mail was distributed
then. There we're bags and bags of
Byrd's cabin to keep it dry, and 1t
seemed as if there would be no end to
the amount of letters and bundles.
Some of them had been sorted into
bags and men staggered away from
the door with bags they could barely
lift.
What mail day! There will never
be another like it for most of us. And
even then there was not time at first
to read; men grabbed a handful OF
letters, scanned the handwriting on
them hurriedly and then stuck them
in their pockets until the ship could
be at sea and there would be time to
look them over at leisure, at least for
those who would not be seasick.
Expect to Be 'Indisposed."
And most of us Barrier lubbers-is
that word permissible for men who
have been afioat on ice for a year but
might as we'll have been on land?-
expect to be indiSposed to a greater or
less degree almost Immediately.
Just before Little America was finally
deserted, Admiral Byrd and Capt. Nc
Kinley hauled down the flag which had
flown over the camp ever since the
sun came up, and saluted.
Then Admiral Byrd turned toward
the hill on which lay his two planes
which carried him and his men to
the South Pole and on other flights,
and with a wave of the hand, half
salute and half farewell, turned away
from them.
He hated to leave them, but there
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