Posted inAviation Daily News Travelers' Tales

Airship “Norge” Nearly Ready For Flight Over Pole

Oslo, Norway, March 28—(AP)—Preparations for the Amundsen-Ellsworth Polar Flight in May are nearing the final stage. On a hill just outside Oslo a mooring mast nearly one hundred feet high has been erected for the airship “Norge,” in which the flight is to be made. The dirigible, constructed in Italy, is now being inspected by Captain Roald Amundsen, who arrived in Rome for that purpose last Friday, it will soon be brought from Rome to Oslo.

The auxiliary vessel “Hobby,” which was used in the Polar flight of 1925, has left Trondhjem for Svalbardi (the new Norwegian name for Spitzbergen), with equipment or the expedition, consisting of material for the mooring mast at King’s Bay and hydrogen for the airship. A hangar has already been completed at King’s Bay.

Posted inDaily News Travelers' Tales

Six Expeditions Will Start This Summer To Locate North Pole

Mystery of North Sea Will Be Lure Many Explorers

Byrd and Wade Will Lead American Expeditions Into Ice Bound North

NEW YORK, March 1 (AP)—The urge that sent Hendrik Hudson battling through polar seas in 1807 in search of a northwest passage to the spice islands of the east today still stirs the blood of modern explorers who seek to solve the mysteries of the northern seas.

At least six expeditions hope this summer to reach the north pole, or to find new lands hidden away in the fields of unknown ice.

Posted inHumor Travelers' Tales

Visitor to Pharaoh’s Tomb Engages in Hunt for Fact and Fiction

Wearied by Long and Difficult Journey, Kitchen Calls Royal Resting Place Hollow Mockery as Exhibit.

BY KARL K. KITCHEN

Cartoon image of the author on a mule being con fronted by the giant ghost of a pharoah, with his party looking on surprised from behind.

If you are planning a trip to Egypt to visit the tomb of King Tut-ankh-Amen take my advice—which is the same as Punch has always given those about to marry—Don’t.

For the tomb of King Tut-ankh-Amen—vulgarly called King Tut—is the most overrated mecca for tourists, boobs and travelers In the world today.

I know, for I have just been there! And take it from old Dr. Kitchen, if I may drop from my Cardinal Newman English to the vernacular of Broadway, it is the bunk.

To be sure, if one is an Egyptologist this last resting place of the dear departed is of considerable importance. But so few of us are! In fact, before I went to Luxor I hardly had a bowing acquaintance with a hieroglyphic. And even today, after many ghoulish adventures In the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, I doubt if I would recognize a dozen of the 290 characters in the Egyptian sign language—bless its dear funny old alphabet.

However, what I write Is not a text book for university professors with long white beards, or those who have made a life study of the times and customs of the Pharaohs. There are enough musty volumes of such subjects. I am writing for the much maligned man in the street. And I am going to set forth the facts about the tomb of King Tut-ankh-Amen as I found them.

Posted inDaily News Travelers' Tales

MacMillan Tells Of Fight with Herd Of Infuriated Walrus

Washington, Aug. 6 (AP)—A fight with a herd of walrus was described by Commander MacMillan of the MacMillan Arctic expedition in a message received tonight by the National Geographic Society.

The message, dated today, and relayed by A. A. Collins of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, related that “In a walrus hunt yesterday, three members of the Peary crew, in a Bowdoin boat, were attacked by an infuriated herd of at least 100 walrus.” The kyack of one of the Eskimos aiding in the hunt was capsized, but he was rescued.

Posted inAviation Daily News Travelers' Tales

World Flight Flagship Wins Place as Smithsonian Exhibit

Douglas World Cruiser "Chicago" (Photo: Smithsonian Air & Space Museum)
Douglas World Cruiser “Chicago”, (A19250008000), on display in the Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight Gallery, National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC. (Smithsonian Photo by Eric Long) [_T8A3778] [NASM2020-07130]

The Douglas world cruiser Chicago, flagship of the Army Air Service world flight, which has been sitting in a hangar at McCook Field. Dayton, Ohio, since last November, awaiting final disposition, will be placed in the aircraft building of the Smithsonian Institution in a short time, it was announced today by the War Department.

The decision to bring the Chicago here was made final by Acting Secretary of War Dwight F. Davis, who wrote Dr. Charles D. Walcott, secretary of the institution, yesterday that he had instructed the chief of Air Service “to take the necessary steps to have the Chicago brought to Washington and turned over to you. for the purpose of placing it in the exhibit of the Smithsonian Institution.”

At the Army Air Service it was said the Supply Division already had received instructions to prepare the Chicago for shipment to Washington by rail. The suggestion had been made that Capt. Lowell H. Smith, leader of the flight and pilot of the plane, fly it to Washington, but the Air Service did not wish to take the risk with such a historic and famous plane. Its exposure to all sorts of weather and salt water on the globe flight may have caused a structural weakness in some isolated place, which, it was argued, might fall when the plane was off the ground.

Posted inDaily News Maritime & Naval History Travelers' Tales

Big Guns Thunder As Explorer Sets Sail

MacMillan Leaves Boston Amid Great Outburst of Enthusiasm

Boston. June 17.—(AP)—The arctic expedition of Lieut. Commander Donald B. MacMillan sailed from the navy yard at Charleston shortly after noon today In the steamship Peary bound for Wiscasset, Me. From Wiscasset the Peary and the schooner Bowdoin will sail on MacMillan’s ninth trip

The big guns on the navy craft thundered farewell as the little steamer slipped away on the first leg of the trip beyond the arctic circle. A navy band on the pier played “Auld Lang Syne.” The crowd which had crammed its way into the navy yard cheered. The harbor echoed with the shrill of marine whistles as craft at anchor joined In the parting tribute.

Posted inTravelers' Tales

Buried Treasure

Tradition That Has Lured Many Adventurers to Seek Hidden Gold.

From the New York Press.

Mexican tradition says that somewhere in the Central West are the ruins of a populous Aztec city, in which Guate Motzin stored the vast treasure which Cortez tried to find after the conquest of Mexico. Expeditions under Mexican and under foreign directions have tried in vain to find this city. The story of one attempt to locate the wonderful city made by Col. H. C. Haddington, a civil engineer In the employ of the Mexican government, certainly is curious. He says:

“The story of a lost city is familiar to all Mexicans, and believed in by most of them. When I visited Mexico for the first time in 1872 I became interested in the subject from associating with Mr. Early, an English engineer, who assured me of his belief in its existence. Before leaving the City of Mexico I inquired in government circles for information to substantiate the story told by Early. I found the officials in different departments ready to credit the reports, which they believed plausible, as at that time no complete survey had been made by the government of that district.