The Land Unknown

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Your goal, gentlemen, Antarctica.

Five million square miles of terra incognita,

But your job, to make it

just a little less incognita,

Amundsen discovered

the South Pole in 1911.

Wilkins explored the coast in 1928.

And Admiral Byrd flew

over the South Pole in 1929

and once again in 1947.

Now, gentlemen, it's your turn.

As officers of this great enterprise,

you will facilitate our navy's

geographical and meteorological

mapping operations.

You will also investigate

the phenomenon encountered

by the Byrd expedition of 1947,

a polar oasis consisting

of a body of warm water completely

surrounded by this vast desert of ice.

Now, at the time, this discovery

astounded the entire scientific world,

caused a great deal of speculation.

Now, there are other phenomena

that you will investigate.

Ellsworth discovered

fossil remains of ferns and petrified logs.

Amundsen discovered veins of coal

100 miles long.

There have been reports of iron,

copper and nickel.

Now, there may be deposits of uranium

under these vast polar ice fields.

Now, in addition, you may find that...

Gentlemen, this way is south.

Thank you.

Now in just a few moments,

we'll show you excerpts from a film

made by the Byrd expedition

which'll give you firsthand information

on many of the problems

which you are apt to encounter.

But first, we'll take a short break.

Not bad.

She's got a head

on her shoulders, too.

Oh, you know her?

Margaret Hathaway, Oceanic Press.

How do you do, Miss Hathaway?

Hello, Captain. I'm sorry I'm late.

That's quite all right.

I was thinking perhaps the OP had decided

not to send you after all.

Oh, no.

Of course you're aware

of the dangers of this trip?

I am. I've read a great deal about Antarctica.

I wasn't thinking of Antarctica exactly.

I was thinking more

of your being alone with 800 men.

I've read a great deal about men, too.

Don't forget,

once I was alone with half a million of them

for three months in Korea.

In that case, Miss Hathaway,

I think you've had excellent basic training.

Now, would you care to meet

some of the men you'll be working with?

I always love to meet men, Captain.

Miss Margaret Hathaway,

may I present Commander Roberts,

with whom you'll be spending

most of your time?

I've heard about you, Commander.

How do you do?

I can do better than that.

I'm an ardent reader of your column.

How do you do?

This is Lieutenant Jack Carmen.

He'll be your helicopter pilot.

Hello, Lieutenant.

Hi.

I hope you won't mind having to fly

the first woman over Antarctica.

Ma'am, you just say the word,

and I'll fly you up to the moon.

In a helicopter?

You won't have to worry about him,

Miss Hathaway.

I'm sure he'll cool off

as soon as he hits sub-zero weather.

Pardon me.

The film's ready, sir.

Thank you.

You'll excuse me.

Will you join us?

Thank you.

So you're a geophysicist, Commander?

That's right.

But you don't look like a scientist to me.

You don't look like Walter Winchell.

Give me time.

CAPTAlN:
Will you take your seats, please?

In 1947, the use of Huskies as draft animals

was still very much

a part of any operation in the Antarctic.

And here we see some scenes of the careful

training that both men and dogs underwent

in the months prior to embarkation.

Finally, the ships are loaded,

Admiral Byrd boards his flagship,

and the expedition is on its way.

Its main goal is the Bay of Whales

in the Ross Sea.

But 800 miles of the Ross lce Barrier

had to be penetrated.

But finally, in the winter of '47,

which is just the beginning of summer

in the Antarctic, the expedition arrives.

It finds the first Little America intact.

And its foodstuffs, bread

and other perishables remain unharmed

in nature's great deep freeze.

Now, at the edge of the Ross lce Barrier

some 800 miles away

from Admiral Byrd's base camp,

huge transport aircraft for the first time

are launched from an aircraft carrier

and land in Little America.

Now, their mission,

the greatest aerial exploration

and mapping program of Antarctica

ever undertaken.

Now, here you see

the first pictures ever made

of Antarctica's ice-free warm water region,

first discovered

by the Byrd expedition in '47

and which will be thoroughly investigated

by a member of our own group...

How soon do we leave?

...Commander Alan Roberts.

In two months.

December 15th, we leave from Norfolk.

CAPTAlN:
He will lead

an expedition into this region.

It's overwhelming.

This tremendous force

chewing up the ice.

Diesel oil.

What?

I was saying, this overwhelming force

is caused by the sudden expansion

of compressed oil vapor.

Oh, Alan!

Oil vapors, molecules.

Do you have to be so technical?

A few things I can be quite romantic about.

Name one.

Well, women.

Oh.

For example, although I know

basically women consist mostly of water,

with a few pinches of salt, metals thrown in,

you have a very unsaltlike

and nonmetallic effect on me.

I give in.

Let's talk about diesel engines, shall we?

Sorry for the rough treatment.

We'll have to put up with it for a while.

We've just entered the Ross lce Pack.

Thanks.

The heaviest since Sir James Clark

forced his way through it in 1841.

It's going to hold us back

more than we anticipated.

We've got about 700 miles

of the stuff to plow through.

It'll put us

about two weeks behind schedule.

And how will that affect my program,

Captain Burnham?

Well, we've got four weeks

of precious daylight.

I'll have to ask you to take longer flights

than I would permit

under ordinary circumstances.

You'll commence operations as soon

as we reach open water,

which will be just about there.

The weather reports are satisfactory.

The sooner you get going, the better.

Are you ready, Lieutenant?

I think so, sir.

Steve?

Ship's all checked out, sir.

Engine's heated.

Provisions? Survival kits?

Yes, sir.

Fine. How about you, Commander?

All my gear's aboard, sir.

Good.

Miss Hathaway, you understand

that if anything should happen out there,

your chances for survival are limited?

I'm going.

All right, then. Good luck.

Thank you.

Happy landings.

Thank you, sir.

Look at those two.

Man and wife?

Nope. Both males.

Wanna say hello to them?

Maybe you can get an interview.

Looks like they're all wearing tuxedos.

Nope. All female.

40 below zero.

It's hard to believe that millions of years ago

this region was subtropical.

In those days, on an excursion like this,

you would have worn a bathing suit.

Born too late, I always say.

Unless Mount Erebus erupts again.

If she did,

there'd be a lot of melted snow down there.

The latest weather report, sir.

Contact Lieutenant Carmen.

The helicopter

is to return at once.

Yes, sir.

A sudden shift in the wind.

There's a storm moving in between here

and the warm water region.

I hope we can catch them before they land.

We're getting closer.

Right beyond this range.

There it is!

Well, now I believe it,

but there's still the big question.

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