The Pole-seekers

Whooping Cough. First it was icefloes (TIME, July 20). Then it was mosquitoes(TIME, July 27). Last week it was whooping cough—no very fearsome obstacle but enough to prevent Commander Donald B. MacMillan and his fellow Pole-seekers from stretching their legs ashore on Disko Island, Greenland, where urchins* were reported to be hacking, whooping, spraying germs abroad all up and down the rock-strewn coast.

Mates. Her propeller repaired (TIME, July 27), the Bowdoin last week plowed northwards through bucking seas that reduced the contents of her refrigerator to succotash and minimized the food consumption of the few men that retained vertical postures.

Under the cliffs of Disko, near God-haven, an Eskimo kyak (canoe) manned by men in yellow oilskins hailed the pitching Bowdoin in some strange and unintelligible language. As the range shortened, it was perceived that the men spoke English, that they were Mac-Millan’s companion-explorers from the Peary, which had preceded the Bowdoin to Disko and lay at anchor around a point.

Coal. Shortly both ships headed north again for the boat-base at Etah, the expedition’s last sea-lap. The Bowdoin put in at Umanak en route, where 80 much-appreciated tons of coal were shipped (thanks to the Danish Government’s courtesy in waiving the danger of a fuel shortage in Greenland). Aboard the Peary went Governor Rosendahl of ‘North Greenland.

Joke-Book. Hearing Mr. MacMillan say that conversation shortages are dire dangers to Arctic explorers (TIME, July 13), some of his friends presented him with a joke-book before he went— 90 sheets of paper each with an alleged joke written out upon it by such folk as Governor Brewster of Maine, Governor Fuller of Massachusetts, Mayor Curley of Boston, Mayor Hylan of New York, Colyumnist Don Marquis, Naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton, Actor Charles Winninger, Mrs. Charles Winninger (stage name: Blanche Ring), Publicist Bruce Barton, Jackie Coogan. The collection was entitled A Log of Laughter, One Laugh A Day. Provided they do not get stranded in the North, MacMillan and friends can count upon one loud laugh per day until the return. Specimen joke: “A Jew was solving a crossword puzzle. He said to his family: ‘Give me a word in one letter that means a food, and it isn’t T. Quick. Give up? X.’ (Meaning eggs for those who do not get the accent)—Blanche Ring.”

Schoolboy. In Middlesex, England, as the Bowdoin was crossing the Arctic Circle, a schoolboy established two-way communication with her radio operator, relayed to the U. S. many messages MacMillan had been unable to transmit through U. S. stations. The boy used a simple apparatus with a wavelength of 40 metres, receiving on a circuit invented by Operator Reinartz of the Bowdoin.

In Canada. Canadians raised their eyebrows at the news that MacMillan intends claiming for the U. S. any continent or island “found” in the area incognita north of Beaufort Sea. At Ottawa, they pointed confidently to a tablet affixed to the entrance of the Parliamentary library. Replica of a tablet that was erected Dominion Day (July 1), 1909, at Winter Harbor, Melville Island, this reads: “This memorial is erected today to commemorate the taking possession for the Dominion of Canada of the whole Arctic Archipelago lying to the north of America from long. 60° W to 141° W [Alaska line] up to latitude 90° N [the Pole].”

In Manhattan, Explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson wrote a newspaper article about “six elusive poles” that intrigue the explorer: 1) The North Pole; 2) the Magnetic Pole, near Boothia Felix, Canada; 3) the Pole of Inaccessibility (farthest from navigable waters), some 400 mi. from the North Pole, toward the Aleutian Islands; 4) the Pole of Greatest Cold, which is either at Verkhoyansk, Siberia (minimum winter temperature 95° below Zero, Fahr.) or in central Greenland (almost as low in winter, colder than Verkhoyansk in summer) ; 5) a Wind Pole (i.e. starting point for winds) in central Greenland, where high, cold ridges shed cold air downwards on both sides; 6) the Land Pole (centre of the earth’s land masses) arbitrarily fixed at Greenwich, England.

*Commonly thought of as a child’s disease, whooping cough afflicts adults also, sometimes with mortal violence.