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Chapter 14 - Recovery
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Chapter 14 Recovery s Byrd’s disillusion with the peace crusade deepened during the latter half of 1938, his thoughts again turned southward. Replying near the end of August to an offer of dogs for his next adventure, he admitted that “I have plans for another expedition but they are somewhat immature so that I am not in a position to tell you anything definite.”1 Another season on the ice, however, was beyond him; he no longer possessed either the physical stamina or the emotional capability to command an Antarctic winter camp. Instead, he contemplated making “a flight from the United States to Australia via Antarctica.” When in the following summer his maturing plans for an aviation expedition at last coincided with government imperatives, he informed Harry that “I am going down to the Antarctic this year,” but, “of course, I do not intend to spend the winter.” He had already publicly committed himself to a privately sponsored endeavor “to map out, survey and claim territory definitely for the United States.” But he expressed hope to lead “a government-sponsored expedition.” As he told Harry, “I expect that I would be a good deal better off with several Government ships there.”2 The United States had not sponsored an Antarctic expedition since the days of Charles Wilkes nearly a century before. But the darkening world scene prompted Washington policy makers to consider the possible strategic and economic importance of the white continent. Cruising through the Pacific equatorial islands in November 1937, Richard Black, civil engineer on BAE II and now a field representative in the Department of the Interior’s Division of Territories and Island Possessions , discussed with his division director, Ernest Gruening, the possibility of a modest government expedition to the Antarctic that Black would lead. Finn 405 Ronne was also interested in leading a five-man party to the island archipelago off the Antarctic (then called Palmer) Peninsula from which the men would travel, presumably by dog power, down the coast to the Bay of Whales, where the ship that had dropped them off would pick them up. Before Ronne could complete negotiations with a Norwegian whaling vessel, Black had submitted a formal memorandum to Gruening, detailing his ideas. According to one account, Gruening was aware “of certain vague requirements of the Government for an official American venture into the Antarctic regions and he became active in encouraging such an enterprise.” “Before I knew what was happening ,” Ronne recalled, at least four federal agencies “had leaped into action and blown up my modest little plan into a much vaster Government expedition under Byrd, which duly took place.”3 Black’s initiative coincided with growing international interest in Antarctica, including , most disturbingly, the proclamation or reconfirmation of extravagant national claims. By the eve of World War II, France, Norway, and Argentina had announced sweeping rights of sovereignty to 290 degrees of the Antarctic Continent. None of these nations, however, had conducted extensive inland exploration. Nonetheless, Paris and Oslo joined the British, Australian, and New Zealand governments in 1938 to announce an agreement on “aerial rights” over the white continent , and the British ostentatiously dispatched a research vessel to study and chart South Polar waters. Following long-established policy, Washington rejected all explicit and implicit territorial claims to Antarctica, while quietly encouraging Lincoln Ellsworth to make personal claims of his own during the American aviatorexplorer ’s last and greatest journey south. Ellsworth duly claimed an area still known as the “American Highland” on the Indian Ocean side of the continent.4 And then there was Adolf Hitler. Late in the autumn of 1938, Berlin stunned the international diplomatic and polar communities with the announcement that Nazi Germany was immediately dispatching an expedition to claim a large swatch of the Antarctic continent. The official motive, which limited historical research has largely confirmed, was to shoulder Germany’s way into international whaling in the far southern seas. Whale sperm oil was essential not only for a variety of peacetime uses such as the production of margarine and soaps but also as a source of glycerine, “essential for explosives and precision instrument lubricants.” The chief promoter of the expedition was Hermann Göring, Hitler’s number-two man and director of a four-year plan designed to effect Germany’s immediate economic recovery and self-sufficiency. “To guarantee future whaling rights in rich Antarctic waters, Germany needed a foothold on the southern continent,” and its sailors and fliers undertook to do so...