Aeronautics -- Flights; Arctic regions; North Pole
There were also many other things to be done in the meantime. The
expedition’s cinema film had to be cut and run off--run off again,
and recut, as the cinema owners wanted to “fit in” three shows
daily at 5 P.M., 7 P.M. and 9 P.M. It would take fifteen minutes to
clear the theater, to ventilate it, and let the next audience get
seated, therefore the run of the film must not exceed one hour and
three-quarters. At first it took two and a half hours even without
the caption lines. Berge continued cutting, and the film got shorter
daily. The worst task was to arrange the sequence of the scenes. They
were far from being in chronological order, but after a time it began
to present a better picture of the expedition’s course--a picture
which gave a calm straightforward story--a calendar of daily episodes.
The caption lines, too, required writing, as they could not create
themselves.
While we were busy with all this work we had also to attend to the
returning of the expedition’s unused stores to the suppliers. Much of
this had been bought conditionally so that we could return everything
we had not used. The ever-helpful Omdal, who never seemed to have
enough to do, took charge of this part of the work. The more I left to
him the better pleased he was. I asked him often in those days if he
would not like to be released to go home. “So long as I can be of use
to the expedition there is no hurry,” was his reply. At last on August
1st he set off to his home in Kristiansand, which he had been longing
for. But I am sure he would have been quite happy about it if I, even
then, had said to him that he could not get off.
That’s the sort of man Omdal is!
In the meantime the post-bag was filled with requests for information
regarding the instruments and other equipment we had used on the trip.
Lantern slides for lectures had to be got ready and advertising matter
sent to our business managers.
Thus the days passed and the dreadful 10th of August got nearer, so
threateningly that at last to-day I had to take the bull by the horns
and go to Amundsen for further particulars.
Now I sit here experiencing the same feelings as in my schooldays, when
I used to put off writing Norwegian composition so long that I had to
do it during the games’ interval.
The first thing I shall render an account of is--
_Why We Chose the Dornier-Wal Type_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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