From Pole to Pole

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From Pole to Pole Page 12

by Garth James Cameron


  The wooden framework of the hangar, almost finished but without the green sailcloth covering or the canvas doors. The frame was of wood. A 30 m high mooring mast was manufactured in Italy and erected not far from the hangar.

  “If there is anyone to whom I raise my hat, then it is for those fellows who, in the winter of 1925–26, built the hangar, but without a roof, at Kings Bay using canvas covered timber.”

  Amundsen wrote:

  “All who have seen the hangar at Kings Bay have been impressed and astonished; it is a great work, accomplished under more difficult conditions than such a building was ever erected under. It was built in the darkness and the cold of the Arctic night. The head carpenter, Arild, who supervised the work, and all his men deserve the highest praise.”

  On March 9, the Cygnus arrived from Italy with aviation equipment, hydrogen cylinders, and the mooring mast. The mast was assembled on the ground and raised into place with a derrick, tackle, men, and mine winches under the supervision of Engineer Lund. When the hangar was covered the covering was painted green. The paint helped to make the hangar wind proof. Just before the Norge arrived the mast was completed by the installation of a red painted steel cone which would mate with the reinforced tip on the nose of the airship. The airship base was equipped with spare engines, petrol and oil, spare rudder and elevator blades, and an enormous quantity of hydrogen kept under a pressure of 100 atmospheres in steel cylinders. A shipment of hydrogen was landed from the Hobby and consisted of 900 cylinders weighing 140 tons. The Knut Skaaluren delivered 3,900 cylinders weighing 625 tons to Ny-Ålesund.

  While the work was progressing at Ny-Ålesund Höver was working on the placing of the masts in southern Norway. Höver made a careful inspection of weather records and, after a two week inspection, chose Vadsøya near the town of Vadsø for the northern mast. The mast arrived at Vadsø on March 26, and was ready for use by April 26. Gas, petrol, oil, ballast, and spare parts were made available at Vadsø. The Oslo mast was built by local contractors but the docking-basket swivelling-mount had to come from Italy. It was located at Ekeberg Flats and was not ready until shortly before Norge arrived there on April 14.

  While all this was going on Amundsen and Ellsworth were doing what all explorers had to do; they were raising money. In a letter dated October 27, 1925, they proposed, and had accepted, an exclusive contract with the New York Times for articles by them about the expedition. The contract price was $55,000 with $19,000 payable on signature of all the parties, $18,000 when the airship arrived at Spitsbergen, and $18,000 when the expedition was completed. If the flight did not reach within approximately 50 miles of the North Pole the last amount was not payable and the total due was reduced to $37,000.

  When Amundsen gave the first lecture of his American tour in Washington, Ellsworth attended, and was introduced to the Chairman, 37-year-old Commander Richard E. Byrd Jr., United States Navy. Byrd was a courageous and determined man who was also well connected politically (his father had been Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, and his brother was Governor of that state and then a United States Senator). Byrd was an aviator who saw that aviation had great potential as a tool for exploration, particularly in the Arctic and Antarctic. He was a 1912 graduate of the United States Naval Academy. He had suffered a serious injury during a sporting event while at the Academy, and struggled to graduate and to perform his duties as a line officer. The injuries eventually lead to his retirement on three-quarter pay. Academy graduates were in demand as soon as America entered World War I in April 1917, and Byrd was recalled to duty and learned to fly. He specialised in navigation, air navigation in particular. This skill was utilised when he was appointed to plan the flights of three NC (Navy Curtiss) flying boats which attempted a west to east crossing of the North Atlantic. The crossing was to be made in stages and surface units of the navy were allocated to support the flights. Byrd was aboard NC-3 on the first two stages of its flight to assist in the navigation. These stages were from Long Island to Halifax and from there to Trepassey in New Foundland. Only the NC-4 completed the flight across the Atlantic, although the crews of the other two aircraft survived. He had a lucky escape after being assigned to the crew of the large rigid airship R-38 (its USN designation was ZR-2) which was being built for the USN in Britain. Byrd was not aboard when it took off for its fourth flight on August 23, 1921. During turning trials at high speed the airship broke up in the air and burst into flames, killing all but five of the 49 men aboard. Only one of the 17 Americans aboard survived. In January 1924, Byrd was assigned to a planned flight from Alaska to Svalbard by the US navy’s first rigid airship, the USS Shenandoah. The flight was cancelled and Byrd’s next significant aviation assignment was with the MacMillan-Byrd Expedition of 1925. This was Donald MacMillan’s ninth Arctic expedition, and the separate MacMillan and Byrd expeditions were combined for efficiency. One of the aims of the expedition was to prove that short-wave radios could provide reliable communications over long distances during daylight and from the “Auroreal Belt” above the Arctic Circle. Conventional long-wave radios could not do either. Eugene McDonald, an officer in the United States Naval Reserve, second in command of the expedition, and President of the Zenith Radio Corporation was in charge of the radio experiments. The communications segment of the expedition was an unqualified success. Byrd commanded the aerial part of the expedition, three Loening biplane amphibians powered by inverted liberty engines of 400 hp. The expedition operated over the northwestern region of Greenland and the adjacent Ellesmere Island. The flying was hazardous because of sudden gales, unlandable terrain, icebergs, and navigational difficulties caused by the Magnetic North Pole being so close. One of the sailors assigned to the expedition was Floyd Bennett who was a mechanic and also an experienced and skilful pilot. The names of Byrd and Bennett, would enter the history books because of the flight they would make toward the North Pole in 1926. By the end of operations 50 hours of flying had been done, much of it over terrain never before seen by man. The final flight was over the Greenland ice cap, the first of its kind. Byrd flew at 7,000 ft., the service ceiling of his aircraft, and could see about 100 nm in all directions. Operations were concluded on August 19, 1925, and Byrd returned to the United States determined to return to the Arctic with an aeroplane with much longer range than the Loening. He asked Ellsworth and Amundsen about their experiences operating from Kings Bay in Spitsbergen, particularly about take-off conditions on the ice of the bay. He was told that the ice would be thick enough until the end of May. At that point he planned to explore to the northwest of Spitsbergen in search of Crocker Land (which had been reported by Peary but did not exist).

  Amundsen had mixed with leading public men and women for as long as he had been an explorer and the 1925 flight and the drama of his return from the dead had brought fresh fame and attention. On October 21, 1925, Amundsen went to the White House with Elmer H. Bryn, the Norwegian Minister to the United States. Amundsen dressed in formal attire including tail coat, striped trousers, and gloves. He had the knack of looking and dressing the part, whether he was in the Arctic or the home of a President. He was introduced to President Calvin Coolidge, and the event was covered by many reporters and photographers.

  In March 1926, Amundsen and Ellsworth were faced with an unanticipated problem; the Italian government asked for a further $15,000 (on top of the $75,000 already agreed) for insurance. The $15,000 premium for a flight of a few weeks, from Italy to Alaska, is a measure of just how risky the flight was perceived to be. Amundsen and Ellsworth agreed to pay the insurance by way of a loan by Ellsworth to the Aero Club (which had some financial interest in the flight). When the premium was paid it had grown to $20,000. The Italians now wanted the expedition to be named the Amundsen-Ellsworth-Nobile Polar Expedition. Amundsen agreed to this and, somewhat naively, thought that this would not receive any publicity once they had left Italy.

  The expedition had evolved from a Norwegian-American flight with an Italian airship and pilot to (at l
east in the eyes of the world) a Norwegian-American-Italian expedition which could not have taken place without Italian technological and aeronautical expertise. Amundsen took pains to make it clear that he was the expedition leader, and while Nobile was captain of the airship, Amundsen had the final say. For example, Amundsen reserved the right to overrule Nobile if Nobile wanted to turn back at the Pole rather than continue to Alaska. It was agreed that Amundsen, Ellsworth and Riiser-Larsen would consult with Nobile if such a decision had to be made.

  As well as Nobile, his five Italian airshipmen, and Amundsen and Ellsworth, the crew was to consist of Riiser-Larsen as First Officer and Navigator, the Swedish meteorologist Finn Malmgren, the Norwegian radio expert Birger Gottwaldt, the Russian radio-operator Olonkin, and Norwegians Oscar Wisting, Oscar Omdal, Emil Horgen, and journalist Frederick Ramm of the newspaper Tidens Tegn. Naval aviator Bernt Balchen had been sent ahead to supervise final preparations at Ny-Ålesund. Bernt Balchen and Amundsen’s nephew Gustav S. Amundsen (an officer in the Norwegian Naval Reserve) would be carried if the airship had sufficient buoyancy at the moment of departure from Kings Bay. Gustav had wanted to go on one of his famous uncle’s expeditions since he was a child and had been turned down each time he raised the matter. The first time he asked he was so young that Amundsen simply told him:

  “Go back and eat more porridge, and then we will talk about it.”

  When Gustav was older he had his father intervene, but was no more successful. Amundsen said:

  “I will not agree to have any relations on such expeditions, where we are on board the same vessel for ages. The consequences are too big.”

  Riiser-Larsen intervened on Gustav’s behalf during the preparation for the 1926 flight. By this time Gustav was a mature adult and an officer in the Norwegian Naval reserve. He clearly had skills of use to the expedition, and his uncle accepted him and had him start work with the expedition on January 1, 1926. Two months later he was sent to Italy for training with the other Norwegian members of Norge’s crew. It was intended that Gustav be a quartermaster; one of the crew who steered the airship with the rudder or elevator wheels. By the end of February, all the crew were there except Finn Malmgren, the Swedish meteorologist, and Birger Gottwaldt, the German radio expert. The trainees were quartered in the same boarding house. Nobile made them welcome and showed them around the factory in Rome. The airships were designed and the components manufactured in the factory and sent to Ciampino airfield to be assembled in the large airship hangar there. An airship for Japan was in the process of construction, and the Norwegians used the opportunity to study the details of the components and the process of assembly. Gustav wrote that the truck drivers who took them to and from Ciampino were as fast and frightening as Nobile.

  Gustav’s opinion of the drivers bears a striking resemblance to Riiser-Larsen’s opinion of Nobile’s driving technique. Gustav wrote that the journey was something between a motor trip and a flying trip along the Via Appia. The hangar at Ciampino was big enough to house two full-sized rigid airships. The hangar and the rigid airship Esperia were part of the reparations Germany paid to Italy, as provided in the Treaty of Versailles signed on June 28, 1919. Esperia was one of two small, streamlined and fast passenger airships built by Zeppelin and operated by DELAG, the airline, mainly on internal services in Germany. Her sister ship was Nordstern which went to France and was renamed Mediterranee. The hangar had been built for the Imperial German Navy at Seddin in what was then German Pomerania. Also in the hangar was Nobile’s diminutive semi-rigid Mr. Norge which was being worked on by a large team of mechanics and riggers. Order emerged from apparent chaos on the floor of the airship hangar.

  The handover of the ship was a major event and took place on March 29, 1926, at Ciampino near Rome. Amundsen and Ellsworth were in attendance. Dr. Rolf Thommessen signed on behalf of Norway, and Benito Mussolini on behalf of Italy. Part of the ceremony was a long speech from Mussolini. Mrs. Riiser-Larsen then broke a bottle of champagne over the N1’s bow. There was a roll of drums, and the Italian flag was replaced by a large silk Norwegian flag and the ship officially became Norge (Norway). By the time the ship was handed over it had been extensively modified and test flown. Ellsworth described some of the major changes with these words:

  “Great changes had been made in the Norge during the winter, the main effort had been to get rid of unnecessary weight and thus increase her fuel capacity. She had been a veritable air yacht with a big luxurious cabin. This cabin had been replaced with another, much smaller, which was little more than a light cage with canvas and celluloid walls. The nose of the ship had been strengthened and ringed for operation from a mooring mast.”

  The ship had a keel of tubular steel, hinged in places, from nose to tail. The keel was covered with the same doped fabric as the control car and was translucent. A narrow walkway along the keel allowed the crew to move about and have access to the nose, control car, and the engine cars. There were three Maybach engines of 230 hp each. One was mounted on struts below the keel well aft and at the same level as the control car. The other two (the wing cars) were mounted out to port and starboard of the keel about halfway between the control car and the rear engine car. The wing cars were mounted higher than the control and rear engine cars. Each engine drove a two-bladed, fixed-pitch pusher-propeller. Each engine had adjustable louvres to regulate airflow to the radiators. All the engines could be reached from the keel. The wing cars were reached by narrow walkways. Fuel tanks, ballast sacks, provisions, and emergency gear were distributed along the keel. Anything and anyone falling from the walkway would probably fall through the fabric cover and out into space. On its flights from Ciampino the Norge was walked out by a handling party of about 200 men. The airship was beautiful and of impressive size. It was 106 m long, almost 20 m in diameter and contained 18,500 m3 of hydrogen. It was doped silver all over, and the name Norge was in large black letters on both sides. Its Italian registration had been I-SAAN. This had been replaced by its Norwegian registration N1 (coincidentally it was registered with the same letter/number as the Italian designation). Its size can be gauged from the photographs showing the ship surrounded by the hundreds of tiny figures of the ground crew. The ship was inflated with inflammable hydrogen because helium was very expensive and only produced in the United States. Helium was heavier than hydrogen and if the Norge had been inflated with it, it would not have had the lifting capacity, and therefore range, to complete the flight.

  Chapter Ten

  Learning to Fly: Ciampino

  February–March 1926

  Riiser-Larsen was the only one of the Norwegians qualified to fly an airship, and even he had limited experience of the N1 (soon to be re-named Norge). He had flown in her once and had flown with Nobile in Mr at least once. This was a 1,000 m3 semi-rigid designed by Nobile and said to be the smallest airship of this class ever built. Nobile used it for developing handling techniques to be used on full-sized airships. The expedition would require him to land N1 without a trained ground crew and after a demanding flight of up to 75 hours. He often landed and took off from a nearby lake. He enjoyed flying, and it was great sport as well as serious research.

  After a brief course on the theory of lighter-than-air flight provided by Captain Valini, the Norwegians joined with the Italians in flying the N1 on training flights. The first of these flights took place on February 26. They were driven to the airfield at the usual “breakneck” speed, and they arrived to find many journalists, military officers, photographers, and spectators in attendance. On the first flight the airship carried 25 men without a problem because only a small amount of fuel was required for a local flight in fine weather. Early in the flight gauges in the control cabin showed a pressure in the envelope that would have split it open. Of course this meant that an accident, fatal to all on board, was seconds away. It turned out that the instrument was defective, and the pressure was within safe limits. The instruments of this era were faulty often enough to cause problems, and
the crew of a non-rigid or semi-rigid airship had to continually monitor the pressure of the lifting gas. If the pressure was too low the airship’s envelope would deform and the airship become uncontrollable. If the pressure was too high the envelope would split open.

  This first flight had lasted 8 hrs. 30 min., a short flight for an airship. From then on, weather permitting, there were daily training flights. On one of these flights the nose and its fabric was torn when the airship was driven against the entrance to the hangar when it was being walked out in a cross-wind. It was soon repaired, but confirmed that an airship should not be brought in or out of a hangar when there was a significant wind at an angle to the hangar. An important part of the training was docking at the mast, managing the ship while it was at the mast, and undocking. Using the mast was a new experience, even for the experienced Italian crew members.

 

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