Hubert Wilkins
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Sir George Hubert Wilkins (October 31, 1888 - November 30, 1958) was an Australian polar explorer, pilot, soldier, geographer and photographer.
On 22 April 1928, only a year after Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic, Wilkins and his pilot Carl Ben Eielson made a trans-Arctic crossing from Point Barrow, Alaska, to Spitsbergen, touching along the way at Grant Land on Ellesmere Island. For this feat, Wilkins was knighted, and during the ensuing celebration, he met and married actress Suzanne Bennett.
Now financed by William Randolph Hearst, Wilkins continued his polar explorations, now flying over Antarctica. He named the island of Hearst Land after his sponsor, and Hearst thanked Wilkins by giving him and his bride a flight aboard Graf Zeppelin.
Wilkins led the failed Nautilus expedition to the North Pole in the summer of 1931. Despite the failure to meet his intended objective, he was able to prove that submarines were capable of operating beneath the polar ice cap, thereby paving the way for future successful missions.
The US Navy took his ashes to the North Pole aboard the submarine USS Skate on 17 March 1959.
Works
- 1928 Flying the Arctic
- 1928 Undiscovered Australia
- 1931 Under The North Pole
Further reading
- Thomas, Lowell Sir Hubert Wilkins: His World of Adventure McGraw-Hill 1961
- Nasht, Simon The Last Explorer: Hubert Wilkins Australia’s Unknown Hero Hachette 2005
External links
- [Sir Hubert Wilkins] biography from Flinders Ranges Research
- [In Search of Sir Hubert] Short bio on Sir Hubert Wilkins
- [Searching for Sir Hubert] Documentary Filmmaker site
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