Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
6
Eart h's Land's End
The Exploration of Scott Glacier
The First Byrd Antarctic Expedition had been extremely successful at capturing
the imagination of the American public. So in spite of a homecoming to the Great De-
pression, Byrd sought to return to the Ice and extend the discoveries of his recent cam-
paign. The creation of the Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition (BAE II) at a time of such
national austerity is largely to the credit of its leader's exceptional promotional skills.
With the donation of materials and supplies from many manufacturers and the public
donation of funds, the expedition sailed south in autumn 1933, one year delayed from the
targeted departure.
Byrd had brought the age of airborne exploration to Antarctica, and on his second
venture he intended to push the horizon even farther from aloft. The pride of the expe-
dition was a new two-motor Curtiss-Wright Condor biplane equipped with both skis
and floats, which had a range of thirteen hundred miles fully loaded. As the ship ap-
proached the pack ice, the plane was lowered to the water for takeoV and used to scout
leads through the pack ahead of the vessel. On January 17, 1934, a landing party reoccu-
pied Little America at the Bay of Whales.
Even more than its predecessor, the Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition went forth
in the name of science. Among the fifty-six men who wintered over were two geologists,
a geophysicist, three physicists, two meteorologists, three biologists, a physician, a sur-
veyor, and an aerial photographer. Numerous technological advances were brought to
the service of the expedition. Whereas the public had been informed of the progress of
Byrd's first expedition through messages radioed via teletype, voice broadcasts through
