Across the Arctic by Sub

To cross the Arctic Ocean by submarine, scooting under ice floes, surging up at ice lakes, was the plan voiced in Manhattan last week by Sir George Hubert Wilkins, Arctic-Antarctic explorer. For ten years he has nursed the project.

If he can finance the submarine trip (officials of the Simon Lake Submarine Works at Bridgeport, Conn., last week, offered to loan him their old but sturdy Defender) he hopes to make the trip next July, and return to fly in Antarctica next October.

In July the Arctic is clotted with ice, not frozen over. Every 25 miles or so are lakes amidst the ice cakes. With a crew of twelve men and oxygen to supply them under water for 48 to 60 hours if necessary, Explorer Wilkins believes he can cross between Spitsbergen, Norway, and Point Barrow, Alaska, within three weeks.

Such journey, no tour de force, would serve to study the Arctic's floor. Some geologists believe that the waters rest in a huge basin, others that they hug the outside of a basin upside down. No one knows. Explorer Wilkins found a depth of 17,000 feet (3 1/2 miles) off Point Barrow. Amundsen found 15,000 feet off Spitsbergen. Peary dropped a 3,000-ft. rope at the Pole and could not touch bottom.

With a submarine Sir Hubert* could collect data on North Polar temperature, force and direction of ocean currents, condition and drift of ice--factors important to knowledge of Earth's weather.

*Of his given names he prefers Hubert to George.