Evening star., 1948-02-11
Stars, Men and Atoms
Naval Antarctic Party
Reaches UnexpIored Seas
Icebreakers Under. Comdr. Ketchum
Penetrate Difficult Pack Ice
By Thomas r. Hsnr,

By Thomas r. Henry
For the first time man has penetrated the
most difficult seas In the world.
Dispatches Just received here from Comdr
g. L. Ketchum, commander Of the Navy's
Antarctic expedition this winter. state that the
icebreakers Edisto and Burton Island have
succeeded in pushing through the pack Ice Of
the Franklin D. Roosevelt Sea and are ap-
preaching the Antarctic Continent.
Comdr. Ketchums specific object is 10 put .
landing party ashore near the foot OF towering
Mount siple, just east Of the Ross Sea. The
position Of this snow-covered mountain, ap-
proximately $4,000 feet high, s to bs located
precisely by solar observations, thus securing
q landmark easily distinguished from the air
which can be used to Ak the positions Of other
points IN one Of the earth's greatest unknownk
Ross Approach Used Formerly.
The Roosevelt Sea Is shallow indentation
in the Antarctic Continent just east of the
Ross Sea. The Ross Sea approach has been
used by most Antarctic exploring expeditions
in the past On an open water indentation in
its ice pack, the Bay Of Whales, were Admiral
Richard E. Byrds four Little Americas. On Its
western shore Is McMurdo Sound where were
located the base camps Of both Sir Robert F.
Ross ice pack, through which the ships Of last
years Navy expedition pushed their way for
more than 800 miles, always has proved
navigable
Quite different is the Roosevelt Sea- first
discovered by Admiral Byrd in 1882 It is .
westward extension of Bellingshausens Sea-
through whose terrible pack, high winds and
constant fog no ships ever have penetrated in
a century This pack has been graveyard Of
expeditions. More than 100 years ago the
Russian Admiral Fabian Won Bellingshausen
was turned back by ice and here the Belgica,
IN whose crew were Amundsen and DR.. Fred
er1ck A. Cook, drifted helplessly for O year
at the turn of the century. Since then nobody
has tried to negotiate the pack through which
there were no channels of open water and
which supposedly averaged about Is feet In
thickness. Obviously passage would be inn
possible for anything except Navy icebreaker
OF the type of the Burton Island under the
command of such an experienced Antarctic
explorer as Comdr. Ketchum. One of his
announced objectives when he left Norfolk this
fall was to push his ships through this grinding
ice in the white darkness of the Antarctic
summer.
Flyers Saw Mountain Ranges. -
ketchum gives no details of the exploit In
his operations dispatch to the Navy Depart
ment Flyers from Little America on last
winters Navy expedition skirted the Roosevelt
Sea and saw there some of the most remarkable
features Of the Antarctic Continent yet re-
ported The Roosevelt Sea, they said, opened
into nearly rectangular open water bay,
covering about 200 square miles On both
east and west 1t was lined by double mountain
ranges. On the extreme northwestern tip was
Mount Siple, discovered from the air in 1899 by
DR.. Paul Siple. This apparently Is the sea-
ward anchor" Of one of the four new ranges.
1t Is point from which, II its location 10
known precisely, everything else in this part
OF Antarctica can be given fixed position.
The co-ordinates as laid down from the air
and from distance were, unfortunately, quite
uncertain. They may have been in error by
as much as so miles, according to geographers
OF last winters expedition. 1t Is very dificult
to fix positions very precisely from a speeding
plane.
Whether Comdr. Ketchum actually has en-
tered the open water bay, surrounded on
three sides by towering blue ice walls 100 feet
high and which may be one OF the finest natural
harbors on earth, cannot be determined from
his meager dispatches He states definitely,
however, that he has gone through the pack
east OF the Ross Sea for the first time"