Photographing Byrd’s Adventures in Little America (Aug, 1935)
Photographing Byrd’s Adventures in Little America
by TED MAGEE
Exciting and comic events of daily life in the frozen, blizzard swept Antarctic were preserved in pictures by two daring photographers. Here is their pictorial story of a South Pole expedition.
FROM Antarctica, the bottom of the world, the Robinson Crusoes of Science have returned with Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd with tons of data on the greatest expanse of unexplored land on this earth.
In the desert of ice, blizzards, and darkness of the South Polar regions the second Byrd expedition gathered more scientific knowledge in eighteen months than all the expeditions to the Ross Sea sector during the last 100 years.
The results of the expedition will be preserved in the books and lectures of Admiral Byrd, but even those who can not read can witness the actual adventures, the daily life, and the work of the Admiral and his group of explorers.
This record was brought back for millions to see in 135,000 feet of movie film, exposed by John L. Herrmann, chief cinematographer of the expedition, and his assistant, Carl O. Peterson, radio operator.
To obtain this pictorial account, the two photographers worked under all sorts of discouraging conditions and occasionally under obvious danger. Throughout the months of darkness that engulfed Little America during the South Pole’s long night, the photographers obtained their action pictures by means of flares and banks of photoflood lights and entertained the group of explorers with motion picture shows in the Penguin Theater. The Penguin Theater was established in the mess room. After meals the tables were stacked along the walls, the benches placed in rows and the show started. The expedition carried 97 feature length motion pictures from eight Hollywood studios, in addition to comedies and even a travelogue.
“The pictures lasted pretty nearly through the winter night,”
Chief Photographer Herrmann said. “When we had shown them all, we voted on favorites and showed them over again. You can be sure that the Penguin Theater had the most appreciative audience in the Americas — North, South, and Little.
“When daylight finally arrived, we were anxious to get moving. The first few days of twilight were devoted to digging out from the snow drifts. There was a lot of shoveling to be done and everyone had to pitch in.” After five airplanes were dug out of their igloo ice hangars, the work of aerial exploration began. The expedition brought three of the planes to the Bay of Whales, the other two having been left buried in the ice by the previous Byrd expedition. Before the long night descended on the little colony the hangars were dug into the snow. Rectangular snow blocks were cut and used for constructing the walls high enough to clear the top of the wings. The blocks froze in position. When the planes were towed into place by tractors, the front and rear walls were erected. Bamboo poles were placed over the hangars and covered with tarpaulin to form the roof. Blizzards delayed the work twice, and after the storms the men had to dig the planes out from under the snow. Through the long Polar night, the ships rested snugly under a blanket of snow while the mechanics overhauled the engines in a subterranean shop and installed instruments in the ships. When the sun finally rose again, the planes were dug out. Buried for five years under tons of snow and ice, the Fairchild and Ford ships, abandoned by the previous expedition, were found to be in fairly good condition after excavation.
After the planes were dug out of their hangars, the photographers spent a great deal of their time in the air. The two men made 26 flights for pictures. In fourteen months, under the direction of Admiral Byrd and Chief Pilot Harold June, the planes made 142 flights and flew a total of 12,900 miles, using more than 6,000 gallons of fuel and 500 gallons of oil. The fliers, accompanied by scientific members of the expedition, explored more than 100,000 square miles of territory.
In addition to obta