AFTER I came back from the North Pole I had six good offers to go into business. One of these was from a successful advertising man who was a partner in a great manufacturing plant.
“But we can give you $25,000 a year!” he exclaimed, when I politely refused to show any enthusiasm about his business. He acted as if I had been impertinent.
“But I don’t want to go into business,” said I.
“Why not?”
“Because I have still some exploring to do.”
He reached out and patted my shoulder in a kindly way, as if to say, “You poor misguided man.” Actually he said: “But, Byrd, there isn’t anything left to explore.”
Luckily I was equipped to dispute him. I unrolled a chart of the world which I had brought along with me and showed him some of the things that are left for man to do and see and find out about on this globe of ours.
When we got on the subject of the huge unexplored South Polar Area the man became fascinated. For two hours we poured over this great white wilderness never seen by eyes of man.
While on our way back from the North Pole flight Bennett and I made plans for the Atlantic flight, but in moments of mental luxuriation we used to let ourselves dwell upon the big task of conquering the Antarctic by air. Now the Navy has again cooperated, as it has done so generously in the past, by giving me leave. Again the Navy is helping me to the limit the law allows.
Aviation cannot claim mastery of the globe until the South Pole and its vast surrounding mystery be opened up by airplane.
The South Pole lies at the center of a huge and lifeless continent as large as the United States and Mexico combined—a continent eternally buried in ice and snow—or is it a continent? We do not know. The Pole itself is on a vast plateau nearly two miles high at about the center of this area, which is in the throes of an ice age, a glacial period just as existed ages ago when this country was largely covered with a sheet of ice and snow. I must confess that ice age has fascinated me; and now I hope to see an ice age in full swing.
In the winter of 1911-12 two expeditions, one British and one Norwegian, based on opposite sides of Ross Sea—a deep, wide inlet in the New Zealand sector of the glacial fringe which abuts on all sides of Antarctica—set out for the South Pole. Both leaders, Amundsen and Scott, reached it; Amundsen’s party got there first and got back successfully, the triumph of two long years of preparation; Scott and his men also stood at the Pole but perished of cold and hunger on their return.
It is my plan to sail south in September, reaching our base in Ross Sea sometime after Antarctic midsummer, which is December 21st, probably the first week in January. If we are unusually fortunate we may do much flying and get home before June, 1929. But we may have to winter and stay an extra year.
A winter in Antarctica is not as easy for personnel as in the North. Most of those with Amundsen were old timers; Scott also had many with him; yet both parties felt the deathlike isolation of the regions about them. North polar expeditions have always tapered their loneliness by hunting bears, caribou and musk oxen as well as by intercourse with friendly native tribes. There is none of this life down there. It is unlikely that we will be able to obtain more than three or four trained Arctic men among the two score members of the party.
Conditions of weather, distance and terrain that govern a South Polar flight are surprisingly different from those met in the Far North. Superficially the polar regions are cold and stormy during a major portion of the year. Both have many months of darkness and of light. In both men find mechanical work most trying. Life itself suffers from the depressing effect of long-continued hardships. Specifically there is a vast difference between the two ends of the globe.
Weather, which means so much to the airman, is notably more severe in the South than in the North. This is easily explained because the Antarctic is still in the throes of an ice age. The Antarctic continent is a lofty and nearly circular dome on which rests a smooth ice shield. Air rising at the Equator flows toward the Poles, where it cools and descends. Upon striking the South Pole’s ice-cap it rolls in all directions toward the circular coast, gaining momentum as it falls.
This theoretical flow is disturbed by local storms that move from Southern oceans. But it is distinct enough to give steady character to the pitiless tempests that rage for weeks beyond the great ice barrier. Home of the Blizzard, Sir Douglas Mawson called his narrative of an expedition to that wind-tormented tract. Both Scott and Mawson speak eloquently of the howling gales that thundered about their stoutly built Winter quarters.
“When Columbus set out across the Atlantic he did not even dream that he had a great unknown land ahead of him, but we shall know when we set sail for the South that we shall have a chance to take off the maps for the ages to come, a part of that great blank white space at the bottom of the world. And a hundred years from now what will be there in place of that white space in Antarctic maps in our school geographies?
“And how does it happen,” I have been frequently asked, “that there is such a large area in the world that still remains unexplored?” And others will ask: “What is the use in bothering with it at all? What is there down there that could be of value to the world?” To me the answer to the latter question is obvious, and yet I always find myself hard put to it to answer convincingly.
It has always seemed to me that science is the loser so long as there remains a large unexplored area left in the world. To quote Sir Douglas Mawson: “Science is a homogeneous whole.” Final knowledge is reached only by putting together a large number of facts. For example, there are meteorological data to be gained from the South Polar regions, the gaining of which alone justifies the hazards encountered. Weather conditions depend upon an equalizing tendency between the two poles and the equator. The Antarctic has even more influence on weather than has the Arctic.
The comparatively small part of the Antarctic that has been explored has been covered with snow and ice, even in the Antarctic summer time (which is, of course our winter time), but, owing to the powerful effect of the twenty-four-hour sun, it is in the realm of possibility that there may be some areas in that immense region that are uncovered by snow in the summer. In the North Polar regions, for example, we know that if low land were found at the pole itself, some of it would be bare of snow in the summer. If such areas are found in the Antarctic, the most conservative scientists would say that it would not be unreasonable to expect that new species of plant and animal life might be found, or that secrets of the past might be revealed by the signs that mother earth may give, and the fossil remains that may be embedded in her bosom.
With airplane cameras we should be able to get photographs of rocky peaks the sides of which, owing to their vertical position, are naked. This will give an accurate geological section, even more accurate than could be obtained by the foot traveler. It is possible that mineral deposits might be located. It is an interesting fact that the only known cryolite in the world is at Ivigtut, in ice-covered Greenland.
Seal, penguin, or other birds, sojourn on the rim of the Antarctic, and carnivorous killer-whales and various species of fish swim around its borders, but there is almost no life in the interior. The land life is limited to the lowest in the organic scale, like protozoa and minute insects. Of course there are bacteria there, but I believe the largest living creature found on the land was a spider. Is it not possible that land life existed in the Antarctic and that the ice-cap which now covers the region has exterminated it all in comparatively recent geological time? If this is true, cannot the fact be disclosed by investigation? Will it not teach us more about the geological ages into which the past of the world has been divided?
At any rate, the primary object of the expedition is scientific. I wish to stress this point. There will be plenty of work for the dozen specialists we will take with us. The more we can unfold of the past and the unknown present, the better we shall know what to do for the future.
Southern explorations began in 1773, when Captain James Cook got as far south as 71° 10’. He discovered the ice bulwark, but it was left for Capt. John Wilkes, U. S. Navy, in 1840, to discover the Antarctic continent. In 1899, Brochgrevinch reached 78° 50’. Great Britain opened up a new chapter in Antarctic exploration when, in 1920, Captain Robert Falcon Scott made the first real explorations on the land. He reached a chain of mountains surrounded with gigantic glaciers “and proved first-hand that the climate was the coldest on earth, its winds insufferable, and its glacial crevasses incredibly hazardous.” In 1907-1909, Sir Ernest Shackleton attempted to reach the South Pole, and for this he deserves the immortal fame because he jumped the farthest south record from 82° 17’ to 88° 20’, and was forced to tum back when only ninety-seven miles from the Pole. Indeed, he paved the way for Amundsen and Scott, who reached the pole sixteen years ago.
There is probably no more inspiring story in the history of exploration than that of Sir Robert Scott and his brave men who gave their lives in the cause of human knowledge.
Since that time Sir Douglas Mawson has done fine work down there. He is a great expert on Antarctica, and is the author of The Home of the Blizzard, a very valuable work on the south Polar regions.
It is with the inspiration of all these great men that my shipmates and myself will tackle the problem where they left off, and it is because this is the most hazardous region in the world from an aviation standpoint, that we are determined to prepare as far as possible for whatever dangerous situations may arise. On long expeditions in cold and unresponsive countries, such as the Antarctic, untoward characteristics appear in the individual that we never dreamed of in civilization. The selection of the personnel is, therefore, of the utmost importance. My old and tried shipmate, Floyd Bennett, who flew with me over the North Pole, will be second in command. Hardships in the polar regions seem to bring out the best and the worst in a man. Of the thousand or more men who lost their lives in the attempt to conquer the Arctic, many of the deaths were caused by disloyalty or mutinies. I can, therefore, say nothing better for Bennett than to state that there is no man in the world I had rather go into the Antarctic with than him.
We shall attempt to put our base on the opposite side of the Antarctic continent from the Weddell Sea, on the great Ross ice barrier, which is at the southern end of the Ross Sea. There will be an ice pack to force our way through before we get to the barrier and we must be as certain as is humanly possible that we get through this pack without getting caught in it. That, of course, would end the expedition. When we were getting our plane through the ice at King’s Bay, Spitzbergen, for our North Pole effort, we might easily have had our frail raft, containing the personnel and the plane, crushed—and so would have ended our expedition almost before it had started.
We plan to use a ship especially made to withstand ice. Her hull is slightly wedge-shaped so that she will rise under ice pressure. Her bow is a powerful solid ram built to strike hammer blows against the floes that bar our way. Strong cross-timbers are placed from end to end to stand the enormous squeezing of the merciless ice fields.
Since we shall be gone so long from our last port of call that the coal bunkers will not be able to hold anything like the quantity of coal necessary, we shall have to arrange several of the cargo holds of the ship to carry extra hundreds of tons of fuel. It is extremely hard work to move this coal from the hold to the coal bunkers and that job alone will give our fifty-five adventurers plenty of exercise. In the case of our Polar flight, the moving of this coal was an “all-hands” job from the Captain down to the mess attendants. The result was that when we reached the Arctic every one was in good physical condition.
There will be one big monoplane for our serious work. It will have three engines and the wing spread will be about seventy-six feet. It will contain all the improvements we have made as a result of our last three expeditions. Then there will be two smaller monoplanes with single engines, similar to the plane Chamberlin used in crossing the Atlantic. All of these planes will be equipped with interchangeable landing gear so that they can fly from the water with pontoons, from the snow with skis, or from the land with wheels. We found on the Polar flight that these skis should be made with a great factor of safety for the rough snow work and that they should be bowed in the center like the Norwegian foot skis. We shall experiment with snow flying this winter with the planes we are going to use.
The ship will be equippea with powerful modern radio, both short and long wave, with which we shall make an effort to keep in constant touch with civilization. We shall use short wave radio during the six months’ daylight. There will be a year and a half’s supply of food on board in case it should be necessary for the personnel to spend the Antarctic night before returning.
Before we get to our last port of call about 8,500 miles away—the expedition should be broken into harness and the land lubbers should have their sea legs. After leaving New Zealand we shall hit for the Ross ice barrier, which is 2 ,300 miles directly south. We should have our first battle with the ice pack in the Ross Sea during November, 1928, or the first part of December. Then, there will be more or less open ice-strewn water for several hundred miles, until we get to the ice barrier; we shall be fortunate if we reach our main base before the first part of January, 1929. It now appears that we shall place our main base at the Bay of Whales, near where Amundsen based; or Discovery Harbor: Scott’s base was on the eastern side of the Ross ice barrier, Amundsen’s on the western side, and Discovery Harbor is between these two bases and may be a desirable place to embark on to the ice because the ice is low enough at that point to enable us to get our planes and-equipment up on the barrier. It is thought that as weather conditions are better on Bay of Whales side we are more likely to put our base there. At other places the ice barrier ranges from 30 to 230 feet in height at its precipitous edge, making it impossible to get our equipment ashore with any such altitude as that to scale.
Our base, then, will probably be established on snow-covered ice. This will be about the same thing as camping on a stationary iceberg. It does not seem a practical thing, but I believe it is. Amundsen did it successfully. It will even be an advantage in one way because we can dig down in the ice and make ice rooms for some of our work shops and supplies.
There is no place where one can get so far from human life. Our base will be at least 2 ,300 miles from the nearest human dwelling. We shall have in effect a small village. It must be a self-sustaining unit capable of maintaining itself indefinitely without outside help, because if we should have to spend the Antarctic night, or if our ship should get injured in the ice, there is no telling how long we might have to stay down there. It is wise always to be prepared for such an emergency. I was a member of one expedition which came very near getting caught in the Arctic for the winter without sufficient food to last until summer.
We should, in case of an emergency, be able to supplement our food supply with seal and birds, which abound at certain times on the fringe of the Antarctic continent. As soon as we arrive we shall begin sending out parties to kill seal to lay by for possible use during the winter months. This would be important as a scurvy preventative. There will never be any scurvy as long as there is plenty of fresh meat. We shall have four or five portable houses, and for heating and cooking purposes we shall use coal, gasoline, and oil. It is very likely that we shall take an electric plant with us for lighting.
We expect to take with us at least seventy-five Eskimo dogs, which will l:e used to haul loads near the base and to assist in establishing sub-bases on the route to the South Pole. Arthur T. Walden, of Wonalancet, New Hampshire, a veteran of the Arctic and a great dog-team leader has trained a special dog team. The majority of the dogs, however, will probably be procured from Greenland or northern Canada. In addition to the dogs we shall use, for transportation about the base, caterpillar tractors. This will be especially useful for hauling the plane around. We discovered on our North Pole expedition that it is extremely difficult to handle a great plane equipped with skis by hand alone.
Of course, we hope to finish the mission of our expedition during the Antarctic summer, which will last until about March 1st. That would give us about two months for operations. I should say that chances of doing this would be about even. But I don’t know. It is an unknown quantity. If we have to spend the Antarctic night, our ship will have to be sent back to New Zealand, or possibly to the States because it probably could not stand the winter ice.
So much for the main base itself. We expect to put down several sub-bases towards the South Pole about one hundred miles apart. The number of bases we can put down is another unknown quantity. There are several reasons for doing this. First, because it will be impossible to predict the weather conditions that will exist on a flight from our main base to the South Pole, and the winds in that region may come up suddenly and blow violently, frequently with very thick snow, which would bring about a situation much worse than fog for the flyer, because he would not only be blinded, as is the case in fog, but would also have a terrific wind at the same time. With bases every one hundred miles the flyer would have a chance to land near one of these bases and survive the storm. In such a case, he would have to carry along some special apparatus and use some special methods to prevent the plane from being blown over.
In a forced landing in any kind of weather, within 500 miles from base, there would be a chance of getting back with bases down every hundred miles. Without them, there would be no chance, because (as has already been explained) there is no animal life that would enable one to procure food, as in the case in the Arctic. Then these bases could be used for flights to the right or left for scientific exploration. For example, suppose we should establish our main base on the ice barrier near the Bay of Whales. Then our line of flight towards the Pole would be on the very edge of the unknown. When we reached an altitude of 5,000 feet anywhere along this line of flight we should be looking into regions never before seen by a human being. Probably we should be able to fly out in an easterly direction a hundred miles or so with our mapping camera. We plan to do that. In that way we would be able to photograph a considerable unknown area, at the same time running the minimum risk from sudden violent gales. But no matter how carefully we might plan our expedition into this largely unknown region, it is impossible to say ahead of time exactly what can or cannot be done or exactly how far apart we shall be able to put our bases, or how far towards the Pole.
The principal supplies we shall leave at these bases will be food and fuel and repair material for sleds. Three methods will be employed to put them down—airplanes, dog teams, and our air propeller sleds. It is probable that the dog teams will play the largest part in this work. Dog teams should supplement the airplane in getting minute scientific details.
On the final flight to the Pole, the flying done after the last base is passed will be hazardous, of course, because should there be a forced landing with the plane out of commission, our ability to return to the nearest base would be very far from a certainty. In such an emergency we shall have to depend upon radio and the reserve planes. If our bases are far enough along we may be able to hike back to the nearest one. But here is another unknown quantity. We shall take a kite with us in order to send messages back to the base and receive them. The Navy has already offered to assist with the radio work as much as the law will allow. We shall use on our plane a set similar to the one that did such fine work on our trans-Atlantic flight. This, a regular Navy set modified for our use by W. E. Hansen and Hylan, very capable Naval radio engineers, used a wave length of about 600 meters. It was Hansen who made the radio set we used on our North Pole expedition. We shall have also on the plane a small auxiliary high-frequency, short wave set of about forty meters, with a storage battery or a hand crank generator so that we can get back to base in case we have to land on the ice. The short wave, high-frequency sets are generally preferred in the Arctic, for they can carry great distances with small power and an aerial of a few feet in height. Captain S. C. Hooper, U.S.N., one of the greatest radio experts in the world, especially on radio equipment for planes, is giving the expedition the benefit of his expert advice and help.
As the South Pole itself is on a plateau over ten thousand feet high landing on it is going to be difficult, because it is likely to be very cold, but what is more important, the air at that height of nearly two miles has lost so much of its denseness, that it will require more power to take the plane off the snow. The landing speed also will be faster. It is clear that this matter must be worked out with the utmost care because it would be impossible to get back to base from that distance should the plane for any reason be unable to rise after landing. There are some planes that cannot even reach that altitude. Our plane will need a ceiling of twice that altitude. This landing will be further complicated by the fact that we must have on board when we land at least twelve hundred gallons of gasoline and a thousand pounds or so of emergency equipment. This weight, of course, will make the landing speed faster. We do not know whether we shall be able to land there but we are extremely anxious to do so in order to take scientific observations.
Reaching the pole itself is only a part of the work to be done by our expedition. The total unknown region is an area of 4,600,000 square miles, the circumference of which area is about 9,000 sea miles, more than one-third of the distance around the world. As the ice barrier has prevented ships from reaching the land, no one knows just where the land begins. Airplanes can fly over this ice pack with ease where the ordinary ship would meet with certain disaster, but the flying would be hazardous in case of a forced landing.
It must not be thought that even one or two expeditions can disclose very much of the secrets of the Antarctic.
In the plane itself on the final dash, it is possible that we shall carry a small team of light dogs and a sled. The plane will be capable of carrying the necessary load. That is why we prefer a large plane for this work. In addition to that equipment, there will be carried in the plane a primus stove, reindeer sleeping bag, two months food supply including pemmican (the great Arctic food), chocolate, tea, and hardtack, together with dog food; also a special tent such as we carried on the North Pole flight, medical kit, skis, snowshoes, extra shoes and clothing, rifles, ammunition, and hunting knives.
This equipment will be used in case of a forced landing, when we should have to hike back to base. I am not prepared to say just what chances we should have of getting back. That would depend, of course, on our distance from the coast line.
The Antarctic can be conquered because a permanent base can be established that will not float away, as would be the case when putting down bases on the moving ice fields of the frozen polar area. Were it not possible to place these permanent bases, the frightful meteorological conditions would make the conquest of Antarctica by air well-nigh impossible.
How great it will be, looking down into tens of thousands of square miles of regions never before looked upon by a human being, so far as we know. I must admit, too, that although the primary object of the expedition is scientific, it will be most gratifying if we succeed in planting the American flag at the South Pole—at the bottom of the world.