Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. - Discovery: The Story of the Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition

DISCOVERY

DISCOVERY

THE STORY OF THE SECOND BYRD ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION

Published by Rowman & Littlefield
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Copyright 1935 by Richard E. Byrd
Cloth edition originally published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1935
First Rowman & Littlefield paperback edition 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

Paperback: 978-1-4422-4166-4

E-book: 978-1-4422-4167-1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

TO
EDSEL FORD

Richard E. Byrd, Rear Admiral, U. S. N. (Ret.)

S. S. Jacob Ruppert

S. S. Bear of Oakland

Easter Island

Mid-Pacific

Commodore Gjertsen Taking a Sight

Mal De Mer

The William Horlick on Her Cradle Just Before the First Flight

Sentinels of the Southern Seas

The William Horlick Ready to Take the Air

The Flight Crew Preparing to Board the Plane

The Pack Rolls to the Horizon

A Mosaic of Pack (from the Air)

Seals Sunning on an Ice Floe

The William Horlick Overboard

First View of the Barrier

A First Family of Antarctica

The Jacob Ruppert Approaches the Bay Ice

A Stately Promenade

Admiral Byrd Steps Ashore

Four Years of Ice Crystals in the Old Tunnel

Blazing a Trail through the Pressure

On the Main Highway to Little America

An Intermediate Cache

The Big Haul Goes On

A Dog Team and the Bear of Oakland

Tons of Supplies

The Corniche Road

Uncharted Seas OS

The Bear Returns

The Bridge of Sighs

The First Days of the Occupation

Frontier Settlement

Main Street, Little America

The Wreck of the Fokker, Blue Blade

Airport

The Citron Hits a Crevasse

Pete Demas

Captain Alan Innes-Taylor

The Advance Base Tractor Party

The Advance Base Caravan

Laying the Foundations for Advance Base

Admiral Byrd and Siple Examine the Instruments

Farewellfor the Winter Night

The Tractors Depart for Little America

Dog-Town

Some of the New BuildingsDog Heim and the Radio Shack

Building a Shelter for the Planes

Winter Night

Observing Meteors

Meeting of the Scientific Staff

William Haines, Senior Meteorologist

Dr. Bramhall and Cosmic Ray Machine

Grimminger Starting a Balloon Run

The Fireside Philosophers

Dr. Potaka Uses Painless Dentistry on Corey

George Noville, Executive Officer

Innes-Taylor and Moody Take to Surgery

The Pressure by Torchlight

Admiral Byrd at the Radio (Advance Base)

Demas, Poulter and Waite Start for Advance Base

Spring Comes to the Antarctic

The Sledgers Start Out

Planting a Flag on the Eastern Tractor Trip

Pressure Ice at the Mouth of Ver-Sur-Mer Inlet

The Seals Provide Entertainment for Two Skiers

Planning a Flight

The William Horlick Comes Out of Its Winter Cocoon

The Condor Plane William Horlick

The Condor in the Air

The Plane Visits the Tractors

Harold I. June, Chief Pilot

Snared

Heating the Motors

The Radio StaffBailey, Waite, Dyer, Hutcheson

The Raymond Fosdick Mountains Break Out of the Clouds

The Pilgrim Plane, Miss American Airways

Crevasse

The Marie Byrd Land Party in the Edsel Fords

The Geological Party Miles from the South Pole

The Organ Pipes of Thorne Glacier

Admiral Byrd Welcomes the Marie Byrd Land Party

Fossil Tree Found at Mt. Weaver

Jack the Giant Killer

The Bay of Whales Frozen

Little America From the Air

The Geological PartyRussell, Blackburn, and Paine

The Southern Tractor PartyHill, Demas, and Waite

A Seismic Sounding

Lindsey and Young Weigh a Baby Seal

Black, Ronne, and Morgan at the Top of Mt. Nilsen (Rockefellers)

The Bear Ties Up at Bolling Bight

The Cletrac Hauls the Floyd Bennetts Wings to the Ship

Admiral Byrd and Lieut. Commander Noville Lower the Flag

THE two small scale maps appearing in the book were prepared during the summer of 1935 in the cartographic department of the National Geographic Society to show in a general way the geographic work of the Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition.

Before going into a detailed description of the maps, I want to take this opportunity to express the great debt which this expedition and the preceding one owe to Commander (C. C.) Harold E. Saunders, U. S. N., expedition chief cartographer. It is hard to conceive of any ones handling the survey material with greater skill or more devoted perseverance. His work, especially on the aerial photographs, represents a distinct advance in the technique of constructing maps from oblique photographs.

The South Pacific map (reproduced elsewhere in this book) constructed by Lieutenant (J. G.) R. A. J. English, U. S. N., shows the tracks of the two ships, the Jacob Ruppert and the Bear of Oakland and the flights from the Jacob Ruppert of the airplane William Horlick. Both the cruises of the ships and the flights have been described in detail elsewhere.

The map shows primarily that the geographic results of our work at sea were purely negative. No new land was discovered anywhere in the previously unknown area which was penetrated. But the results, while negative, were none the less significant. The southern known limits of the Pacific Ocean were moved considerably farther south in the vicinity of the flight tracks and along parts of the route of the Jacob Ruppert. The Bear of Oakland also drove a wedge into a section of the Ross Sea and Pacific Ocean which had previously been considered likely to contain an archipelago. No trace of such was detected and none probably will be, because of the great depth of water found there. Of even greater significance was the restriction of the possible area in which the continental coast line can lie. Coupled with the flights to the eastward of Little America, the work at sea has narrowed this down to a fairly small compass.

Lieutenant English in the Bear of Oakland made a careful survey of the Ross Ice Barrier during January 1935. It is interesting to note that the Barrier has advanced on an average of 12 nautical miles (13.8 statute) along the whole front between Ross Island and the Bay of Whales. The 1911 position is taken from Pennells charts and Debenham's