WITH MAWSON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 7 January 1931, Page 5

WITH MAWSON

IN THE ANTARCTIC DISCOVERY HAS NARROW ESCAPE (United Proas Association—By Electrio Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 7lh January, 10.35 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. A message from Sir Douglas Mawsoi). states: “Since the last message Providence has sustained our Lest efforts to cope with an exceptional hurricane. The berg-strewn waters of Durville Sea were lashed into fury, consolidating the pack into a grinding mass against the ship. Frozen spindrift and fleecing snow obscured the view so effectively that only by a miracle we missed crashing into a 'gigantic tabular berg winch loomed up about a length ahead. The brave ship tumbled and staggered in the unequal onslaught but steadily drove back to the leeward of the most gigantic mill ever conceived in the fury driven, heaving, frenzied, grinding ice masses of this vicious pack. We survive to relate that by skilful handling the Discovery escaped destruction, and Captain Mackenzie succeeded in working the ship through God’s great will into the calmer waters of a slack area. Within one day the whole body of pack ice was driven fifty miles and crumpled against the immovable grounded harrier of ice and bergs charted as Clarie Island. Slack water closed in for a moment, but after an anxious struggle we emerged, staggering into a leaping, spuming sea. It was now clear enough to make navigation possible. The wind has now moderated and we may land to-morrow on the shores of the high ice-cased land which lies on the starboard beam.”