The United States Antarctic Service "colonizing" expedition to the South Pole--popularly, Rear Admiral Richard Byrd's third "down under" adventure in bottom-of-the-world exploration--is about ready to sail out of Boston Harbor.
It is ready and it is not ready. It is ready in the sense that the personnel of the expedition vessels, the Antarctic veteran, the Bear, and of the North Star of the U. S. Department of the Interior, are chafing impatiently over the eleventh hour delays holding them back from frozen wastes where half the party of 125 plan to remain until brought out or relieved in April or May, 1941.
The expedition is not ready in the sense that the North Star, scheduled to sail Thursday, is still stowing away supplies and equipment while following bulletins of probable time or arrival of the Armour Institute snow cruiser whose shakedown-breakdown trip from Chicago daily increases the probabilities that it will be left behind. The Bear, still in drydock in East Boston, is awaiting essential additional equipment and is reliably reported as not likely to get the order to cast off before Nov. 20.
Many Little Hindrances
Many factors have combined to hinder heeding Admiral Byrd's insistence early last summer on an early start South. Reconditioning and refitting jobs have taken time, countless details have had to worked out, beyond restoring international amity which was somewhat ruffled when first reports of the projected government-directed expedition aroused other nations to make counter claims to areas discovered by their nationals near the Pole.
The plight of the snow cruiser lumbering eastward has had a negative effect, members of the expedition contend. They say public attention has been focused on its breakdowns under ideal travel conditions on the best possible terrain instead of on the major objectives of this first real attempt of the Government to clinch its claims to what may be extremely valuable bases at some future date--areas within predictable air reach of the tips of South America and South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
This expedition had its origin last April when Congress, at the request of State Department and Interior Department officials appropriated $10,000 to defray the expenses of preparing a United States Antarctic Expedition.
Authorized by Congress
Authority for the expedition was granted June 30, 1939, when Congress appropriated an additional $340,000 and authorized the establishment of the United States Antarctic Service. Congress at the same time authorized expedition . . .
Everything Being Made Shipshape for An . . .
