46 



The expedition, as originally planned, called for a flight from 

 Spitsbergen to Fairbanks, Alaska, and return; the track laid in such 

 a manner as best to cover unknown regions of the Arctic Ocean. 

 This program, however, was changed in 1931 to that of a so-called 

 preliminary flight, in which the Graj Zeppelin was to meet the 

 submarine Nautilus, of the Wilkins-Ellsworth Trans-Arctic Expedi- 

 tion, at the North Pole. The return to Europe was then to be made 

 via the Siberian Arctic. The preliminary flight, further, was to be 

 followed by the "long flight" in 1932 or 1933, in which the Spitsbergen- 

 Fairbanks plans were to be realized. Also to be included in this 

 latter flight was an aerial camera survey of the iceberg producing 

 glaciers along the coast of west Greenland. 



After Lieutenant Commander Smith reported for temporary duty 

 on the Graf Zeppelin in June, 1931, the expedition's plans to fly to 

 the North Pole were abandoned. This change was due to the series 

 of mishaps and delays that the submarine Nautilus sufi^ered prior to 

 her late arrival in northeastern North Atlantic waters. The substi- 

 tuted tour of the Arctic islands lying off the Russian coast, was the 

 one finally agreed upon and the one also ultimately carried out. 

 The failure to proceed directly to the pole curtailed very greatly the 

 opportunities to collect ice observations directly bearing on the ice 

 patrol's problems in the western North Atlantic. 



On the other hand, the expedition represented the first really serious 

 attempt to carry out scientific investigations from a dirigible in the 

 polar regions. Practically all of the members of the scientific party 

 were either on leave, or loaned officiall}^, from the staffs of universities, 

 or the departments of various governments. The data, furthermore, 

 which they were collecting were not for the sole purpose or interest 

 of themselves alone, or their institutions, but the results have been 

 made available for any student or bureau interested in these regions. 

 It seems quite fitting and proper, therefore, that the international 

 ice patrol, contributed from its personnel to the success of the ice 

 and oceanographic observations. 



The Graf Zeppelin departed from Friedrichshafen, Germany, at 

 0835, July 24, and after stops at Berlin and Leningrad on successive 

 days, left from the latter place at 0800, July 26, for the Arctic.^ The 

 departure from Leningrad was purposely postponed until the receipt 

 of the morning meteorological observations. A disturbance of marked 

 intensity had been hovering in the vicinity of Novaya Zemlya for 

 the two previous days, Franz Josef Land radio station reporting a 

 northeast gale there during that time. On the morning of the 26th, 

 however, the depression had moved oft' to the eastward, and there 



2 A narrative account of the cruise was published by: Ellsworth, Lincoln and Smith, Edward n.: Report 

 of the Preliminary Results of the Aeroarctic Expedition with Graf Zeppelin, 1931. Geographical Review, 

 Vol. XXII, No. 1, January, 1932, pp. 61-82. 



