ATTEMPT WAS MADE
MANY YEARS AGO TO
SAIL BALLOON. POLE
NEW YORK, May 8. (By A. P.)—
Regardless of the fact, Lieut. Byrd
was the first to reach the Pole by air,
he probably never will be certain that
he actually was the first man to fly
there.
Twenty-nine years ago, with far
cruder equipment than any of the
adventurers this summer are taking,
three Viking airmen tried to sail
through the sky to the end of the
earth. There is some evidence that
they passed over the Pole, or very
near it, although what finally happen
ed must be relegated to Eskimo le
gend.
The leader of the party was Prof.
Salamon August Andree, a Swedish
scientist and civil engineer interest
ed in ballooning. His companions
were two other Swedes, Nils Strind
berg and Knut Hjalmar Ferdinand
Fraenkel. Professor Andree was con
vinced there were trade winds blow
ing through the upper ?tne°phere
from Spitzbergen, across the Pole
to North America, which would carry
his balloon in safety over the Polar
ice cap.
He carried the last word in scien
tific apparatus for his day—only a
generation ago. In place of radio ap
paratus he carried a large quantity of
bottles that he could drop overboard
with messages, and a few carrier pi
geons. Professor Andree’s balloon
measured ninety-seven feet from top
to bottom, the bag alone being sev
enty-five feet from summit to open
ing. It consisted of three thicknes
ses of silk glued together and cov
ered with five coats of varnish.
On July 6. 1897, the party left
Troudhjen, Norway. On July it pas
sed the North Cape, and on Sunday,
July 11, at 2:30 in the afternoon, it
took off from Dane’s Island, Spitsber
gen, with the Pole 600 miles to the
north. The day was clear and a
strong wind was blowing. As the
balloon started it narrowly escaped
striking a rook in the Sweerenburg
Sound. As it rose out of the vary
ing undercurrents of air it swung
about like a carrier pigeon get
ting its bearings, and then meeting
the upper currents which Professor
Andree predicted it started away at
the rate of about twenty-two miles
an hour.
For an hour the balloon could be
seen from shore. It was equipped to
stay ia the air fifty days and car
ried provisions for four months.
One carried pigeon returned a few
days later with tihis message.
“July 13.—12:30 p. m.—82.2 de
grees north latitude, 15.5 degrees
north latitude, 15.5 degrees east longi
tude. Good progress toward the north.
All goes well on board. This message
is the third by carries pigeon, An
dree.”
In September, 1897, a buoy which
Professor Andree wras to have dropped
overboard when he passed over the
Pole, was picked up on the shore of
King Charles Island and identified by
the inscription “Andree Polar Expedi
tion.”
A year later a bottle containing note
number 143 was found near Vardoe,
in the most northeasterly part of Nor
way. t jy|
That was all. Years went by with
out another trace of the expedition.
Liberal rewards were offered by the
King of Sweden for genuine relics of
the expedition. Many parties were or
ganized and spent thousands of dol
lars searching the Arctic regions for
remains.
At last, in December, 1909, a friend
ly Catholic priest, who had won the
confidence of the Eskimo tribes near
Reindeer lake, 900 miles north of
Prince Albert, in the Province of Sas
katchewan, Canada, brought back an
uncertain tale. Bishop Pascal, of the
Diocese of Prince Albert, saw an Es
kimo carrying a revolver and noticed
that other members of the tribe seem
ed to have an unusual quantity of rope.
When he inquired they told him that
a great “white house” had come down
from the sky, that the men in it had
starved to death and that the rope
had come from the house top. The
Eskimos showed him brass instru
ments and hunting gear they had
fashioned from metal they found on
the balloon, and also cooking utensils
and waterproop cloth they had taken.
A month later Father Furquatile,
another priest, brought back addition
al news. The Eskimos admitted, he
said, that the white men had hunted
game. This angered them and they
killed the white men.
These reports stirred the recollec
tion of William Irvine, who for fifty
five years had been connected with
the Hudson Bay Post at Fort Good
Hope. He recalled that in 1897 the
post had been notified to keep watch
for the balloon. One night, he said, :
a mysterious light passed thru the
sky. The next day the Eskimos
crowded the trading post seeking an
explanation. They reported that a
strange star had passed through the
heavens very near the earth and that
as it passed they could hear the voices
of men.
One other subsequent report "with
the stamp of authenticity was made.
Christian Leder, a Norwegian explor
er, said Eskimos told they saw the
balloon come from the sky and saw
smoke and thunder come from strange
j
sticks which “two devils” carried. One
of the “devils” they killed with their
arrows, but when the other made
signs that he was not hostile, that he
was hunting birds only, the tribesmen
realized that they had killed a human
being and fled in fear. They saw no
more of the other man.
N. Kitzmiller, Anchorage contractor
and former chief of police of the In
let city, left for home this morning.
Mr. Kitzmiller has just completed mak
ing a brief business trip to Seattle.
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