Evening star., 1947-04-13
nj. Olympus, Battered
by Antarctic Ice Pack,
Due Here tomorrow

ONG uGlG IV1HVIlVW
With three eement-piugged leaks
and many dents In her hull, the
y. s. s. Mount Olympus. flagship
of the Navy Antarctic expedition
led by Rear Admiral Richard y.
Byrd, Is due to dock at the Naval
Gun Factory tomorrow.
The other IL ships which entered
Antarctic waters last December have
scattered TO other American ports,
chiefly on the Pacific coast.
The Mount Olympus, veteran Of
the Leyte and Okinawa inyasions.
was reconditioned at the Brooklyn
Navy Yard last fall and sailed from
Norfolk December 2, as the flagship
Of Rear Admiral Richard II. Cru
zen.
From the time she entered the
Ross Sea on New Years Eve, the
ship received q bad buneting from
the ice, with real danger at times
of being crushed in the worst pack
ever reported In that part Of the
Antarctic Ocean. For nearly 600
miles she sailed through almost
unbroken ice along q path plowed
by the Coast Guard Cutter North
wind.
Damaged In Ice Pack.
It was In about the center Of the
pack that the Mount Olympus stf-
fered her worst damage. The Ice
foe, pushed by heavy wind, was
closing In around the larger ship
faster than the Northwind could
clear 1T away. Hundred -foot-high
icebergs, driven by deep currents
through the ice pack In the opposite
direction to the wind, bore down
on her.
Several times she was struck. in
the crushing ice while the North
wind made heroic efforts to pillow
her out, and there was serious
question whether 1t would be pos
sible for her to continue. 1t was
at this time that the leaks were
sprung In her hull. A considerable
hole was punched In one Of the
forward compartments. The same
difficulty was faced by the cargo
ships, the U. s. s. Yancey and
Merrick, which plowed along be-
hind.
When the Mount Olympus arrived
at the Ross Ice Shelf she lay for
three days In open water while the
Northwind broke up about two
square miles of ice covering the
Bay OF Whales to depth Of 8
or feet. Even In the safe haven
OF this ice-locked bay her troubles
were not over. The entrance was
barely 100 yards wide. One night
an iceberg sailed In and blocked
this entrance. There was no way
of budging it and all the high ex-
plosives on the four ships at anchor
beside the shelf ice would hardly
have made a dent In the iceberg
that had "corked" the bottle-neck.
1t seemed for a time as If the ship
might be imprisoned indefinitely.
Ice Forms Again on Bay.
Meanwhile, the ice was reforming
over the bay. In a couple of days,
however, the berg freed itself,
drifted into the bay and took up
position beside the shelf, just be-
hind the three ships. 1t acted
almost as If it had joined up with
the expedition, and docilely fol-
lowed the ships out into the open
sea.
Admiral Cruzon ordered the Mount
Olympus, Yancey and Merrick out of
the Bay of Whales early in February
in order to make sure of getting
them back through, the ice pack to
the edge Of the South Pacific before
the foe was consolidated by the
first below-zero weather. With the
Northwind again leading the way,
the trip was uneventful for the
Mount olympus and the Yancey but
on the very last night-this was the
first time in two months that there
had been any appreciable interval of
darkness the Merrick, which
hitherto had seemed the sturdiest
of the three ships, met with disaster.
It was a wild night of snow and
bowling winds. All the way to the
horizon only ice could be seen al
though this was within 20 miles of
permanetly open water to the north.
Suddenly rame word that the Mer-
rick's propeller was broken and that
she was helpless in the pack. The
Northwind plowed alongside and
tried to attach a towing cable.
Drifted for "a Hours.
The two ships kept humping, and
every time this happened new hole
was punched in the Merrick's hull.
1t was necessary to let her drift at
the mercy of the ice for the next "a
hours until the storm ended. Then
the Northwind towed her through
the worst storm of the winter in the
South Pacific into dry dock at
Dunedin, New Zealand, where new
propeller was installed.
Once out of the pack the Mount
Olympus cruiSed around and around
big chunk of black rock sticking
out of the ocean-Scott Island, the
solitary sentry of the Ross Sea-until
the Navy icebreaker Burton Island
could evacuate the men left at Little
America.
Due to the damage, the Mount
Olympus has made slow progress
homeward, bucking headwinds most
of the way. After two days in
IIra ,nfor sin mill refi1rrn To Nor