History
South Pole Expedition Wears Borman Sheep Lined Coats
A follow-up to Making Coats for Byrd Antarctic Expedition article in October issue #4
A Borman Coat like those taken to the South Pole
Shiver Me (My) Timbers! It's cold down at the South Pole.
Even the mercury hides in the bottom of the thermometer. But the cold doesn't hold so much fear for members of the Lincoln Ellsworth Expedition who left on the S. S. Wyatt Earp in August to establish a permanent base in the Antarctic.
They're equipped with warm, heavy Borman Sheep-Lined Coats. This is by no means the first time that Borman Coats have gone down beneath the world, for the Byrd Antarctic Expedition II used them exclusively.
The coats, made at Johnstown, New York, are strongly built to withstand the long, hard wear they'll get— they are sewn on Union Specials.
The word ‘shiver’ is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “to break into small fragments or splinters” while the ‘timbers’ refer to the wooden support frames of old sailing ships. So the saying ‘shiver me timbers’ was most likely alluding to the shock of a large wave or cannonball smashing into the ship and causing the hull to shudder or split asunder. –NE–
They're equipped with warm, heavy Borman Sheep-Lined Coats. This is by no means the first time that Borman Coats have gone down beneath the world, for the Byrd Antarctic Expedition II used them exclusively.
The coats, made at Johnstown, New York, are strongly built to withstand the long, hard wear they'll get— they are sewn on Union Specials.
The word ‘shiver’ is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “to break into small fragments or splinters” while the ‘timbers’ refer to the wooden support frames of old sailing ships. So the saying ‘shiver me timbers’ was most likely alluding to the shock of a large wave or cannonball smashing into the ship and causing the hull to shudder or split asunder. –NE–
Northrup Delta plane take to the Antarctic by Lincoln Ellsworth
The Northrup Delta plane was initially registered in the USA as NC14267 to the Chicago Real Estate Loan and Trust Company of Chicago, Illinois, USA, on July 30, 1935. It was owned by the company president and businessman George F. Harding who used it for three years as an executive transport.
In April 1938 it was purchased by the American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth and re-registered NR14267 for his fourth and last Antarctic expedition in 1938/39.
Ellsworth had used an earlier Northrop Gamma on previous expeditions in an ultimately successful attempt to fly across Antarctica.
The Delta was stripped of internal cabin fittings and auxiliary long-range fuel tanks were fitted.
The Ellsworth expedition left New York on 16 August 1938.
The Delta was aboard the expedition’s ship Wyatt Earp along with a float-equipped Aeronca (later VH-ACK).
Calling first in Sydney and then South Africa, they left Capetown in October heading south.
In Antarctica, the Delta was fitted with skis and was craned onto the ice of a long-frozen fjord.
After a short test flight, Ellsworth set out on January 11, 1939, with Canadian pilot 'Red' Lymburner on an exploratory flight into the Antarctic interior. –NE–
