Evening star., 1939-11-14
SnowmobiIe Placed
Aboard Byrd. Ship,
Set 10 Sail Today
Tide Ruises Platform
To Position Level
With Dock
~ the Associated Press.

~ the Associated Press.
BOSTON, Nov. 14.-Like a mo-
torist parking his car in a cramped
space, DR.. Thomas Poulter drove the
United States Antarctic expeditions
immense snowmobile aboard the
motorship North Star today in prep
aration for the departure of the ship
this afternoon for the South Polar
region.
A platform had been laid upon
upright oil drums stored on the
forward deck of the North Star and
when the tide had raised the plat
form to a position level with the
Army Base dock, the huge snow
cruiser was edged carefully aboard,
backed off to improve its position,
and driven on again. A Navy tug
braced the 1,450-ton North Star
against the dock.
When finally parked, the great
vehicles forward end protruded
about two feet over the port rail,
with its wheels 10 feet from the
edge of the deck. The rear wheels
were flush with the starboard rail
and the rear end, from which the
rumble seat" section was amputat-
ed, protruded four feet beyond the
rail. There remained room enough
beside it for a second snowmobile.
Alongside were placed two spare
tires, mounted on wheels with hubs
large enough for a man to hide
within one of them.
Ten feet of the cruisers rear end
was sliced off with acetylene torches
10 that the ponderous machine
could be slowed on deck and fast
ened securely. The severed part, of
course, will be reWelded in the Ant
arctic, where the snowmobile is to be
used as an igloo on wheels for the
Government expeditionary forces
covering vast, uncharted areas.
Pleased With Performance.
The Penguin. piloted by DR.. Poul-
ter. finally reached the Boston Army
base yesterday after troublous
1,020-mile trip from Chicago. All
hands expressed satisfaction with
its performance.
All else was in readiness for the
trip. Before finally moving out of
Boston harbor, however the North
Star first will spend several hours
swinging the ship" to check pos
sible compass errors created by
quantities of metal in the cargo.
After that the North Star. which
has been labelled the floating ice
box" because she carries great guam
titles of meat for the expeditions
food supply, will head for Phila-
delphia to pick up two airplanes.
Admiral Byrd said he would join the
vessel there OF at Panama, possi--
bly, flying to catch her.
Before he could leave, he said,
he had to make final preparations
for departure of the expeditions
second ship, the barkentine Bear
of Oakland, which is scheduled to
sail November 20 or 81.
IS Aboard North Star.
For 81 officers and men depar-
ture of the two vessels will mean the
beginning of two years down un-
der" in an official attempt to es-
tablish for the United States a
valid claim on 675, 900 square miles
of the South Pole region. Forty
five men were aboard the North
Star, and the remainder was to sail
on the Bear.
From Panama the North Star was
scheduled to sail to New Zealand
and thence to the expeditions west
base. From there she will go to
Valparaiso, 5000 miles away, to re-
fuel and travel another 1900 miles to
the east base. When that task is
completed she will be free to return
to Seattle for her regular duties for
the Interior Department.