Evening Star Newspaper, June 6, 1926, Page 5

NORGE FLIGHT MENACE BEGAN SHORTLY AFTER PASSING POLE Yog and Tce Gathering on Airships Seemed Harbin- ger of Destruction at Certain Parts of Trip. Wireless Thrown Out of Service. BY CAPT. RO. NI LINCOLN ELLSWORTH. ' By Wircless and Cable to The Star NOME, Alaska, June 5.— It was quite a natural thing that some mem- hers of the expedition were optimistic after the flight to the Pole. With the regularity of a transatiantic liner the | Norge had reached the North Pole. The wireless service, as well meteorological, both of highest im- portance for the expedition, had worked to the full satisfaction of the pilot and navigator, and the first hour's flying after the Pole was passed seemed to justify the optimism. The flight continued with good visi- bility. Only dispersed clouds were seen, and when the sky now and then seemed completely covered it was never for a long time. The atmos- phere also was quiet: no head wind | reduced our speed, which was about | 50 miles an hour at an average aiti- | tude of 1.200 feet. N AND | s the | | Bering Sea that seemed to be station- | How the report helped to advise Nobile where to land is to be men- tioned later. Gottwaldt and Storm Johnson did their best to re-establish communication with land, calling up all Alaska statlons according to wave length given us by the Government {offices in Washington, but it was in n. i The antenna, covered with ice, looked as if it were made of porcelain, and all the energy of the station was lost. They rolled up the antenna sev- | eral times to clean it from ice. Also | they cleaned, as well as possible, the wheel of the generator. But all was in vain, their calls were mnever answered. After our arrival in Nome we heard all the-more powerful stations In Nome, Falrbanks, Cordova, d listened in on our various wave lengths to enter into communica- tion with our station, but in vain. We continued our observations of the ice, the surface of which con- | stantly had the same broken-up char acter, with big ice floes. were always s nd her fore, they direction. fort to Sleep Vain, In the early hours of the mor g. gome of the aving worked since we left Kir tried to sleep little, They into sleeping 1gs of reindeer 1d lay down on the nNarrow gangw: in the keel, lving so that they didn't fall down on the Kkeel canva They should not | have run the risk, as it was easy to go through. But in spite of heing already very tired, it was almost impossible to sleep. The cold, the sound of engines, the uncomfortable pc and men constantly assing them on the gangw kept awake. ‘Approaching the :30 a.m. on May J W, Were in in the cabin of in the e gondolas. We’ ed the “ice p about 7 o'clock. This place center of the Arctic ice mass, at about S8 north latitude and west longitude. It is called th pole” because it always had been cor sidered as the most difficult place to reach in the Arctic i But now its broken. From the looked down on the ic didn't know we were over <hould have understood the of the place as the center of the A 1 e masses, and we agreed t d be very difficudt and alme: to reach it by other mea; e and airships. over them S “jce pole,” about | bility was | 16 men | Even if we we “Ice Pole” Deserves Its Name, indeed, the place merits Not even the smallest was to be seen, vet the ice hroken up in all directions. Tt see 10 us, looking down from the Norg as if we were over a wild snow-cov- ered region where giants had wasged war with fce floes. And we are that even the most adventure-desir fng man on board the ship was happy that he was flying over the * and did not have to force his w: foot over its many barricades of ice. ‘At 86 north latitude we had covered half the distance between Kings Bay and Point Barrow. Of the 61; tons of line the ship had in its tank start- ing from Kings Bay, only about 2 tons were consumed Having passed the pole, we shortly afterward came into fog, and from now until we landed on the la- | on inside Teller in Alaska we had more excitement than we expected to have when, before the start, we were formulating the plans the expedition had to meet and were discussing the various possibilities and dangers. 0 one afterward tried seriously to have a slecp. It was between 8 and 9 in the morning that the fog and our | troubles commenced. When the ship entered the fog it Jay up to an altitude of more than 1.000 feet. As we had done before to avoid it, this time we also tried to pass over it. It seemed to succeed. For a while we had the beautiful view of | the shadow of our ship on the fog as | ¥ the center of an immense circle in all the colors of the rainbow. We had, moreover, the same experience as las vear. When, in our flyi passed over the fog, their shadows also were surrounded by a circle of rain. how. s lead w ned For, name. ice Growing Sense of Danger. But we couldn't enjoy the view, the fog being too great a danger for our expedition. In certain moments it seemed to us that the situation was more than dangerous. We have al- ready pointed out the necessity of ra- dio bearings for navigation and the valuable assistance the meteorological service on board gave in permitting Nobile to choose the best direction for fiving But, ha flown in the fog for a| while. we legan to get trouble with | the wireless—first, to the despair of Ramm. who wrote down his telegrams and pave them to Gottwaldt and Storm Johnson. knowing that it wa jmpossible to transmit them; later on, to the still greater despair of Malm- gren, who didn't get his weather re- ports, thus making it impossible for him to draw weather maps, now more necessary than ever, as the ship was approaching regions where almost all weather elements were unknown to him. Last, but not least, the trouble on the wireless due to the fog made it in any case impossible to have constant hearings, this also being of greater importance than before, as we were now getting no regular astronomical observations. . What Throttled the Wireless. These troubles on the wireless were due partly to electrical disturbance in the air and partly to the ice crust that formed on the 430-foot-long antenna hanging down under the cabin. Later on the windmill of the wireless gen- erator, installed outside the cabin wall, also was ice covéred, a circumstance naturally increasing the trouble. As above mentioned, the weather service of the expedition was very well planned and worked regularly down 10 80 north latitude on the American side of the North Pole. Until this place was reached our wireless, with- out difficulty, communicated with the Norwegian station on Spitzbergen. ¢ As the distance increased between the ship and stations their signals weak- ened, but they were strong enough to permit us to communicate with Ehme, over about 1,000 miles. But besides meteorological reports from these stations .we received, too, weather telegrams of highest impor- tance from the big Stavanger radio ll_];\l transmits the telegrams from Norway to America. This station col- lected all. the Kuropean weather re- ports and sent us also some American broadcastings as an act of safety. By courtesy of the United States Govern- ment we got also some additional re- ports from Alaska. stations that proved very valuable as long as we got them. But the moment the wireless failed to work all this embracing organiza- tion was worthless for the expedition, ind this was just the thing that hap- pened. The last report our meteorologist re- ceived from Alaska before the wireless ceased to work showed a cyclone over | astronomical | up surface. didn’t even hear our signals, a circumstance that shows the strong 't of the ice forming on the antenna. Up and Up to Avoid Fog. r, the flight went on, and the fog, lying higher and higher, we had to go up to almost 2,500 feet. This time, as when compelled to fly over the fog before reaching the Pole, we could 't that we had no under us. A few openin direction. ring troubles in- The sky was high alti- the day our ed With every hour. vered with clouds of ves tude, thus making it imposible to take observations. The sun compass, with a cloud-covered sky, so of no use. We could, how- ever, continue to fly in a settled direc- due to the fact mentloned ear- t the isogones were correctly ind we could use the magnetic And often an opening in permitted us to take astro- Al observations, we controlled cur direction. ice Coating an Added Danger. The situation in the evening became worse. Clouds were over us and fog under us, going together in one woolen mass. First we went down to a lower altitude. b snow falling, we re- turned to a greater altitude, but here we met a new danger. The ship be- zan to be loaded down by ice. Nobile ed our meteorologist what to do. Malmgren started at once to make stematic observations of the amount rime at various heights, and re- peated this many times during the flight. The best altitude for flving was de- termined after his observations. Some- mes they showed that it was better v fly high, the fog being thinner iere, but also it happened that the imount of rime was less nearer the -round, this probably being the case when the temperature was lower near- er the ice than higher up in the air. During these maneuvers we once tried to go over the clouds, but they were so high that the ship couldn’t do without losing too much gas. But the fog didn't only create dif- ficulties for the flight and observa- tions; far more dangerous was the ice crust that began forming on the ship's engines and propellers. This threat- ened us also in another way. When, for the first time, we heard the ice bits loosened from the outside wires of engines by the propeller thrown as projectiles through the keel's canvas, making holes in_it, all the crew understood perfectly that we had begun a critical stage of our flight. 1t the blades of the propellers were smashed by the loose-end bits of ice. pieces of them certainly would make such big holes in the balloon that im- mediately we would have been forced to go down on the. ice and walk to the coast. When the ice bombardment on the keel started we were more than 200 miles from the coast. Up to that moment, while looking down on the ice, we had only watched it with the ves of explorers. We had photo- graphed it, had made notes about the number and greatness and direction of its leads, and had tried to state how | high the ice floes were on its broken Facing the possibility of marching on it down to the coast the Ice got still greater interest for every one in the ship. All were glad that the ice bombardment had not started before. Dog Senses the Danger. Here a quite interesting little detail is to be mentioned. Nobile’s mascot dog, Titiana, had been calm all the time, covered by her master’s sleeping bag, but on the last part of our flight the little dog became more. and more nervous. When the situation was most critical she jumped down on the cabin floor, growling, whining, putting her tail between her legs and appar- ently looking for help. She behaved herself several times that way. How- ever, the flight went on, the propellers not being smashed. But again and again we heard the ice bits going | through the canvas of the keel, giving the crew a hard job to repair the breaks. One break was so big that the airship had to be slowed up in order to repair it. Once more we learned to appreciate the carefulness with which Nobile had prepared ghe airship for the flight, having strength- ened the envelope outside the gas bag near the propellers just to avoid the danger that now threatened ship, crew and expedition. However, we couldn’t trust that en- velope and the gas bag's resistance, »nd as Jong as the ice bombardment went on we eagerly watched its effect. For a while after the big break was made the ship went only at half speed. Several times the motors by turns were stopped to clean the blades of the propellers from ice. In this way we continued the flight toward Point Barrow. In a later sec- tion, already alluded to, we shall give a detailed description of the naviga- tion, which on this part of the flight was very difficult, and also give ex- citing details with relation to naviga- tion. However, readers will under- stand that with increasing excitement we looked for land. The distance covered indicated that we were approaching the coast and probably would be in Point Barrow to- morrow. We had succeeded in getting a position line that went a little to the westward of the Point Barrow meridian. Signs of Land Multiply. Early on the morning of May 13, Greenwich time (in the afternoon of May 12, Alaska time) several signs indicated that we couldn’t be far from land. The ice was still much broken up and the ice floes big, but we ob- served that the number of leads in- creased and that they were greater than we had seen since we left the ice edge behind us on the European side of the Pole. Open water also was ob- served at last. _At 650 p.m., Greenwich time Riiser Larsen, having examined the southern horizon for a long time through his field glasses, cried, “Land on_port bow."” There was not much difference be- tween the ice lying close up to the beach and the -plain snow-covered landscape ih front of A black line, some big stone sticking up over the white snow, proved he was right. and | in the fog | were | THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE 6, 1926—PART 1. by her wireless operator. We came over to the beach at Greenwich time. After a look down_ we understood that 46 hours and 45 minutes after | we had left the ground in Kings Ba. | we had reached Point Barrow at 71 | degrees north latitude, 156 degrees | west longitude. The transpolar flight was realized. ‘ For the first time in history human | eves had seen the resion between the | North Pole and Point Barrow. We | had thus passed just over the sup-| posed Keenan’s Land north of Point | Barrow without seeing it. They who | have not believed in its existence are consequently right. We were also able | to state that in the region we had | flown over in our airsnip there exists | neither continents nor islands. For in spite of the fog on the last part of the flight there were 50 many openings in it that in case land exists in_ the regions we passed we should have observed it. We are not yet able to say how great a part of the till now unexplored area in the Arctic the members of the Amundsen-Ellsworth-Nobile transpolar flight expedition have looked upon. Before we can fix it exactly the aver- age altitude of the Norge on its flight from the geographical pole to Point Barrow must be stated and observa- tions of a different kind made on the flight: but we don’t think we say too much in asserting that the expedition looked down upon 100,000 square miles of hitherto unknown territo Now for Safe Landing. The transpolar flight was realized when the Norge passed the coast of | Alaska, but the airship was far from | its goal, a safe landing place. We have already mentioned that, due to the | fallure of the wireless, we had no in- | formation of the weather conditions over Alaska except the showing of a cyclone over the Behring Sea that seemed to be stationary. On the flight since we had entered the fog the wind | {had been more favorable to us than other weather elements. We had back wind down to 77. Here we got head winds, the direction for a long time being southeast, later on shifting to the southwest. The wind grew pretty | | rough before we reached the coast of | | Alaska, where we had to choose our | further route. If we proceeded south as far as Nome we could, due to the cyclone mentioned, calculate upon fav- orable winds for the last part of the distance. Also the south coast of the Seward Peninsula seemed likely also to be sheltered against northerly winds, thus offering good landing places. ‘We had, however, not much time to | discuss the various possibilities after we had reached the coast of Alaska, because the ship flew in a region of fog with heavy rime frost constantly forming. Nobile, however, made up his mind to go southward and try toreach Nome. Afterward, we have been told that it might have been better to have tried to reach Fairbanks, in the eastern part of the interfor of Alaska, weather conditions there at the time of our landing being better than on the part of the coast where we went down. But in spite of the weather there being better, it was possible that we chose the best way. A flight in fog over mountains, without knowing their height, perhaps being far from our supposed position, is dangerous. In any case a discussion now about these things has only the original in- terest, and we have to describe what happened in the last 24 hours we were in the air, this part of the flight being by far the most exciting. (Copyright. 1926 in_United States. by the New ¥ork Times and St. Louis Globe-Demo- crat. Outside United States by Norwegian Aero Club.) (To be Continued.) | LEAVE FOR LEGIOENAIRES Former service men and women in the employ of the District Govern- ment will be granted leave to at- tend the annual convention of the American Legion in Paris in 1927, under the terms of a bill introduced yesterday by Senator Capper of ‘Kansas. The bill which is identical with that introduced in the House by Representative Zihlman, amends an act granting such leave to employes of the Federal Government. | | DEAF HEAR INSTANTLY Amazing Invention Brings Imme- dlhn(ge Relief to Those Who Are Deaf. A wonderful invention which en- ables the hard-of-hearing to hear all sounds as clearly and distinctly as a child has been perfected by the Dictograph Products Corpora- tion, Suite 2741, 220 to 224 West 42nd Street, New York City. There is no waiting, no delay, no danger —but quick, positive, instantane. ous results—you hear instantly. So positive are the makers that every one who is hard of hearing will be amazed and delighted with this remarkable invention, the Acousticon, that they are offering to send it absolutely free for 10 days' trial. No deposit—no C. O. D.—no_ obligation whatever. If you suffer, take advantage of their iiberal free trial offer. Send them (Photo copyright by New York Times and St. | the your name and address today.— Advertisement. Dispatching news to the world by wireless from the Norge on her en-, trance into the North Pole area. Reading over a dispatch before transmission | as she was nearing Point Barrow on the n Louis Glébe-Democrat o 3 The wreck of the Norge at SCENES IN NORGE’S FLIGHT ACROSS THE TOP OF THE WORLD A huge crack | continent. (Photo copyright by New York Ti Alaska, where Capt. Roald Amunds \ il e n completed his histori across the North Pole. While maneuvering for a landing the huge airship was swung around by the wind and crashed into a group of houses along the edge of the snow-covered field on which the landing wa: (Photo _copsright by New York Times and St. Louis Globe-Democrat.) mes and St. Louis Globe-Democrat.) » 58" MRS. VAN WINKLE SHARPLY ATTACKED Commissioners Asked by Mrs. Rafter to Curb Her Work Before Congress. RIVER AND HARBOR BILL FACING FIGHT More Opposition Expected in Senate .Than It Met Before House. By the Associated Press. The $£90,000,000 bors bill apparently strenuous opposition in than it encountered in which passed it Friday. Some Senate opporents predicted today that the measure would not be passed at this «ion, certainly not in the form in which it came from | |CPresenting the House, where many projects were | S enin tons" A protest against the activities of Lieut. Mina Van Winkle, head of the women's bureau of the police depart 5 ment, in the interest of the police- the Senate | won bill now peading before the Heu: e District afternoon . president of Parent- rivers and har- aces even more le of mis the attitude of the Na- of Parent-Teache toward the proposed 3xplaining t s action by the Iouse | entative Sosnowski, | Mrs . said opponents | ed many view to running the | ppropriation to such | at the bill would be out with the admin tion's program and would never Republic of the bill ments with total authoriz figure il armony financial becor we wish cal women's nst the pe hief of the 0 . in circulating . which can readily be at the National Congress id Teachers has voted approval of the pending bill in r d to the women's police bureau, and. secondly, in_inviting wtes of the Parent-Teacher Associations of the District to a meeting to be held at the House of Detention for further ing her interest in resard to bill as a proposal with ats and te, Republican, Wis- proposed to fight it He predicted that Senators would take loaded down Ferris I believed that such condu uch use of a public building nt of the Distriet Go prehensible if not i measures should be tak est of the taxpavers welfare to restric District employe dutles. “We particula efforts by T Democrat, that he and other | 3 ates around € | € Gre: L‘ Lakes would interpose SPHl‘r:;fly opposition lLecause of the provision | for l“h\m.-:«m of water from Lake Michigan, a feature which caused much of the fight in the Hou: Michi- the active rict emploves, through pressure from outside the District upon Congress, attempting to force upon the people of the District legis lation which they do not want and which they know. much better thas outslders, is not for the welfare of the District people.” 250 Visitors at West Point. il WEST POINT. Y.. June 5 (). — More than tes 1o the na. tional ffll’"\ conferepce at New York 1y visited the West Point Military as guests of Brig. Gen. Stewart. The delegates, mpanied at the pier ter witnessing ting the " luncheon were esce and met and inspe . a reservation, Hand-embroidered dre: are hel vorn in Paris. non-stop flight | made. | ALUMNI OF "W u. PLEDGE $10,000 FUN Promise to Raise Amount for New Unit—Officers for the Year Elected. George Washington alumni at their annual Washington Club last pledged to raise $10,000 toward the new unit recently authorized by the board of trustees. Following the annual election of of-- at which Dr. Frank A. Horna- day was chosen president for the en- suing vear, the 300 representatives present said they would place $10.000 in the hands of the university treas- urer for the new unit within the year. Members of the board of trustees. fi | faculty and students as well asalumni | Were present. William B. King and Mrs. Joshua Evans, jr, members of the board of trustees of the university; Dean How ard L. Hodgkins and the new presi. dent spoke. It was announced that John B. Larner and John Joy Edson were the newly elected members of the board of trustees representing the alumni. The officers of the George Wash- ington University Alumni Association elected last night were as follows: President, Dr. Frank A. Hornaday vice presidents, Dr. Oscar B. Hunter, Capt. Edward Stafford, Maxine Rolle, Mathilde Eiker, Harold E. Warner, Frank Weller; secretary-treasurer, Rosemary Arnold; executive secre- tary, Vernon Brewster. e Women of Paris are making up with orange lipstick, jade green eye- lids and brown face powder “Where - Security Isa University | reeting at | night | ITRACKS REMOVAL URGED. D'E Street Business Men's Petition;As scoTTvs GUARDIAN Received by Commissioners. | A petition urging the removal of | the Washington Railway and Electric | Co.’s car tracks on IS street between th ved by the Public Utilities Com mission vesterday afternoon. It bore fhe signature of 10 business men and | property owners on the street. The petition pointed out that the cks are used very seldom and “are | of no benefit whatever to the public’ and “are mere of a nuisance than | anything else. | B street is now in the process of | widening and the signers of the peti- tion explained that the time for the removal of the tracks is now oppor- tune before the thoroughfare is re- surfaced. e |REALTY OWNERS CALLED. Columbia Heights Group Will Gather Tomorrow Night. The Columbia Heights Real Estate Owners' Assoclation will hold a mass meeting of property owners in that area in the Arcade ballroom tomor- row night at § o'clock. The call for the meeting says it is planned to acquaint residents with the “full benefits” to be derived from recent court decision which given residential community can maintain its integrity and protect its realty value over a reasonable period of years through concerted action.” umll o0 direct action toward that end.” ¥ The small Crown Prince of Serbia is being reared on an English system by an English nurse. 6% 1st Mortgage Bonds Denominations, $100—$500—$1,000 Insured: The first mortgages underlying these 6% Bonds are insured against loss of either principal or interest by the Fidelity & Guaranty Co. of Baltimore, with its $41,000,000 of assets; or by the Maryland Casualty Co. of Baltimore, with over $36,000,000 assets. Guaranteed: Each issue of these bonds is the direct obligation of some well managed mortgage company. 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