Evening star., 1933-07-09
Continued From First Page.)

University Of Michigan personally led
! two expeditions to Greenland to study
the weather of that land and. on his
return, he organized third and placed
! it under the command of DR.. Belknap.
| That is the expedition which DR.. Bel
| KNAPP is now leading to the center OF
Greenland's icecap.
But America was not alone In this
dramatic rush to Greenland. Prof.
Alfred Wegener. veteran of a Greenland
| crossing with Koch in 1918, took a
large and splendidly equipped German
expedition there In 1880, partially for
the study Of weather toward the estab-
lishment Of the Greenland-Iceland
| of the martyrs to the cause. He died
| in November, 1880, and the story was
told that he had walked out from his
camp on the inland ice. to face starva-
| ton and death, so that the small
! amount of food left in camp would
suffice to keep alive the rest Of his
men and allow them to continue their
| important work. But the Germans
have subsequently determined that he
died Of illness on the way out and that
his aide. after tending him till the end,
probably fell into crevasse.
That same year the British sent their
Arctic Air Route Expedition to the
east coast and the center of Green
land. One member Of that group
Courtauld, wrote his name large in the
rolls of sane and competent explorers.
On December 6, 1880, he was left alone
at a meteorological station on the in
terror icecap. On May S, 1881, he was
relieved. But during the last four
weeks of his solitary vigil he had been
showed in" with no spade inside his
| little hut with which to clear a pass
age His kerosene had leaked away.
and after four wintry months alone
on an enormous blizzardy sheet of fiat
| ice. ne had to spend another month
| alone in his hut, without either light
| or fuel for cooking and with nothing
| to do but to wait for the relief party
Yet when he was relieved he was in
| splendid condition and his work had
been excellently done. He was the stuff
| Of which our great explorers rather
| than our fiction heroes are made.
Men Of Five Nations.
Americans Englishmen, Germans,
| Danes and Norwegians all played their
parts in the scientific efforts that must
precede the establishment Of a COM
| mercial flying route. There were ad-
venture and tragedy in the daily lives
| Of the workmen on these expeditions.
But while there were deaths among
the men on the ground. not single
| flyer lost his life along the Arctic part
| of the route.
/ The American Army "around-the-
of the route in 1924, stopping at Ice
land and Ivigtut. Greenland. on their
way from Europe to America. The
German. Capt. Wolfgang Won Gronau.
! made three flights over the route from
Europe to America.
In 1927 spent Summer in Iceland
| investigating. among other things, local
possibilities for the route
l returned to the United States a
confirmed enthusiast over the eventual
success of the route. Then, early in
1928. a stranger called on me at the
Explorers Club and asked for infor-
nation about Iceland He was Fish"
Hassell Of Rockford. Ill. planning to
fly to Sweden via Greenland and Ice
land. Hassell and Stefansson and I
pored over maps and talked chances.
The rest is history. Hassell obtained
Shorty" Cramer as co-pilot. The two
! made it safely to Greenland. They
we're blown off their course and hit
Greenland too far south, but sensibly
headed northward over the billiard
table top Of the interior icecap. where
they could make an emergency landing
almost anywhere. Finally they ran out
OF gas and these two men. babes in the
woods as far as polar experience was
concerned, abandoned their plane and
walked north. They had no compass.
but eventually they emerged on the
ford on which Prof. Hobbs had his
base after the world had begun frenzied
preparations for rescue work that the
saneness Of the two men made un-
necessary.
After their adventure Hassell and
Cramer were more than ever convinced
Of the feasibility Of the northern air
route for all-year-round commercial
operations, provided you have suf1icient
ground organization.
Domestic Air Lines.
What sufficient ground organization
means Is illustrated by the activities Of
our domestic air lines. 1t means an
adequate number Of good landing fields
| supplied with mechanics and repair
parts. 1t means adequate meteorological
service, radio equipment. night bea-
cons and all the rest of the things that
are commonplace to us today. For
the Greenland-Iceland route it also
means adequate organization over a:
least two alternative routes. 1t is
agreed that in Iceland it is never foggy
| on both the north and the south coasts
| on the same day. An airway main
tanning two routes could choose between
the two. depending on weather condi-
tions. Analogous conditions are found
| on other parts of the route
In 1881 Cramer and I pored over
maps again in the library of the Ex-
plorers Club. The result of Cramer's
last flight is history and tragedy. His
STEAMSHIPS.