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With Admiral Byrd In Little America

Coram Foster

At the bottom of the world, in the South Polar Regions, Admiral Byrd and his men lived for fourteen months where no man had ever been able to stay more than a month or two. During a part of this time it was impossible for them to leave or for anyone to get to them. Yet they listened to music and messages from all over the world, and almost every day they sent out to the world the story of what they were doing.

AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD

When the Byrd expedition sailed from New York City to Antarctica , it carried a library of a thousand volumes. This library was for the most part a collection of adventure stories which Admiral Byrd had selected to give pleasure to his men through the long darkness of the antarctic night.

These books were all at hand whenever a man had a few hours off for candy eating and reading. There had been provided for every man on the expedition a hundred pounds of candy — about a quarter of a pound for each day the party remained in Antarctica. This amount of candy was at least four times what the men would have eaten back home, but it was no more than enough for them. The terrific cold of Antarctica compelled every man to keep up in his body more heat than would have been necessary in warmer lands, and candy makes great heat in the body. Admiral Byrd believed in taking the best care of his party; for this reason his men always had candy to eat and books to read during leisure moments.

And certainly there was plenty of leisure after the dark months arrived, following the construction of the village of Little America upon Ross Ice Field. The buildings of this little settlement, arranged in three groups, formed the largest and the most nearly complete community that had ever been built in the Polar regions. They also provided both homes and workshops for Admiral Byrd's men.

Of the chief group, the Administration Building was most important. Besides living quarters for a number of the party, including Admiral Byrd, it contained a radio laboratory with instruments for sending and receiving messages. Directly behind this building were the house for medical supplies and that which contained the food supplies. These two were separated from each other to reduce loss in case of fire. It was, indeed, the danger of fire which made it necessary to separate all of the main buildings from each other.

Chief among the buildings of the second group was the Mess Hall Here were more living quarters, a radio station, a storehouse, and a photo workshop , all under one roof. A little distance away were the quarters for the dogs, and the sledge-repair and blacksmith shop.

The third group of buildings included the aviation repair shop and storage space for the gasoline supply.

THE LONG DARKNESS

None of Admiral Byrd's important work in Little America was done between late March and the middle of October, 1929. This does not, of course, mean either that the sun vanished for all that period of time or that work stopped completely. As a matter of fact, the sun was still a daily visitor in April, and it again became a daily visitor in late August. Moreover, even without the light of the sun, some outdoor activity was possible. There were always the twilight hours of noon - time provided by the moon.

No air flights could be made, however, and only the most necessary travel with dog sleds was attempted; for even with the aid of the moon, the light at best was poor. There was another, even more important, reason why little work could be done during these months: this was the time of the winter storms. These, in their full strength, brought winds that no man could stand against, and such snows as are unheard of elsewhere in the world.

When Little America was first set up on the Ross Ice Field, its tiny buildings made black spots against the surrounding whiteness. Long before the winter was over, however, snow had banked and drifted over all except the tallest points . A bit of the roof of the Mess Hall could be seen at times. Some of the tall radio towers managed to stay clear. But the rest of the buildings could be located only by the unevenness of the snow's surface where an airplane hangar , the dogs' quarters, the Mess Hall, the gymnasium, or some other building lay buried.

No small part of those winter months was lived underground by Byrd and his men, or nearly underground. They went by tunnel from the Administration Building to the Mess Hall. By tunnel, too, they could reach others of the most important buildings. Poking their heads out of doors into the gray blackness of the night, Byrd's men were almost sure at times that they heard the singing of birds. Often two of the men would look sharply at each other in wondering surprise as their ears caught sounds which were strangely like the shrill, sharp cries of animals.

At other times there were curious groans and moans. And even in the shelter of their quarters sometimes the men caught a rumbling, rolling murmur which could have been nothing but a trolley car in the distance, except that they knew that there were no such things as trolley cars about. All these magic sounds, and more, were made by the restless shifting of the ice upon which their houses stood; by the pressure of the water beneath the ice; and by the furious winds which tore constantly at the roofs.

These magic sounds would have been even more disturbing than they were if the inside of the Mess Hall and the Administration Building had been as dark as was the icy snow-field without. Happily , the Byrd expedition brought with it a complete outfit of electric equipment to brighten its antarctic home.

With the last of April the sun disappeared, leaving only a faint glint of brightness now and then along the horizon . Inside the huts, however, a flood of light for all purposes was provided by an electric generator , which was run by a gasoline engine. This was the first machine of its kind ever carried into the antarctic regions. It was by electric light that the storekeeper checked his goods. The cook turned an electric switch when he went into his kitchen to prepare a meal.

Not only did the men of Little America have electricity for lighting, but they had it for medical purposes as well. There was enough electricity to run the two powerful sun lamps which Doctor Francis D. Codman, chief physician of the party, had brought along. Each member of the expedition was required to bathe regularly in the light rays of these lamps. This rule was followed throughout the entire time of the long winter night, while the sun was not present to furnish a natural healthgiving light.

IN TOUCH WITH THE WORLD

The electrical equipment, too, ran the radio. Other Polar explorers had carried radios, but none ever had provided such equipment as Byrd took. So complete was his preparation in this direction that all through his stay in Little America he lived with his finger tip on an electric bell, by which he could practically ring up the entire world. Nothing like it had ever been done before. At almost a moment's notice Byrd could call New York, South America, Europe, San Francisco, Australia, and practically any spot upon the world's surface. Each day he was able, if he wished, to inform the world what was happening in Little America.

By radio Byrd was able to tell the outside world when he started out men with dog teams to lay supplies of food and gasoline southward in order to prepare for his flight to the South Pole itself. He was able to inform his vast audience when the first supplies had been placed a hundred miles or so from Little America; when the second supplies had been placed a hundred miles beyond the first; when the third supplies had been left, and the fourth. He was able to let the world know that he was doing this work with four teams of dogs, and that each team carried about a thousand pounds of provisions . These supplies were to be used in case Byrd's plane was forced to land somewhere on the flight to the Pole and back to Little America.

Radio, too, carried amusement and information to Little America as easily as it carried news from Little America to the world. Sometimes a theater would broadcast its program for Byrd's men. While gathered around the receiving set in the Administration Building one afternoon, Byrd's party heard the welcome word that a supply of athletic equipment from the University of Pennsylvania was on its way to Little America.

Once, when Admiral Byrd was puzzled about the problem of comfortable sleeping conditions, the radio brought him the advice of other polar explorers. Fitzhugh Green and Captain Bob Bartlett, two famous explorers and adventurers, sent suggestions by radio as to how the party in Antarctica could avoid frozen clothes and other inconveniences while sleeping.

Every holiday which arrived while the expedition was at Antarctica was made cheerful by the radio. The day of the anniversary of Byrd's flight across the Atlantic brought messages of congratulation from all the world. On Easter, music fitting to the day was sent on from New York. On the Fourth of July there were addresses and music. And, finally, it was the radio which told the waiting world that the long darkness at Little America was at an end. This news was flashed out into space on August 25, 1929.

THE SUN RETURNS TO LITTLE AMERICA

For days the twilight hours which had numbered less than four in the middle of the long southern night had been lengthening, a little at a time. One week, there were five hours of twilight; the next six. Then there were ten, and down along the horizon could be seen for a space each day a promising golden tint. Finally there came a day when the sun itself was actually visible for a minute or so. This was not a true sunrise, however. But only a few days later, the sun itself rose majestic and bright one morning above the horizon. The little village in Antarctica was like another world!

For the stalwart crew and their slim, quiet commander, that must have been a time of great excitement which followed the return of the sun to the vast whiteness that made up the Ross Ice Field. There was, to begin with, the change from the glow of electricity inside the houses and the gray blackness of the out-of-doors to the sparkling beauty which the new sunlight made of the ice and snow.

But there was much more than that. There was, for example, the little thaw which every day of sunlight brought, gradually uncovering roofs to break the snowy stretches of Little America. Now a man could get out of the houses to stretch his legs, for the storms, or at least the most terrible storms, were past, and one dared to walk out in the open. There was work; and work, after the long days of idleness, was highly welcome to Byrd's men.

The dogs were mad with delight at being free from their winter quarters. They yelped and tugged joyfully as they were harnessed again to the sleds. The photographers brought out their cameras, and when nothing better offered, took pictures of the penguins waddling along, upright, like dignified old gentlemen; or of the killer-whales which began to push their long, slender snouts through the melting ice of the bay; or of a seal spinning in a frenzy with his mouth full of a half-swallowed fish that would neither go in nor out; or of the airplane hangars and their machine shops slowly coming out from under their coverings of snow. Little America had become a whirlpool of activity !

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

1. Name three ways of travel that Admiral Byrd and his men used from the time they left New York.

2. To see whether you know what Little America was like, write on your paper the words that belong where the letters are in the lines below. Your answer for the first letter is (a) Ross Ice Field.

Little America was built on the ___(a)___ in the ___(b)___ polar region. In June it is ___(c)___ in Antarctica, while it is ___(d)___ in our country. The buildings were arranged in ___(e)___ to avoid the danger from ___(f)___. After the snows came, only the high ___(g)___ of the ___(h)___ could be seen. Then the men passed from one building to another through ___ (i) ___ . Except for the moonlight, it was dark during the months of ___ (j) ___ . During the long night the men could do little out of doors because of the ___ (k) ___ and ___ (l) ___ .

3. Which of these animals and birds did the men see?

Eagles, wolves, seals, walruses, whales, horses, penguins.

4. Below are eight words, and eight sentences with letters in them. Choose the right word for each letter.

vanished community fitting frenzy

leisure equipment visible compelled

Hunger ___(a)___ them to eat grass and roots.

During vacation we have plenty of ___(b)___.

The village of Lakeside is a pleasant little ___(c)___.

The automobile ___(d)___ in the darkness.

Father bought all kinds of camping ___(e)___ for our trip.

The night was so dark that the road was not ___(f)___.

America is a ___(g)___ song to sing on the Fourth of July.

Elephants threw the horses into a ___(h)___ of excitement. Iz8xABWf6iHOotxX4+E4mEZt0i0LRS5z5wxma8PGKeT4JoQTinrlspJNnXecscf3