Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989, March 10, 1957, Image 10

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Medford mail tribune., March 10, 1957, Image 10

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Newspaper Page TextTEK MEDrORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUN Sunday, Mir eh IB, 1157 euros 0 uuDQiye -PDsftiiinieftDoini Icebreaker H o Trip Described in Letler to Parents Of Ernest Sutton The following excerpts are taken from a letter written by Ernest R. Sutton to his parents. Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Sutton, 807 Bennett at.. Medford. The letter is dated Feb. 19, 1957. "Dear Dad and Mom: "You are probably wondering why your letters have gone un answered for so very long. Well thfact is, we have not received or had any mail taken off the ship since December 7th. R.it now we are heading for Punta Arenas. Chile, after completing our Anarctic mis- usion. We are due to arrive there around the 25th of this month . "We sot underway on Dec. 8th for the Weddell Sea ultim ate destination Cape Adams on Bowman Peninsula In Antarctic history no snip naa ever ueen able to penetrate this frozen sea further than Duke Ernst Bay. Crossing from the Pacific into the Southern Atlantic ocean about 9 Dec. we ran into some pretty wild seas that caused our small Icebreaker to do 25 to 50 degree rolls. Believe it or not I didn't get seasick. After 10 days of this we entered the Weddell Sea ice pack on Dec. 17, crossing the Antarctic circle on Dec. 20. About this time the Tack Group Commander Capt. Edwin A. McDonald, who was also from Medford, transfered to the Staten Island. Describes Job "Before I go any further I'll tell what my job was. I reported happenings that were significant to the Chief of Information in Washington, D.C., by radio mes sage for national news release. And since the TG was from Med ford maybe you've read some of my stories in the Tribune. . . "On the 22nd of Dec. while trying to reach the Antarctic coast we became beset in the ice off Cape Norvegia. In four days we only were able to travel 32 miles. And on the 25th and 26th were stuck so fast in heavy pressure ice that we couldn't move at all. From looking at the place, you d have thought that it wasn't' actually a sea at all but a frozen desert with croppings of icy ridges and valleys as far as the eye could see ana men some. "On the 27th the winds changed and loosened the ice against the shelf and we were able to sail breaking our way through intermittent ice flows to pond like stretches of water. We gamed the coast and began sailing up along the Filchner ice shelf through a fairy land of magy many icebergs shaped like giant aircraft carriers or re sembling mesas of the southwest. "All this time e were accort ing$he caro ship Wyandot. An Icebreaker breaks the ice by running full steam upon it, then it cracks under its weight. If the conditions are right, the ice remains open behind the break er so into this "channel" the raSp ship follows. But since the cargo ship isn't as manauverable as an icebreaker, the breaker must always try to make a straight channel. An icebreaker U has extra armor around her hulls whereas the cargo carrier is re latively thin-skinned. When the pressure or wind is wrong the ice closes M behind the breaker and the channel has to be open again and again before the cargo ship can get through, for the ice could rip her hull like a knife cutting butter. Favorable Winds "For awhile the winds were in our favor and we'd managed to sail defjffr into the Weddell Sea than any other ship had ever gotten, when all at once the a matter of minutes we were locked tight in the ice on Dec. 31st New Year's Eve off Gould Bay. Five miles ahead of us was a twenty-mile lead of open water but we couldn't move an inch in any direction. Then by New Year's Day even that had been closed up. What we needed was a blizzard com ity off the Antarctic continent to blow the ice out to sea. So it lent. 1st. no change. 2nd. no noticeable change, 3rd. some helicopter r e c o n naissance re ported a thirty-mile long ice berg was blocking our path some 25 miles ahead 4th, we managed to move up to the Wyandot. 6th same. 7th and on to'the morning of the 11th. That morning started just like the others, then in an hour's time with favorable winds the ice opens up just as if God had lifted his hand and changed a desolate desert into water. Through repeated rammings and plowing against the ice field we got underway reaching the 30 mile ice berg by noon It took us some 12 hours to steam around 63 miles to its tip. where we were forced to lie to while the Wyandot endeavored to patch seams on her hulls opened by the heavy pressure ice while we were beset. O n c t, while 1 msmma&z&S2&ggr "' STRAIGHT PATH The Navy icebreaker USS Staten Island AGB-5 breaks a straight channel through heavy ridged pres sure ice in which the cargo ship USS Wyandot AKA-92 can safely follow. (Official U.S. Navy Photograph) , ' ' A ' I Iin jrZ C - J? - ' J & 4 - ,z ,'r-rw. ft t X FULL LOAD The Staten Island's fore castle stacks high with snow after ramming the 24-foot high ice shelf again and again to make an unloading site for the USS Wyan dot. The ship, appearing to be determined to steaming around the berg, we struck a tongue sticking out underwater, like that which sunk the Titanic, and would have sunk the cargo ship if she had hit it. "W i t h Wyandot temporarily shored up we got underway again breaking a channel through pressure ice from 10 to 15 feet thick with thickness of 20 or more feet in the ridges. As you know 17 of the ice is above water and the other 8 7 below so when you have ice that sticks out above the water around four feet thick simple addition gives its true thickness. Time Running Short "By now time was running short because darkness begins to set in down here around the 15th of February and we were some 30 miles off Cape Adams on the 13th of January. They estimated it would take a month to build the base so that wouldn't leave us much time to get out. With an open water lead all the way to Cape Adams, the Staten Island recommenced ahead, while the cargo ship tried to patch more opened seams. In the vicinity of Cape Adams we found that a gigantic section of the ice shelf had broken off leaving a shelf some 150 to 200 feet high, this was much much too high for the Wyandot to off - loaa so we naa 10 retrace our track back out of that area u search of an alternate site. "Althoush unable to establish the station at Cape Adams, we became the first ship to ever sail to the headwaters of the Weddell Sea. sound in that area and to map and photograph the limits of the shelf in those remote waters of Antarctica. "Coming back we again pas sed the large iceberg and at tempted to enter Gould Bay but couldn't. Then, on the farthest edge of the bay. we found a low spot in the shelf. Here we cut away the shelf (it stuck 24 feet out of the water) to make a place for the Wyandot to off load her cargo. The unloading started on the 28th and the Sea beas, F6Y personnel and ships crew began the construction of Ellsworth Station some two miles 'inland' on the 29th. "While at the unloading site I worked in the photo lab cap tioning pictures for PIO and Naval history files, printing, pro cessing and gathering informa tion on the unloading at both the camp and at the Wyandot. Many day we'd put in 13 to 20 J. f-Vi hours in the lab and on the! shelf. "With the base 85 per cent complete on February 11th, Capt. McDonald turned it over to Capt. Ronne. Then with the weather changing to the north again, we got underway. With some difficulty we've managed to get out of the ice and are now in open water with some 1.500 miles to go before reaching Punta Arenas. . . 443 Women File for Benefit Payments A total of 443 Jackson and Josephone county women have filed applications for benefit payments under the new provis ions of the Social Security law which permit payments to women at age 62, W. V. Nus baum, manager of the Medford social security office has an nounced. This includes women formerly employed under social security, wives of retired workers, and widows of deceased insured workers, he noted. Payments to retired women workers and wives of retired workers are permanently re- j duced if benefits are claimed be- ; Tore 6o. However widows oi oe- . mauicu amoum io wnicn mey would have been entitled at age 65 under the old law Nusbaum said. Payments applied for before the end of November 1957 can be made retroactive to November 1956. Women desiring further in formation regarduig the pay ments may contact the Medford social security office at 33 North Riverside ave. A representative of the office is at the city hall in Grants Pass on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings of each week and at the city hall in Cave Junction on the last Thursday of each month. Second Regional Police Class Slated Monday Traffic Enforcement and Rules of the Road will be the subject Monday for the second class in the Oregon Regional Police school being held during the month in the council chambers in the city hall. Lt. William H. Smith. Eugene Police department, will instruct the class for county law enforce ment officials. Editor's not: Ernest R. Sut ton, son of Mr. and Mrs, R. J. Sutton. 807 Bennett tt., Med iord. a Navy journalist, was board the USS Staten Island, an icebreaker which escorted the cargo ship, USS Wyandot, into Weddell sea in the Ant arctica this winter during Op eration Deepfreeze II. Also aboard the Staten Is land was Capt. E. A. McDon ald, commander of Task Force 43.7. and who also is from Madford. Sutton, in a latter to Herb Grey. Mail Tribune advertis ing manager, noted that Capt. McDonald "was responsible for command decisions and likewise also decided on mat ters that affected both ships" while they were caught in ice in the Antarctica. Sutton's wife. Alice, is the daughter of Mrs. Homer B. Johnson, 939 Oakgrove rd. Medford. Mrs. Sutton, he said, is now living with her father in Oroville, Calif. "I noticed that the IGY (In ternational Geophysical Year) wintering-over party was us ing two Tucker Sno-Cats and I understand their machine is being used by the Argentines, too." Sutton wrote. break away the shelf in one way or another, carries several tons of ice and snow that fell when the portion being rammed repeatedly gave away. (Official U.S. Navy Photograph) Oregon Receives Share of Mineral Funds From BLM Oregon was one of 22 states and Alaska which last week re ceived United States Treasury checks totaling a record-break ing $12,777,148 in bonuses, roy alty and rentals from the miner al leasing of Federal lands with in their boundaries during the first half of fiscal 1957. Oregon State BLM Supervisor Virgil T. Heath forwarded the Oregon check for $12,620.06 to Gov. Robert Holmes. Heath said the July 1 to December 31, 1956, payment compared to a $27,179 payment for the same period ot fiscal 1956 and $16,478 in fiscal 1955. National Record Nationally the payments set a new record. The payments were about $1,400,000 above the $10,950,728 states' share of $29, 201,941 gross receipts in the July 1 to Dec. 31, 1955, and $1,200,000 more than the pre vious high of $11,016,802 in 1954 when the gross collection total ed $29,378,140, according to an announcement by Interior Secre- The states receive 371. The states receive 371. 2 per , receiDts. The remai nder is distributed as fol- j lows: $17,120,138 52!i per cent) I to the reclamation fund and i $3,365,579 (10 per cent) to the 1 general fund of the treasury. Part of Revenues Lands leased under adminis tration of the Bureau of Land Management include public lands, and certain privately own ed lands where the United States hold mineral rights. The Oregon supervisor point ed out that mineral leasing pay ments to the state of Oregon are only a small share of the rev enues the state derives from BLM activities. During 1956. for example, BLM paid over $11,909,395.25 to 18 western Oregon counties as their share of receipts from tim ber sales on revested Oregon and California railroad grant lands. Total mineral payments to the state during the same calendar year amounted to $21, 920.06, and the state also re ceived $59,135.38 as its share of receipts from grazing and land leases and timber sales on public domain lands. Staten Island's Trip Is Described By Medford Youth By ERNEST R. SUTTON Navy Journalist After 3,600 grueling miles and 60 hard days in Antarctica s frozen deserts, the officers and men of the Navy icebreaker USS Staten Island earned the unique distinction of being first to con quer the treacherous Weddell Sea, a feat that explorers and brave men have sought to ac complish for nearly ' two cen turies. The Wreddell Sea, a challenge to all Antarctic explorers since James Weddell discovered it in 1822, has been branded as im- penetrable through the years by such noted explorers as Dur mont D'Orville in 1823; Sir James C. Ross, 1843; Capt. C. A. Larsen, 1894-1902; Wilhelm Filchner, 1912; and Sir Ernest Shackleton, 1915. Before the Staten Island Odys sey, no ship had ever reached the headwaters of the Weddell Sea at Cape Adams, Bowman Peninsula. The 6,900-ton, 10,000 horsepower Navy icebreaker, commanded by Commander James B. Elliott Jr., USN, of Garrett Park, Md., is destined to go down in history. She was the first ship to fight her way through what William H. Hobbs, noted American geographer, has termed the heaviest area of pack ice on the surface of the globe. Official Word While on the MSTS arctic re supply mission in August, 1956, Captain Elliott received official word that Staten Island had been selected for the task of es corting the heavily-loaded, thin skinned cargo ship, USS Wyan dot, in to the vicious Weddell Sea. The purpose of the mission was to enable Seabees and ship personnel to construct a United States scientific observation sta tion to be occupied by scientists during the International Geo physical Year (IGY) 1957-1958. (This world-wide scientific ef fort during the IGY is being supported by the United States Navy. Operation Deepfreeze II comprised of 12 ships and an es timated 5,000 men, encircled the Antarctic continent this winter and founded five new bases and resupplied two constructed last year during Operation Deep freeze I). The Staten Island departed Seattle, Wash., Nov. 3, 1956, and on Nov. 19 arrived at Panama, Canal Zone, to rendezvous with Commander Task Group 43.7, Captain E. A. McDonald, USN, in the USS Wyandot, which had departed Davisville, R. I., with Seabees, civilian and naval IGY wintering-over party, supplies and construction material. South America Staten Island and Wyandot then steamed along the western coast of South America, stopping briefly at Valparaiso and Punta Arenas, Chile. Staten Island was the deepest draft ship ever to transit the narrow Inland Pas sage of southern Chile. The Task Group weighed an chor on Dec. 8 at Punta Arenas, the point of departure of many Weddell Sea ventures. Passing through the Straits of Magellan, Staten Island severed all com munication writh the outside world, except by radio, until its return months later. For 10 days the ships were rocked by 35 to 50 degree rolls in the turbulent Scotia Sea south of Cape Horn. On Dec. 17 the Task Group entered the Wed dell Sea ice pack, where Palmer found entry impossible in 1822. Staten Island began forging a channel through which the Wy andot, stationed 300 yards astern, could steam safely. Solid Pack The icebreaker pushed through the solid pack that stretched from horizon to horizon, crossing tne Antarctic Circle Dec. 20. Fighting her way through 600 miles of Weddell Sea Pack ice, the Staten Island arrived at Cape Norvegia, Antarctica, Dec. 22, the earliest ship arrival in re corded Antarctica history. But after sailing only a few miles alongside the continental ice shelf, northerly winds started the ice to grip the sides of the ships. Staten Island found a small polynia for the Wyandot where she would be free of pressure. When the pressure of the frozen sea eased slightly, the Staten Island hewed out nine more miles that afternoon, 19 Dec. 23; but on the 2"4th, was stopped by the pack . which seemed to extend into infinite space. The ships were forced to lie for two days over Christmas while awaiting southerly winds to ease the tenacious hold of the ic. During this time Wyandot discovered that the tips of three blades had been snapped off her single propeller. Finally on Dec. 26 southerly winds eased the pack sufficient ly to enable the two ships to start westward. Although able RETURN TO GOULD BAY Before retracing their tracks from Cape Adams, the Task Group commanders scan charts for a possible site for the Ellsworth Station. They decide to return to Gould Bay where a site for the base had been sighted by aerial reconnais sance earlier. Left to right, Capt. F. M. Gam- to maintain a forward speed of I 10 knots, the Wyandot was now even less manuverable because of her damaged propeller. This necessitated the Staten Island to hew a wider and straighter track through expanses of sludge, hum mocked and pressure ice, broken by infrequent patches of water. The Cape Adams destination still lay 1,200 miles ahead through ice, snow, and water never pen etrated by man. The ships were in an ice capped sea. an awe-inspiring world of Antarctic goliaths, huge majestic icebergs. Some were jagged like miniature mountains, others flattopped and rising sharply upward 100 feet or more from the pack, like the mesas of the southwestern United States. Weird Wonderland Through this weird wonder land, Staten Island forged on ward, creating a path by repeat ed backing and ramming, aided by her hovering eyes aloft in helicopters, searching out open water leads and transmittuig tactical directions. Then on Dec. 29 in helicopters from the icebreaker's flight deck, Captain Finn Ronne, USNR, famed Antartic explorer, and Task Group Commander Cap tain E. A. McDonald, USN, vis ited the United Kingdom's Hal ley Bay base. The visit, made to gain knowl edge of prevailing ice and wind conditions, was Halley Bay's first contact with the outside world for over 10 months. The Task Group was again the earli est ship arrival on record. Repeat Performance Two days later a repeat per formance of the Halley Bay sor tie was made at Shackleton Sta tion. Twenty miles beyond Shackleton lay the "unknown" where no hips had ever sailed. At 4 a.m. Dec. 31, as a helicop ter took off to transport a pho tographer to Shackleton, it suf fered an engine failure. With much effort the pilot was able to crash the 'copter onto the flight deck rather than in the freezing water. Both men escaped un injured. The helicopter's twisted skeleton was scrapped for spare parts. The frame was heaved onto an ice floe some sixteen hours beyond Shackleton. Simultaneously Staten Island became beset near the burial place of the helicopter in un sailed waters off Gould Bay. She was beset in the heaviest pres sure ridge yet encountered by ships and men on New Year's Day, 783 miles from Cape Nor vegia. The gutted helicopter frame, some 500 yards ahead of the two ships where ice pressure had forced it, rested on a ridge which was to become known as Helicopter Hill. The frustration was heighten ed by the fact that helicopter reconnaissance had reported a 20-mile open water lead that started only five miles ahead. Northerly winds continued as na ture slowly closed even that last avenue of escape. During those first days of the new year, Staten Island found herself firmly beset in a solid wall of ice 10 to 15 feet thick while the Wyandot rested in the comparative safety of a meager patch of water between two floes. Periodically the pressure eas ed and Staten Island vainly tried to break free, but each time, she was stopped by Helicopter Hill. Impending Darknets The impending darkness of early February was drawing nearer. Time was running out. The Task Group had to allot eight weeks for the construction of the Ellsworth IGY station. To get out of the Weddell Sea, the ships would have to start 011 their outward journey before total darkness descended on the Antarctic continent. Finally, just after 1 a.m., Janu ary 11, a small crack in the pack was observed to open near Staten Island. During the early morning hours the crack slowly widened, until by 9 a.m., the breaker was able to free her self, break out Wyandot and re sume her westward voyage. Splitting a path through ice floes 8 to 15 feet thick, tn USS bacorta, USN, CO. USS Wyandot. Capt. E. A. McDonald, USN, Commander Task Group 43.7, of Medford, Ore.; Capt. Finn Ronne, USNR, prospective CO. of Ellsworth Station, and Cmdr. James B. Elliott, USN, CO. USS Staten Island. (Official U.S. Navy Photograph) Staten Island . covered only 20 miles in the unexplored water before discovering that two time-weathered tabular icebergs, 27 miles long, blocked the west ward course. For the next sev eral hours the Group made a detour, traveling 58 miles to get four miles west. At Iceberg Valley, an open water stretch between numer ous icebergs, the formation hove to while Wyandot repaired a cracked seam in her number two cargo hold. The Task Group had only 250 miles to go to Cape Adams. Un derway through the last hurdle on Jan. 12, Staten Island fought through ice floes 6 to 16 feet thick. Then, Heartbreak Ridge. A pressure ridge 30 feet high confronted the icebreaker. For 26 hours the Staten Island hack ed away at this ridge before she finally broke through. In a devil's fairy land, strewn with icebergs, large ice floes and sheer ice cliffs, the ships strug gled, through waters never be fore sailed; until on Jan. 15, within sight of Cape Adams, the Task Group suffered a tremend ous disappointment. Although the Navy icebreaker USS Staten Island had been able to conquer the Weddell Sea, she was unable to conquer the continent. . After slugging it out for 1,800 miles in Antarctica's heaviest ice and snow conditions, the Task Group discovered that all sec tions of the ice shelf, in the Cape Adams area were sheer cliffs 150 to 200 feet high. It was im possible for Uie Wyandot to off load her cargo. The Task Group was directed to turn eastward to look for an alternate site. During this transit, Staten Is land lost a blade from her port screw and had one 2,000-hp main engine put out of commission when a three-ton crankshaft broke. Retraces Tracks Battered and slowed, the ice breaker retraced her track to the Gould Bay area. En route it once more encountered the two long icebergs ' that acted as a gigantic traffic jam to Weddell Sea transit. At last on Jan. 27, by repeatedly ramming the con tinental ice shelf, Staten Island sliced off the ragged edges to create a smooth pier for the cargo ship. With the USS Wyandot busy unloading her five holds, Staten Island aided the Seabees in con structing Ellsworth Station, at Latitude 77-43' S., Longitude 41-07' W., sending three-quar ters of her crew onto the shelf on round the clock, 12-hour shifts. In this manner the station was completed in 15 days, a job the experts had said would take two months. During this period, USS Stat en Island engineering personnel replaced the main engine crank shaft that had been broken. To accomplish this the crew had to completely disassemble the 18 ton engine, raise the 9-ton cast ing four feet in the air, trans port the three-ton replacement crankshaft from the after part of the ship to the forward en gine room, install the new crankshaft, and reassemble the engine. In two weeks the men completed a task that would be classified as a major job in any Navy Yard. Construction Completed . With the construction of the Ellsworth Station completed on Feb. 11, it was turned over to Captain Finn Ronne, who ac cepted it with great praise for the courage displayed by the officers and men of the Staten Island in reaching the base's re mote site. Shortly after the commission ing ceremonies, the USS Staten Island broke a channel for the Wyandot through new ice be ginning to form alongside the Antarctic continent. Out of Wed dell Sea pack ice on Feb. 17, the Staten Island began her long 10,-000-mile trip to Seattle. After stopping at Punta Arenas and Talcahuano, Chile, and Cal lao, Peru, Staten Island will re turn to her home port of Seattle in early April for a shipyard overhaul period before depart ing for the Arctic Medford Men Seek Committee Posts Three Medford men will seek committee position nominations Monday at the state apprentice ship council meeting in the state library building at Salem. Medford committee candidates include Philip R. Stump for em ployer member of the Jackson Josephine counties bricklayer trade apprenticeship committee; R. L. Batzer for employer mem ber of the local carpenter trade apprenticeship committee; and George Beltz for secretary of the Jackson-Josephine counties pipe trades apprenticeship committee. There are 89 vacancies on 32 ap prenticeship committees through out the state. The council meeting will b open to the public for discussions of trade training questions, ac cording to Labor Commissioner Norman O. Nilsen, council chair man. Gov. Robert D. 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