Dead, Missing

The Lincoln Highway of the Arctic follows a line drawn, roughly, from the extreme northern point of Norway across the island of Spitsbergen to Point Barrow, Alaska. If you fly about half this distance and look down, as likely as not you will see the block of ice which happens to be the North Pole. At that point you may shake hands, as Pilgrims Byrd and Bennett did in May, 1926. Or you may bare your head, as Pilgrims Nobile, Amundsen, Ellsworth, etc., did in May, 1926. Or you may fly sternly on, as Pilgrims Wilkins and Eielson did in April, 1928. Or you may drop flags, as Pilgrim Nobile did on May 24, 1928.

Gesturing thus patriotically, Pilgrim Nobile and his crew turned back toward Spitsbergen. Nearly two months later, they were still trying to reach land. The Nobile affair, chronologically:

May 23: Polar Pilgrim General Umberto Nobile and crew of 15 leave Kings Bay, Spitsbergen, for North Pole, in dirigible Italia.

May 24: Italia circles North Pole.

May 25: Italia crashes on ice north of Spitsbergen, killing Motorist Vincenzo Pommella, separating Polar Pilgrims into two groups. Eight, led by Gen. Nobile, are left stranded with the wreckage of the cabin. Seven are blown away with the dirigible's bag.

Score: One dead, 15 missing.

May 30: Dr. Finn Malmgren, Swedish meteorologist, injured, with Capts Mariano & Zappi, pilot and navigator, quit Nobile camp, start to walk to land.

May 26-June 7: Amateur radio enthusiasts report imaginary signals from Italia. The hunt begins with rescue ships, icebreakers, airplanes. Also to the rescue go Alpine Chasseur Capt. Sora and the Dutchman Van Dongen, on foot.

June 8-12: Messages from Pilgrim Nobile give position of castaways.

June 14: Soviet icebreaker Krassin leaves Leningrad for Kings Bay.

June 15: Dr. Finn Malmgren, walking toward land, dies or is left for dead.*

Score: Two dead, 14 missing.

June 17: Capt. Roald Amundsen, famed explorer, once companion of Pilgrim Nobile but now his bitter enemy, starts from Norway in a French seaplane with crew of four Frenchmen, one Norwegian.

June 21: Amundsen lost.

Score: Two dead, 20 missing.

June 24: Lieut. Einar-Paal Lundborg, Swedish stunt flyer, lands airplane at Nobile's camp, rescues Chief Pilgrim Gen. Nobile, also the bitch-mascot Titina. But on a second flight to the camp, Lieut. Lundborg wrecks his plane, marooning himself with castaways.

Score: Two dead, 20 missing.

June 25: Pilgrim Nobile, safe on his base ship, explains why the captain of a ship may, under certain conditions, allow himself to be the first, instead of the last, to enjoy rescue.

June 30: Pedestrian-rescuers Sora & Van Dongen lost.

Score: Two dead, 22 missing.

July 6: Castaway-rescuer Lundborg rescued from Nobile camp by Swedish Lieut. Shyberg.

Score: Two dead, 21 missing.

July 11: Soviet Pilot Chukhnovsky with crew of four, takes off from Krassin, sights Capts. Mariano & Zappi and the body of Malmgren. He is forced down on North East Land. Marooned, Pilot Chukhnovsky directs rescue of Malmgren party by radio.

Score: Two dead, 26 missing.

July 12: Krassin rescues Capts. Mariano & Zappi, foodless for 13 days; pushes on to Nobile camp, picks up five castaways, ill, half-crazed.

July 13: Krassin finds Pedestrian-rescuers Sora & Van Dongen, foodless for three weeks.

Score: Two dead, 17 missing.

July 15: Krassin rescues Pilot Chukhnovsky and crew.

Score: Two dead, 12 missing.

* First accounts from the Krassin declared that Capts. Mariano and Zappi stood guard over the dead body of Dr. Malmgren. Then Capt. Zappi was later quoted as saying the Italians had dug a grave for the Swede and left him to die alone. Sweden, horrified, ordered an investigation, asked a pregnant question: "Could white men have left a comrade to die a slow and painful death or would they have adopted a much more terrible although in a way a more human procedure?" Soviet papers bitterly, lashed Pilgrim Nobile, charged 1) he had guzzled champagne; 2) he had suggested leaving the two injured (Technician Ceccioni, Meteorologist Malmgren) to shift for themselves; 3) he had run away at the first opportunity.