WARSAW, Ind., Oct. 27.--(U.P.)--Once again Admiral Richard E. Byrd's giant snow cruiser picked up the trail that will lead it across the nation to Boston, and eventually to Little America. But its crew was not so confident today that they would make the trip in eight scheduled stops.
The monstrous machine was forced to bed down here last night, some forty miles short of its intended goal of Fort Wayne.
Just outside of town the cruiser encountered its first serious trouble. A bridge built for ordinary automobile traffic proved too narrow. The crew looked the situation over thoroughly, then removed the hub-caps from its 10-foot wheels and finally squeezed through.
Built to cross Antarctic wastes undaunted, the cruiser has been having trouble bucking the thousands of curious Hoosiers that lined the right-of-way for a look at the machine which will carry four picked explorers over 5,000 miles of southern Polar regions.
An estimated 10,000 spectators, 3,000 more than the population of Warsaw itself, lined the streets here last night for a look at the cruiser. It rolled into town at a pace of six miles an hour through a drenching rain.
Early this morning it set out for Fort Wayne, and state police, who are providing an escort because its 15 feet width and 55 feet length makes it impassable on ordinary highways, anticipated more trouble with curious on-lookers.
The cruiser's route will take it to Mansfield, O., Akron, Fredonia, N. Y., Auburn, N. Y., Albany, N. Y., Framingham, Mass., and Boston. At Boston it will be dismantled for shipment to Little America by boat.
(Hammond Times Photo)
Admiral Richard E. Byrd's 20-ton snow cruiser, en route to Boston for shipment to the Antarctic for a polar expedition, lumbered through Hammond yesterday, too early for even the early birds to see. Here it's pictured as it stopped on U. S. Route 6 for a rountine check by Armour Institute technicians. In Gary, the monster left the highway for test runs over sandy terrain.
