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The Seaforth News, 1929-03-14, Page 3A TALE OF ADVENTURE FROM THE STARK NORTH Marooned in the Sob -Arctic While Blizzards :Rage, a Party of Airplane Prospectors Send by Radio a Vivid Account of Hazards and Tragedy. The interest -taken in the United From 'Baker Lake the' planes carried :States in connection with the opening ,pf our great 311orthland is exemplified .ln the following article appearing in 'the New York Times, We reproduce, it as an unvarnished tale et the stark redlines that go Band -in -hand with the search for mineral wealth, Prospecting by airplane for minerals in the frozen North Country of Can- ada, Arthur Lowe, now in charge of the expedition, gives fol the first time a connected account of the tragic adventures and trials which winter forced on the prospectors whentheir rsclioohor struck a shoal and, a plane had crashed into a lake. . Wireless ' 'Installation salvaged from the schoon- er enabled Mr. Lowe to communicate his dramatic story direct to The New York ;Times radio` station. By .ARTHUR LOWE ' Baker Lake, I'LW.T. Slriroless to The New York Times, According to explorers who have traveled the Canadian Arctic, it is a laiicl of rich' promise. It may be, but after living for weeks in an igloo, a .scant 100 miles from, the Arctic Ciycle, I have formed the opinion that It is •also au inhospitable and forlorn land, a land of blizzards, with drifting .snow as impenetrable as a Loudon fog, and of cold so intense that it blasters like boiling water. For us, -tea, it has been a land of tragedy. In the past year there Alas been a :determined effort to crack open the North and to discover those rich min- eral deposits, stories of which have been current sinos the. days of Pron., 'aeuae. But the business of discovery is proving difficult. The writer is 'attached to the Northern Aerial Min- ,,erais Expedition, which is :attacking the North by plane, canoe and sclioon- •er—and victory, so far, is with :the North. The schooner was wrecked in an uncharted channel; one of the planes -caked with ice crashed as the pilot .attempted to take off from the 'troubled waters of Hudson Bay• two the prospectors to areas in the North reported to be rich in minerals. Those of ns on the Patrick and Tvllohael, , the base ship, made slow progr1ss. For five days we were around on a shoal in Hudson Bay,. a gale which lasted three days blew us 100 miles off our course, ice fields slowed up our progress, and it was not until September that we finally. reached the mouth of Chesterfield Inlet. At, that,' point I. left the shit/ and proceeded by plane to Baker Lake to take charge of operations in that area. In tile, early days of. September we flew hundreds of miles, placing pros- pectors, taking them provisions or moving them to new and more Iayor- able areas. ' Toward 'thea middle of the month concern developed at .the non -arrival of , the schooner, and ass cordingly a fiigltwas made eastward to locate it; Wefound it hard and fast' on a shoal at the entrance to Baker. Lake, It was listed over at a precarious angle and seemed in, im- minent danger of slipping into deep water arid. sinking. Below us we could so the crew atwork on rafts trying to salvage the cargo, and away on the shore an untidy dump consisting of gasoline drums, packing casesand lumber. ship Plied. on a Rock •It seemed that the vessel had been proceeding slowly through the ehen- nel when it touched a shoal. In an effort to clear it the captain ordered full speed ahead and the ship' piled up onto the rook. Too late, sound- ings were' taken. Fortunately there was a deserted shack about two miles from the -scene 'of the wreck which had been erected years previously by the mounted police, 'In this shack the crew found temporary quarters. But. it became obvious that unless they could be evacuated quickly many w..u1d perish during the winter, for the schooner could not. be salvaged and the men were not p'ovided with winter clothing. prospectors were lost in a September finally .a whale.` boat was outfitted blizzard;- one never to return, • the for the 150 -mile, journey to the fur •tither crippled for life. Together with trading post at Chesterfield, and the Is . others I was marooned for nearly .the crew Left in this under the coin - mead of William Robertson, the mate. September proved a; tragic month forthe prospectors. Snow fell heav- ily and ` was accompanied by biting winds from the northwest. It became imperative that the, men should be brought in with all speed, and since the wreck of the schooner prevented us from building a headquarters, they should be taken out to civilization without delay. Search for Lost Gold Hunters A wind started from the northwest and blew steadily for a week, some- times with a velocity of eighty miles an hour. It was accompanied; by snow flurries and driving mist which made any attempt at flying suioidal. During tile' week the small lakes froze over and we were faced with the ,dier and explorer; eighteen .prospec-knowledge that unless' we could get tors were embarked, and in July we the men in before the. larger lakes :sailed from St. John, N.B., for the Sub. froze it would be months before help Arctic. co^1d be sent to them, as our planes The prospectors were landed in could not be fitted , with: skis. The Taira at various points on the east prospectors were. spattered hundreds •coast of 'Hudson •Bay. Each party got a canoe and the necessary food -and equipment to last three months. A headquarters, was established at Richmond Gulf and from this base a rsix-passenger seaplane operated. The plane, with a maximum.cruisiug range sof 1,000 miles, was employed in mov- ing the. prospectors fror one area to .another, so that little time was wasted in a country where :the geological' fors .matron was considered unfavorable.. While. we were establishing - our •Caches, on the eastern coast -of Iiud-- ,son Bay' . there was activity in the West, for It is in the West our hopes :are centred. Two airplanes, carry- ing five passengers' with food and ,equipment, left La Pas. in. Northern Manitoba for one of the longest Sub-' .,Arctic flights ever made. --The planes headed across country to Churchill, from there; they flew north along the coast of Hudson Bay to Chesterfield Inlet and then across the barren lands to Baker Lake -r total flight sof nearly 1,500 miles over unexplored territory. For the. greater part .of the flight the compasses .carried in the planes could not bo used owing to the nearness of the magnetic pole. :a month in the barrens without fuel •and with only a limited supply of 'food. Prospectors Moved By Plane But in spite of difficulties, various -Caches have been established in the Arctic and Sub -Arctic; invaluable data have been obtained, and those, •01 us wintering here are confident that this year the North will Gummi - ,der and reveal some of its long - ,guarded secrets. Our expedition was sponsored by J. B. Hammell, a Canadian mine op erator, who won both fame and for- tune breaking new trails. A fishing .schooner, the Patrick and Michael, was bought and equipped for service.. 'The expedition was placed under the -command of Colonel J. E. Leckie, sol - of miles apart across the barrens with food and fuel sufficient for only a few weeks at best—and the mercury was already flirting with. zero. On the seventh day of the gale the situation looked desperate and we. decided to wait no longer. We took off from the lake, and headed,north, flying dangerously low. Our first con- cern was to pick up J. Rutherford and T. Cowans, two veterans of the Porcu- pine, because weknew their' supplies must be getting low. With difficulty we 'edited their tent pitched on the shores of a large lake, and succeeded in landing near it. The tent was drifted high with snow; there were no signs of life, no sound except the whistle of the wind through the struts of the plane. I crawled along an ice covered pontoon, waded ashore, push- ed aside the frozen flap of the tent and crawled inside. There was a note nailed to a box: "Walking back;, grub giving out." We fiewon to the next camp. The prospectors_ there were more fortun- ate, having shot a caribou on the day before • our coming. But they had run desperately short of Piet and their tent pole had been whittled down until An Arabian Knight on Skis WHAT, SNOW IN AFRICA? CANADA IS CHALLENGED K . It is "not general knowledge' the Arabs in Africa have a ski club, but they have, and°this Arab is a club member f Slirea, near the Atlas mountains, it was no thicker than a cane. They were surprised to see us. • "Didn't think .they could make it in the weather," they said. We succeeded in reaching all pros- pectors in the field except Rutherford and Gowans. Day after day we searched for them from the air, but without success. They seemed to have disappeared completely into the silent 'snow-covered. hills: William Storr, an . experiment ,prospector, and two Eskimos were taken to the desert- ed camp by plane, and they started to back -track the missing men. It was not long begore they discovered the tragedy which had overtaken the two prospectors. There came a place where the tracks of only one man were left to•follow, A. Tragedyof. the Trail But it was .unnecessary for Storr to continue his quest, because after_ being seven days on the trail with neither food nor covering, .Cowans staggered into camp. He managed (4 tell us that Rutherford had died of exposure four days previously, and then he collapsed.: An idea of his desperate struggle -for life can be obtained from his diary, which he gave me 'after- ward and' from which I quote ex- cerpts: "Sept. 22. Pulled out after day- light. Joe left Qirebley revolver be- hind two boulders. Have not had glimpse of sun since we left three BIZARRE NEW ENSEMBLE A striking beach ensemble of robe, beach pyjamas and bandana to match, in, which Mrs, Howard Street of Phila- delphia recently appeared 'at Palm Beach, Florida. days ago and compass no use. De- cided to leave rifle behind. "Sept. 23, Have to slide down creek -beds. Nobody saying much. Traveled maybe five mires, but going hard, owing to soft snow, Very stormy and cold, nearly unbearable. "Sept. '24. Started out across mus- keg, 'snow on -top, water underneath. Made about G00 yards, winds and storm made it too hard to travel, Dropped down behind rock,, Looked back and could not . see Joe: Went back and found him lying on his side. Shook him, but he was dead. Heard Plane, but could not see it, owing to storm—" Cowan's condition was desperate when he arrived, and it is amazing that he should have traveled those last few miles. The mukluks (seal- skin boots) were cut from his black- ened feet and first aid was rendered, but we knew that the only chance of saving his life was to rush him, to a hotpital=1,500 miles away. Captain Mat Berry, Pilot' bf our plane, undertook to take him south at once. The machine took off from Baker Lake in zero weather; the pontoons and wings were thick with ice, and icicles festooned the struts. But in spiteof.. difficulties greater than these which attend a transatlan- tic flight Berry succeeded'In flying his plane to Churchill Harbor he refueled. He attempted to take off without de- lay, but there was a heavy sea running and this, combined with the tremnd- ous strain the plane had already un- dergone, brought disaster. - Amphibian Plane Sinks The pontoons of the machine col- lapsed as it was lifting from the water. Tho few watchers on shore saw the plane tilt forward, 'right itself and then begin to founder. A boat suc- ceeded:in reaching the wreck and in saving the passengers, but by such a narrow margin that the plane sank before even a //mall bag of mail could be saved. A wireless message was sent to La Pas, A second plane was rushed in at once, and a few hours later Cowans was in the hispital. During Berry's trip south we were having our difficulties in the north. It was essential that our wireless equip- ment should be salvaged from the schooner, and .: to effect this S. C. Cusack, the operator, J. D. Donovan and the writer remained near the wreck. ' The work was accomplished and the greater part of the equip - mot moved to our base, when the lake partially froze over. Our only means of communication had been by boat -and the boat was frozen solid in a foot of ice. Meantime we were practically with- out fuel, water or food, and temper- atures were running as low as twenty below zero. But for once we had a lucky break, After three weeks of chilly waiting a strong wind blew up from the east. The ice was carried out into the lake and our boat was freed. We succeeded iu finding chan- nels between the floe ice to the open lake and thence to our base. When you get to Washington, it's Back at the base"' It was not long too late to learn.—Mayor Walker, before wireless communication was established and we learned that the Hudson Bay Company had succeeded in getting a small schooner to Ches- terfield from Repulse Bay, In this schooner the crew was taken to Churchill, from where they made their way through the bush to the end of steel. Work this winter has been difficult. Planes were unable to come north owing to the intense cold and heavy drifts. Instead. of speeding through the air at a hundred miles an hour we have plodded over the hard packed snow from igloo to igloo. • Accom- panied •by Shevekatah, a famous Eskimo hunter, I am leaving in the t course of the next few days to make my way to the end of steel -700 miles away. Vanishing Isle First Seen Off Trinidad in 1911 Recent Rise and, Disappear- ance of Volcanic Area Recalls Earlier Ex- ploration Soon Lost in Heavy Seas Emergence Accompanied by Terrific Gas Explosion Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.—The re cent appearance of a volcanic mud island off the island of Chatham and its sudden disappearance a few days later recall the "first night" perform- ance of this remarkable submarine volcano on Nov. 4, 1911, the mud island having ten appeared, accom- panied 'by terrific explosions. That emergence of the island was during the governorship of the late Sir George Le Hunte, and a party, including the Governor, the Chief Justice and other of4'ials from Trin- idad went by steamer to explore it. Great care had to be exercised in mak- ing a landing, as it was found that the crest of mud was very thin and treacherous. The mud under the sur- face was still very hot, The Governor and his party explor- ed the entire island, which was of whale -back formation. The party re- mained for more than an hour. The i -land was fourteen miles from Icacos and two miles from Chatham. Two craters were discovered on its summit near the northern extremity. Thetotal area of the island was about three acres, and the heavy seas washed it .away in the course of a few weeks. When a few weeks ago the second appearance of this volcanic island oc- curred, parties steamed to the spot where the explosions took place, but no attempt was made to land, as the •island was slowly disappearing under the pressure of the heavy seas. The Judgement o[ a Hors By AM E. H, in OurBERTRDumb AgnimaisHALL Nowhere south of the Arotio circle. does the death -dealing blizzard' de- scend More swiftly and unexpeetedly than upon the plains 00 Wyoming. The high altitude of the state, its sparest population, the vaot, treeless regions and the intense :e old that almost 1u- ;variably accompanies a severe bliz- zard, make the fact of getting lost in a' Wyoming snowstorm a serious mat ter, even in title day of twentieth century ,progress- One sunny morning a few winters ago a Wntbro of his men withyoming a twrao-Bcherossescut team toeget a load 0f coal from the railroad yards, ten miles distant.' During the return trip the sun darkened, the north wind quickened until it stung the face, and hard, needle-like particles of snow be- gan to hiss against the clothing of the men. By the time they were throe miles from home the storm had M- ortised to a blinding blizzard that shut out completely the world in which they lived, Desperatelythe men struggled to unhitch the horses from the heavily loaded wagon and set out on foot leading the faithful animals behind them. Thirty minutes later, after making a complete circle, they saw the abandoned wagon loom hp be- fore them. They tried again and again returned to the wagon;( A third time they tried and a third time re- turned to the wagon, The situation was indeed desperate. The storm showed no sign of les- sening, and deep concern was written on the face of the three men. Sud- denly one of the men spoke: "See here, I don't know the way home, but I do know horses, We have been trying to lead the horses home, ,1 suggest that we let' them lead us home," So' the driver gave the animals a free rein and the threemen' tramped doggedly on behind. Thirty minutes passed and this time they did not re- turn to the wagon. Another thirty minutes dragged by and all at once the dim, ghost-like forms of ranch buildings appeared before them. A few minutes later the horses were in the stalls and three 'thankful men were within the warm shelter of a ranch kitchen telling their story to eager listeners. Once more the in- telligence of the horse had been de- monstrated. Empire Marketing Board' London Times Trade Supplement; In the early days of the Empire Mar- keting Board it was pointed out here that, however wellconceived its plans might, be, ultimately its publicity campaign would have to be judged by the same standard as that applied to other advertisements — the measure of success attained in "selling the goods." It is theryfore with consider- able satisfaction that we learn on the authority of the board that imports of Empire produce into this country dur- ing the last two years have broken. all previous records for many com- modities. The Board's publicity scheme has been la::;ely concerned' with the increase of sales of produce, and, therefore, is perfectly legitimate to regard the increase in imports as evi- dence of the success if its efforts. She: You so to college, don't you? Ile: No. This suit looks this way, because I slept in ft las night, As soon as the dirigibles are equip- ped to carry airplanes, as is now planned by the United States Navy, instead of "hitch your wagon to a star," it will be "check your airplane to a dirigible;' The old-time slate of personally con- ducted political organizations now gives some indication of following the old-fashioned school into oblivion, • S'1VIATTER • POP -i E`I! USE. oSOMe. oT "-fouR i i r QUESTIoNINE -44e-RE .11E *A`l5-�,E. �1I� Nur EA'r i e'PIEC E OF Cu STAnb'P I E 1E CU57f�'C="D A1.1. OVEN `FOUR TAC E. STILL you iN;ls7 Yov 1l'D1-1=t EAT 'r+14t'Pi ECBET 'lou 1AV/ OF,CU57"RI) 1 t1125.1. f�/Al 'P 1 E . '"1'.EE —11 -�+pl He Had Assistance. . o; M;4w-v4.w1 AccemDirsit, TO My' INVESTi4ATION 415 WT,15-re.1EiwT+It t"'x wAr re.R t ht, 1825, by The Hell Syg ligate, Inc.) New Tubes Bring Sets Up To Date How Modern Detectors and Amplifiers Can Be Used in 014 Receivers to ,l'i'tl- prove Reception Modern tubes in place et old ones will do a great deal to improve tonal quality, volume, and sensitivity that aids in reception of distant stations a get equipped with the old tyre of tube with a metal base, as ..used three or four years ago, .an be vastly improv- ed with new tubes. Engineers con- tend that after tubes are ,n use al, moat daily for a year their efficiency is greatly 'reduced. Tubes need not burn out to be worn out. To begin with, consider tk,e old type 0-801 tube which has been superseded by the CX -301A tube. The operating chaiacteritsics of these two tubes are similar with the exceptic,i that the CX -301A is much more efficient and has a higher amplification factor. The plate voltages and grid bias voltages required for both types of tubes are practically the same so that from the standpoint they can be used inter- changeably in circuits iesigned for either of the tubes. When the OX.:. 301A is substituted for the C-301 tube. in neutralized circuit receivers the neutralization values must be reads justed. Iioweverthe main point of differs i once lies n the filament character. istios. Whereas the C-301 tube caused a current drain of one ampere at iYvd volts, the OX -3.01A tube ceases a cur- rent drain of .25 amperes at five volts, This means that the value cf the sers ies resistor (rheostat, or fixed resistor) in the filament circuit required to re- duce the six volts supplied by the stor- age battery to the five volts required by the tube filament will, be different, For the C-301 tube the resistance of the resistor required to produce a drop of one volt with one ampere flowing in the circuit was one ohm. A Gohm rheostat was therefore used to provide a sufficient range for control. In the case of the 301A, the value of the re- sistor required to produce a drop of one valt with a current of .25 ampere in the circuit is four ohms and a re- sistor of 20 ohms is recommended to obtain suitable control down below five volts. NEW RHEOSTAT NEEDED Before replacing a C-301 tube with. a CX -301A tube in old, receivers, therefore, care must be taken to re- place the old rheostat with one of a suitable size. Where more than or -e tube is controlled •From a single rheo- stat or resistor, til course, the resist- ance regcired in the resistor is lower. Two 301A tubes for instants, connect- ed in parallel and drawing together ,5 an-pere require a resistance. of 2 ohms to reduce the six volts to five and for this purpose a 10 -ohm .rheostat will give full control.. When fixed resistors are used, the value of the resistor should be as nearly as possible the correct size re- quired, four ohms for one 301A tube, two ohms for to 301A tubes, etc. In substituting a 301A tubein place of a C-300 soft detector tube, in addi- tion to changing the value of the fila- ment resistor, the grid return should be connected to the positive filament, lead instead of to the negative fila- ment lead required for use with the 0-300, or 300A. In substituting a 112A or 371A tube in place of a C-301 or 301A tube in the last audi stage of a receiver, the plate and grid bias voltages should be changed to the recommended values for maximum resuits in addition to the filament changes necessary when substituting an "A" tube in place of a C-301 tube. CHANGES FOR POR TUBES In substituting a 112A for a 112 only the value of the filament resis- tor need be changed. The 112 draws .5 ampere at five volts and requires a fixed resistor of 2 ohms or a rheo- stat of 6 ohms while the 112A draws ,25 ampere and therefore requires a fixed resistor of 4 •hms or a rheostat of 20 ohms. The grid bias and plate voltage characteristics are the same and the tubes can be used interchangz- ably in that respect. The same changes in filament cir- cuit characteristics are required when substituting a 371A in place of a 371 tube in storage battery or "A" elim- inator circuits. When 112A or 871A tubes are sub- stituted in place of 112 and 871 tubes, respectively, in A. 0, receivers in which the filaments of the tubes are heated from the filament v.indings of a power transformer, no changes are necessary since the tubes will auto matteaily draw the proper amount of current from the windings When OX -340 high mu tubes aro substituted in place of 301A tubes is resistance -coupled amplifiers, best re- sults can only be obtained if the values of plate and grid resistors are changed to .25 meghom for the plate 'resistors and 2 meghoms for the grid resistors with coupling capacities of .000 infd. The plate vsltages applied to the "B plus" terminals of the plate resist- ors should be at least 135 volt§ sad preferably 180 volts and the grid brad should be reduced to not more than. 1;5 for 135 volts on the plate or IS volts for 180 volts on the plate,' The 0G-380 full were rectifier tubo superseded the old CX --813 frill wave rectifier tube and may be vubstitiuted is place of the CX -313 without any changes in equipment or wirir,g. The CX -381 half -wave rectifier tube superseded the' old C11C.b16B half -wave rectifier and may be vubatJtuted la flat place without any changes Ara • wiring.