Noteworthyy People p wife in the world”, the marriage was a truly happy one. In 1931, Wilkins embarked on his most ambitious and perhaps foolhardy exploit. He had long believed that polar exploration by submarine was the future and he wanted to prove this by taking a submarine under the Arctic ice cap all the way to the Pole. Though Wilkins found sponsorship from Hearst, the bulk of the money would not be paid until after he had reached his objective. Furthermore, the US O-12, a WWI coastal submarine, was clearly not up to the task, despite being renamed Nautilus and extensively rebuilt at great expense. It had to be towed to Cork in Ireland after having a string of mechanical problems crossing the Atlantic, but Wilkins proceeded to the Arctic, urged on by Hearst to continue to the Pole. A check of Nautilus on a day ideal for diving under the ice put an end to Wilkins’s plans. Though the propellers and the rudder were intact, both diving planes had been broken off. Though it is not known for certain, this highly selective damage seems to indicate sabotage by the crew, intent on preventing what seemed like a suicide mission. Wilkins was able to prove that a submarine could work beneath the polar ice by ramming Nautilus against the floe and forcing itself under for a short time, but this was poor compensation. He was crippled financially, as Hearst made good his threat to withhold payment, and his credibility was in tatters. In the 1930s Wilkins went on to visit Antarctica four more times, acting as advisor and planner for the millionaire explorer, Lincoln Ellsworth. He also participated in the fruitless search for Sigismund Levanevsky’s aircraft, which went missing over the Arctic in 1937. When WWII broke out, Wilkins contracted himself to the US Military and served in a variety of roles including espionage and Arctic survival training. While on an ‘economic survey’ to Asia in 1940, in Singapore he spoke
to the Japanese Consul General, who he had met during the Graf Zeppelin voyage. After much sake, the Consul blurted out Tokyo’s plan to invade Pearl Harbour. “Go on, make a report,” he challenged, roaring with laughter, “no-one will believe a man who took a submarine almost to the North Pole for a dare.” Wilkins made his report, but the Consol was all too right about the report’s reception. Wilkins lived to see two of his long-held ambitions fulfilled. In 1957, ten nations, including the USA and the USSR, established 50 research stations in Antarctica. Meteorological monitoring was one of their many tasks. The next year the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, appropriately named Nautilus, reached the North Pole completely submerged. Despite Wilkins’s down-to-Earth persona, he privately maintained deeply spiritual beliefs and was interested in the paranormal. He believed he could receive radio signals, a skill he discovered by accident on the Quest expedition and often subsequently demonstrated to amazed companions. While searching for Levanevsky he experimented with ESP with writer Harold Sherman.
In his later years Wilkins met with some members of New York Explorers Club and others to develop a secret theology based on The Book of Urantia. After speaking to Suzanne on the telephone, Sir George Hubert Wilkins passed away quietly in a hotel room in Massachusetts on 30 November 1958, a slight smile on his face. His ashes were taken to the North Pole aboard the submarine USS Skate on 17 March 1959. Its captain and crew recited Wilkins’s own prayer as his ashes were spread over the ice: Our heavenly Father, wouldst thou give us the liberty without license and the power to do good for mankind with the self-restraint to avoid using that power for self aggrandizement.
The Author Roderick Eime is a freelance photojournalist.
Further Reading The Last Explorer, Hubert Wilkins, Australia’s Unknown Hero by Simon Nasht, published by Hodder, 2005. The Making of an Explorer by Stuart E. Jenness, published by McGill Queen, 2004. ◆
In 1931 Wilkins attempted to take the submarine, Nautilus, below the ice of the North Pole. The attempt failed, probably as a result of sabotage by the crew. Byrd Polar Research Centre Archival Program, Nautilus-3.
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