Greetings from Mike Hewitt on the successful dive to the Arctic ocean floor

Congratulations to “Akademik Fedorov”'s captain Mikhail Kaloshin and expedition leader Artur Chilingarov on the successful completion of the first dive to the ocean floor at the North Pole and the “raising” of a titanium flag on the seabed. This was indeed a daring feat but how different from the scene at the North Pole in 1937, as described by Ernst Krenkel in his book “RAEM Is My Callsign”:

“At five o′clock in the evening of June 6th a flag-raising ceremony was held to mark the ceremonial opening of the “North Pole” drifting station. A sledge served as a rostrum and bamboo poles as flag staffs. A short speech by Schmidt was followed by a speech from Papanin. I raised the flag and three salvoes rang out from rifles and revolvers. We stood with bared heads and sang the Internationale.”

Let′s hope that the second stage of this International Year Project, i.e. the work to be undertaken on drift station “North Pole-35”, will be as equally successful for the benefit of mankind.

73 Mike/G4AYO