Explorer: The Life of Richard E. Byrd

Chapter 9 - Zenith

Chapter 9 Zenith s the 1929 Antarctic winter clamped down on Little America, men tried to keep as busy as possible. The meteorologists slipped briefly out into the dark several times each day to read the instruments measuring temperature, barometric pressure, wind direction, and velocity. “We made observations of ice conditions and posted a night watchman to record that weird spectacle, the aurora australis, which corresponds to the aurora borealis in the Arctic.” Physicist Frank Davies conducted magnetic assessments. Radioman Malcolm Hanson conducted communication tests with New Zealand, went ten miles out on the dark and frigid barrier with Norman Vaughan for a week to conduct experiments on the ionosphere , kept the circuits open to radio stations KDKA and WGY in the States, and managed to link up with a University of Michigan observation post in Greenland that was measuring the aurora borealis. Comparing the two auroras kept the scientists excited, while the radio stations beamed news and programming directly to Little America, which not only entertained the Byrd expedition but kept it in public view as well. “Saturday night’s broadcast by WGY, KDKA have given the expedition more publicity than any other means,” one of Byrd’s contacts in the radio world cabled in early September. All the Gannett and Hearst papers gave daily space to forthcoming broadcasts to Antarctica, and the New York Times usually devoted two columns on its front page the morning after. Radio remained a primitive and exciting medium in 1929, and when the stations contacted Little America directly and spoke with Byrd or Hanson, it caused a worldwide sensation. KDKA “receive[d] thousands [of] letters from all parts of the world,” Byrd’s radio representative told him at one point, “and desire repeat [broadcast] on Sept 14, with me at the microphone asking you a few questions.”1 249 Russell Owen sent daily dispatches to the New York Times after Byrd reviewed them.The explorer later wrote deadpan that Owen “did a splendid job on a unique assignment. For the first time a day-by-day account of an Antarctic expedition was ‘covered’ like any other news event.”This was exactly what Byrd wanted, of course: to be seen and to have his expedition seen as a seamless part of the daily life and experiences of the American public. Byrd later professed delight in Owen’s Pulitzer Prize for the most outstanding news reporting of the year, “an award his accuracy, diligence, and alertness so richly deserve.” In practice, however, he remained suspicious of Owen and kept a close eye on him. “Owen’s right knee is swelling,” Byrd recorded near the end of April as Little America went into “winter routine.” “He said that fixing the fires wore him out, so he has now been relieved from all duties and he is doing nothing.” Several days later, the commander cabled Hilton Howell Railey, requesting that he “make strong suggestion to Sulzberger or Birchall that they have some of the other people down here write stories such as Doctor Coman , Charlie Lofgren, McKinley . . . Physicist Davies,” and others in order to “give a more comprehensive picture of expedition.”2 Byrd and his colleagues also kept the Paramount movie cameramen busy. Joe Rucker and Will Van der Veer had proved themselves up to their assignment from the start. Bracing themselves on swaying, spray-filled decks, they had filmed the storm that struck Bolling and City of New York on the way down from New Zealand. They went up into City’s rigging and down onto the ice to record from often ingenious angles the ships’ tedious, jarring journey through the pack. On one occasion they caught the image of City’s heavily smoking funnel reflected back from a sun-splashed ice floe. The men also managed to film part of the dramatic rescue on January 31 of several men pitched from Bolling’s deck into the water when the barrier gave way.The now dimly flickering images recorded nearly eighty years ago reflect the general panic as City’s overloaded lifeboat hit the water, its men rowing frantically toward their struggling mates. Rucker and Van der Veer later filmed the sledge trips that were ferrying supplies and aircraft parts from the ships to Little America, several aerial flights, and instrument readings both by daylight and by flares in the midst of the Antarctic night. Byrd once radioed Emanuel Cohen of Paramount News that “Joe and Van” were “on the job every minute,” and had gotten...