Exploring With Byrd

EXPLORING WIT H BYRD Episodes from an Adventurous Compiled and Revised by Rear Admiral RICHARD E. BYRD IT. S. N. BET. ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS 1937 G-P-PTJTNAMS SONS NEW YORK RICHARD E. BYRD, REAR ADMIRAL, U. S. N. RET. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Education of a Pilot 3 II. Flight to the North Pole 15 III. Fog Over Paris 29 IV. Antarctic Assault 51 V. Little America Is Born 59 VI. Escape from the Rockefeller Mountains 74 VII. Spring Preparations 90 VIII. Flight to the South Pole 103 IX. Eastward Beyond the Horizon 119 X. Return to Antarctica 181 XI. The Devils Graveyard 143 XII. Little America Regained 153 XIII. A Loud and Stormy Month 167 XIV. The Winter Night 188 XV. The Winter Journey 193 XVI. Mystery of the Strait 211 XVII. Death of a City 235 ILLUSTRATIONS Richard E. Byrd, Rear Admiral, U. S. N. Ret. Frontispiece Facing page Pensacola 1918 24 A Hazardous Undertaking 25 Wreck of the America 56 Whales Trapped in a Crack 57 The Fokker on a Frozen Lake 80 Victim of the Winds Fury 80 Coasting Down the Glacier 81 The City in Her Toughest Battle 120 The Jacob Ruppert Approaches the Bay Ice 121 A Stately Promenade 121 Admiral Byrd Steps Ashore 160 Four Years of Ice Crystals in the Old Tunnel 160 Blazing a Trail Through the Pressure 161 On the Main Highway to Little America 161 Scenes at Advance Base 184 Life During the Winter Night 185 Planning a Flight 216 The William Horlick Comes Out of Its Winter Cocoon 216 Heating the Motors 217 The Radio Staff 217 Tii EXPLORING WITH BYRD Chapter I EDUCATION OF A PILOT ONE of my first and most striking impressions of aviation came the day a man rushed into my stateroom aboard the battleship waving a newspaper that had just been brought us by thepilot. For Gods sake, listen to this he exclaimed. Jack Towers has fallen fifteen hundred feet in an airplane and lived to tell the tale. I couldnt believe it. He was thrown out of his seat. In those days the flyer sat right out in the open on a little bench. But he caught by a brace and dangled in mid-air. On the way down he kicked at the control wheel. Apparently he righted the plane just before it hit. Thmk of the nerve of the mm I did think of his nerve and many times since Pve admired the courage of those early pilots who flew thousands of feet in the air with defective machines about which they knew al most nothing. And its good to feel that my friend, Captain John W. Towers, U. S. N., the hero of the incident, is alive today and still a flyer of note. The horror people felt fifteen years ago in reading about Towers escape is still felt when newspapers print tragic details of some aeronautical accident without regard for technical reasons behind the accident. As a result many citizens still look on flying as one of the most attractive forms of suicide. If I had a son twenty years old today and he should come to me with the question Is it all right for me to fly Id answer Go to it. And I hope you get your pilots license soon because I want you to do a lot of flying before youre through. 4 EXPLORING WITH BYRD He might break his neck. But also he might be run over by a taxi, burn up, catch pneumonia, or be struck by lightning. Those things happen to people every day. My first aerial adventure was in the Annapolis gymnasium. I was captain of the Navy Gym Team, which was out to win the intercollegiate championship of the year. In line with this ambition I devised a hair-raising stunton the flying rings. My plan was to get a terrific swing, high enough to be able to count on an appreciable pause at the end of it. I figured I could at this moment do what was called dis locate, which meant swing completely head over heels with out changing grip, with arms at full length unbending and forcing my shoulders through a quick jerk, that made it look as if they were put out of joint. In addition, I was going to make another complete turn, legs outside, letting go with my hands as my ankles passed my forearms, and catching again as I f ell...