With Byrd at the South Pole (1930)

Jacob Juenger

This documentary follows Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd and his trek to and into Antarctica. Directed by Julian Johnson. Oscar winner for Best Cinematography.

Transcript

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00:01:15Ladies and gentlemen, my comrades and I are glad to be home.

00:01:21For almost two years, we have missed familiar surroundings.

00:01:27All that you have about you here.

00:01:29Land, grass, green trees, voices other than our own.

00:01:35The warm rays of the sun.

00:01:38Nearly everything that makes life worthwhile.

00:01:41We have at last gotten back.

00:01:44And we are eager to express our thanks to the American public

00:01:49for having made possible our success.

00:01:53Your warm-hearted welcome has meant much to us.

00:01:57Your generous support enabled us properly to equip the expedition.

00:02:03Your good wishes and continued faith in our success sustained us throughout.

00:02:12I want you to feel that we are most grateful.

00:02:17We invaded the bottom of the world for advancement of science

00:02:20and to add to the known areas of the surface of the earth.

00:02:25The South Polar region are as big as the United States and Mexico combined.

00:02:30And most of it is unknown.

00:02:33And man will not be satisfied.

00:02:36And he knows the globe upon which he lives.

00:02:42As far as the definite accomplishments of the expedition,

00:02:45we must leave the verdict to the future and to science.

00:02:50Suffice is to say that by good fortune,

00:02:54we accomplished even more than we set out to do.

00:02:59However, we still have a big task ahead of us in filing our scientific data.

00:03:08The motion pictures you're about to see

00:03:12reached the United States by fast steamer in advance of our arrival.

00:03:18It was condensed and arranged by Paramount from 30 miles of film.

00:03:23The whole great continent of Antarctica is white and silent and dead.

00:03:29The darkness, the loneliness, and above all, the unavoidable monotonous.

00:03:36My men accepted the never-failing sense of humor.

00:03:40They accepted every danger and hazard as a matter of course.

00:03:47They had their share of faults,

00:03:49but they held throughout a determination

00:03:52to make the expedition a success,

00:03:55and that they did.

00:03:57And to them goes the credit.

00:04:01So different do values become in Antarctica

00:04:04that neither fame nor wealth nor social position counted.

00:04:09Every man had to stand on his feet

00:04:11to what he was to the expedition

00:04:14and to his comrades.

00:04:17I was only one of them,

00:04:19and I'm proud of it.

00:04:22I want to particularly emphasize

00:04:25that so different did values become

00:04:28down there

00:04:29that the lowliest job

00:04:31often became the most important.

00:04:37Other expeditions

00:04:38of other countries

00:04:40have endured hardships

00:04:41equal to and surpassing ours.

00:04:45We owe a great debt to them

00:04:47for the knowledge they gave us

00:04:48through the sacrifices they made.

00:04:51I refer particularly

00:04:53to Scott, Shackleton, and Amos,

00:04:57who lost their lives

00:04:58in the polar regions.

00:05:01By taking advantage

00:05:03of their experiences

00:05:04and modern science,

00:05:06we were helped greatly.

00:05:08But even with these advantages,

00:05:11exploration in the south polar regions

00:05:13will always be hazardous.

00:05:15It is man against the elements

00:05:17in a primitive state.

00:05:20I am gratified, of course,

00:05:22that we accomplished

00:05:23what we set out to do.

00:05:25But for my part,

00:05:27and above all else,

00:05:28I am grateful

00:05:30that these companions of mine

00:05:31are returning safely

00:05:33to their families

00:05:34without the loss of a man.

00:05:37And for this,

00:05:39I give thanks to Providence.

00:05:40and above all else,

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01:06:50They're off.

01:06:51On their way at last.

01:06:52Oh, the sky is clear.

01:06:54It is the tingling moment.

01:06:56It's win or lose now, life or death.

01:06:58The plane rises slowly to circle Little America

01:07:00and square away for the unknown.

01:07:02It soars over.

01:07:03And Dick Bird says that all he could think of

01:07:05were those puffy shipmates left behind

01:07:07who sacrificed two years of their lives

01:07:09to push the quartet over the pole.

01:07:11The small plane is in the air with them

01:07:13and takes this close-up picture.

01:07:15Of course, it can't go to the pole,

01:07:16but feels important as an ambitious escort for a while,

01:07:19like a playful puppy running along as the big dog

01:07:22leaves to answer the call of battle.

01:07:24The escort plane has to leave

01:07:26and takes his last glimpse of the Floyd Bennett

01:07:28speeding gracefully over that desert area

01:07:30of magnetic mystery at the bottom of the world,

01:07:33which has lured so many men to death.

01:07:35Now they're alone,

01:07:36sea birds studying the sun compass,

01:07:38charting his course to keep from wandering

01:07:40like a lost eagle over that featureless expanse of ice.

01:07:44See half a mile below them the crevasses,

01:07:46those frozen furrows of snow and ice,

01:07:49like waves of some giant and ghostly ocean

01:07:51struck motionless by magic.

01:07:54An east wind has sprung up,

01:07:56and Bird lays the nose of his plane ten degrees to the left.

01:07:58To fly straight south, he must now fly southeast,

01:08:01or head southeast.

01:08:02The magnetic compass is useless.

01:08:04Flying now at a lower altitude to avoid the drift of the wind,

01:08:07they look closer at those ice fissures,

01:08:09which loom larger, like the corrugations of a giant washboard.

01:08:13They measure fifty feet from ridge to ridge.

01:08:16The air is bumpy here,

01:08:17the men crawl over each other in the heavily loaded plane

01:08:19like bees in a hide, each at his task.

01:08:22Bird navigating,

01:08:23Vulcan piloting,

01:08:24McKinley surveying,

01:08:25and June making the motion picture record,

01:08:27or taking a turn at the wheel.

01:08:31They are hundreds of miles away from Little America,

01:08:34which now seems quiet and peaceful.

01:08:37The radio operator with receivers clamped to his head,

01:08:39strains his ears for messages from that frozen void to the south.

01:08:43He waits for those little dots and dashes

01:08:45from Harold June's wireless key in the plane.

01:08:47Out in the mess room,

01:08:49the rest of the men wait in silence around the long table,

01:08:51their faces framed in anxiety,

01:08:53their lips tense in suspense,

01:08:55their ears trained on that loudspeaker

01:08:57through which the radio operator relays to them

01:08:59those same dots and dashes as he receives them.

01:09:03In the plane,

01:09:04the explorers face the test of their lives.

01:09:06The bristling peaks of the Queen Maud Mountains

01:09:09rise up ten to fifteen thousand feet before them,

01:09:12like ramparts of frozen rock barring the path.

01:09:15Bird studies the range.

01:09:16The plane is climbing under full power.

01:09:18A ton of gas has been consumed.

01:09:20The plane now weighs thirteen thousand pounds,

01:09:22but it has to climb over two miles.

01:09:25Now they are approaching the Axel Highberg Glacier.

01:09:27Over ten thousand feet above sea level.

01:09:30The plane is too low.

01:09:31It needs height to get through the mountain walls.

01:09:34The plane struggles.

01:09:35The controls turn loosely in Vulcan's hands.

01:09:38Bird knows what that needs.

01:09:39The grade is too steep.

01:09:41The overloaded wagon may begin to run back downhill.

01:09:43He sends orders forward to Vulcan.

01:09:57The Vulcan shouts,

01:09:58we must drop two hundred pounds immediately or go back.

01:10:01Of course, they could drop gasoline,

01:10:02but if they sacrifice their gas, they fail.

01:10:04Bird decides overboard with food.

01:10:06Food that stands between them and death

01:10:08in case of a forced landing.

01:10:10Down it goes.

01:10:11Food that keeps them alive one month.

01:10:13The ship, relieved of weight, rises.

01:10:15Heroic reaching winds slowly but surely up the glacier.

01:10:17The food is lost on the barren slopes of that frozen,

01:10:20windswept ice, but the fuel is saved.

01:10:22Bird has played his ace.

01:10:23If the Antarctic trumps that, the game is lost.

01:10:26Hear those motors pulling.

01:10:29Some of that grim look leaves the Viking face

01:10:31of that master pilot Vulcan

01:10:33as he smiles back over his shoulder and nods.

01:10:35We made it.

01:10:36Oh, boy, what a grand and glorious feeling.

01:10:38Just the way you feel after a reckless driver misses you.

01:10:40And here we are looking right down

01:10:42on top of Queen Maud herself, bald as a doorknob.

01:10:45They must fly 50 miles over those seared, lifeless peaks.

01:10:48A forced landing here means instant death.

01:10:51The whirling blades of their propellers drive them on.

01:10:53At nearly 90 miles an hour, not a beat is missed.

01:10:55The mighty circle of mountains gradually sinks below

01:10:57as they near the great south polar plateau.

01:11:01Bird is relieved, but his face is still serious.

01:11:04They have passed over the dreaded hump,

01:11:05and the pole lies dead ahead.

01:11:07For the first time, man views the south polar plateau from the air.

01:11:10It is a stark expanse of frozen silence

01:11:13that extends for thousands of square miles

01:11:15at an altitude of 10,000 feet above sea level.

01:11:19Looking down over the plane's giant shock absorber,

01:11:21they study the smoke plant table land beneath them.

01:11:25Looks simple, but if forced to land,

01:11:27it would be impossible to take off again at that altitude

01:11:29with their heavy load.

01:11:31A headwind has reduced their speed.

01:11:34Back in Little America, the men still sit in nerve-taught silence.

01:11:37They have sat there for 10 hours, listening, listening,

01:11:42always listening.

01:11:45The plane flies into the heart of the polar plateau,

01:11:48motors purring evenly, smoothly,

01:11:50thanks to the boys who conditioned them.

01:11:51The only worry is, will the gas hold out?

01:11:54Bird is at his instruments.

01:11:55His compass is sexting, studying intently the sun.

01:11:58The horizon, fate has been kind.

01:11:59The sky is not overcast.

01:12:00If it were, his sexting would be useless,

01:12:03and he would be lost.

01:12:04Carefully and methodically,

01:12:05he marks his findings for every observation.

01:12:09There, they are at the South Pole.

01:12:11The observations click.

01:12:12Spherical geometry proves the calculation.

01:12:15It is 1.25 in the morning of November 29th, 1929.

01:12:20Dick takes out the flag weighted with a stone

01:12:22from Floyd Bennett's grave.

01:12:24It is the symbol and the monument

01:12:25of the supreme accomplishment.

01:12:27Through the trap door, the flag and stone drop together.

01:12:30There they go, down, down.

01:12:32In this historic moment, Dick Bird watches

01:12:34as this simple token of tenderness and achievement

01:12:36flutters down to rest forever

01:12:38at the very bottom of the world.

01:12:43And then on the back of his paper of calculations,

01:12:46the commander writes the message

01:12:47that carried back to civilization,

01:12:49the greatest news item in the world

01:12:51that memorable morning.

01:12:53June at the wireless key

01:12:54taps out the dots and the dashes.

01:12:56Back in the snow-buried huts in Little America,

01:12:58the radio operator sits tense before the control board,

01:13:01waiting with keen ears to pick that historic flash

01:13:04out of the air.

01:13:05Now here it comes.

01:13:06At last the news they have listened for so anxiously.

01:13:08It comes in those same dots and dashes.

01:13:10Oh boy, the news!

01:13:27The waiting men receive the happy news.

01:13:29That circle of grim silence jumps into life

01:13:31as though each man had been stuck with an electric needle.

01:13:33It was their victory also.

01:13:35Russell Owen of the New York Times,

01:13:36ace of newspaper men,

01:13:38hammers out the news for the eager millions.

01:13:40Bird made it!

01:13:42But back on the plane,

01:13:43the great moment was past.

01:13:44They had actually gone six miles beyond the pole.

01:13:47Bird had wanted to go 50,

01:13:48but feared it might cost their lives.

01:13:50The wind is rising steadily.

01:13:51Clouds are forming behind them.

01:13:53Now he and his shipmates face the tremendous problem

01:13:55of getting back over the same course.

01:13:57They must outrun a storm.

01:13:59A single miscalculation,

01:14:00and they will be trapped on the plateau

01:14:02or in the mountains.

01:14:02Remember, they had abandoned 200 pounds of food.

01:14:05Their hope now is in the smooth running of the motors.

01:14:09Their safety depends upon the amount of gasoline

01:14:11remaining in the tanks.

01:14:12It was to conserve this that the food was thrown overboard.

01:14:16Vulcan has been feeding his motors on a lean mixture,

01:14:18and sometimes they rebel and cough dangerously.

01:14:21June checks the gas in the tanks

01:14:22and discovers there is just enough to take them

01:14:25to their emergency depot at the foot of the Queen Maud range.

01:14:28All depends upon careful flying and the elements.

01:14:33Bird's careful observations bring them back

01:14:35over the High Bird Glacier,

01:14:37the honeycombed, wind-worn pass out of that wilderness

01:14:39of barren desolation.

01:14:40They are sliding down to the depot

01:14:42where the thirsty motors can be refreshed.

01:14:47Little America waits anxiously

01:14:49while the plane has landed and refueled.

01:14:51The last danger has been cleared.

01:14:54They are in the air again,

01:14:55returning over the furrows and crevasses on their last lap home.

01:14:59The wind is on their tail,

01:15:00and they are making over 100 miles an hour.

01:15:02At the base, the men stand out in the sunlit cold,

01:15:05straining their eyes into the southern sky.

01:15:07Bird, keeping a careful log of time and speed,

01:15:10knows he is near home.

01:15:11He keeps constant watch through his field grasses.

01:15:13How close would they hit it?

01:15:15Now in the distance, he spies the object of his search.

01:15:17It is the towers of Little America,

01:15:19which they left 18 hours ago.

01:15:21They have flown 1,600 miles over a waste,

01:15:23emptier and more deadly than any ocean.

01:15:26Oh boy, what a welcome sight that is to Dick and his pals.

01:15:30There ahead of them is the place they have called home

01:15:32for almost two years.

01:15:33Just a clump of huts buried in the snow,

01:15:36the only speck of civilization on the great Antarctic continent.

01:15:41The men wait there on the ice,

01:15:43and they see it speeding toward them from the south.

01:15:45There it is above them.

01:15:46It's the plane.

01:15:47They point, hats in the air.

01:15:48They hear the motors as it circles overhead.

01:15:51Wow, it's time to celebrate.

01:15:54And how?

01:15:55They don't feel any happier than that quartet in the plane.

01:15:58Bird grips walking by the hand.

01:16:00They all share the enthusiasm.

01:16:02It looks as though it is in the bag.

01:16:04And now for the landing.

01:16:05The plane points her nose into the wind

01:16:06and starts out on that glide earthward.

01:16:09Easy on the stick, old scout.

01:16:10Put her down easy.

01:16:11Her skis all free.

01:16:12Touch the snow in a flurry.

01:16:13A perfect land.

01:16:14She's down and safely back.

01:16:16It's over.

01:16:18Up and out of them.

01:16:20Here she comes.

01:16:21Taxiing up to the grandstand.

01:16:22The grand rush now.

01:16:23Oh, for a chance to slap those plucky devils on the back.

01:16:26Here are the pioneers, we will ever lay the sound.

01:16:32The blood of men rise again to proliferous task for.

01:16:39Cruise the sea, the seapak thousand Miitze donors importance for.

01:16:46The land isены in a stable board.

01:16:47The points of faith to save your name.

01:16:50In every piece of wind.

01:17:06And here they are back in the old homestead, back in their own buried hut, safe and sound

01:17:11after thrills and adventures enough to last a lifetime, and the joy of an accomplishment

01:17:15that blew hats off around the world.

01:17:17Here comes the cook with steaming mugs of java.

01:17:19I'll bet that feels good way down inside.

01:17:21And now for the kidding, as they ask the commander how tall the pole was and which way the stripes

01:17:26ran.

01:17:28Falcon has a frostbite on his lip, but he's not worrying.

01:17:31It could have been a lot worse.

01:17:33I like the modesty of that man, you know.

01:17:35As seafaring men would say, I like the cut of his jib and the human qualities that temper

01:17:40his proven ability as a leader of men.

01:17:42Dick Bird, you are the kind of a bird I like.

01:17:45I'm not talking feathers either.

01:17:46Dick sure has a grip on that spoon.

01:17:53The big jobs are done.

01:17:55Here comes Gould and his bunch from the mountains, where they did a lot of scientific work and

01:17:59stood by in case of a forced landing.

01:18:02Look at those huskies pull.

01:18:03That's what the ice eaters call mushing.

01:18:05It's been a long pull, but now they're homeward bound.

01:18:08The men watched the approach of the little van that hooked it up to the mountains and back.

01:18:11You know it takes physique and stamina to stand that grime.

01:18:15At last, all of the parties are reunited.

01:18:18Bird has discovered 220,000 square miles of land and found and named new mountain ranges.

01:18:23The route to the pole has been mapped.

01:18:24A lot of scientific data has been added to knowledge of the Antarctic continent, and not

01:18:29a single man has been lost during all of these months of battle with the elements, due to

01:18:32being careful, and thorough planning and preparations for every activity.

01:18:40Now to get home, back to wives and sweethearts and children.

01:18:44The pack ice has held up the city of New York over a month.

01:18:47At last, the radio operator picks up the captain's welcome message.

01:19:04Anxiety and fear of being trapped rushes the work of dismantling and readiness for departure.

01:19:08The luggage is loaded on the sleds and drawn to the water's edge.

01:19:11To escape the grip of the oncoming winter, the men must get their luggage out in a hurry.

01:19:20This temporary camp on the edge of the ice is 12 miles away from Little America.

01:19:24As the temperature goes down, the men await the expected vessel,

01:19:27which is their only hope against another year in the Antarctic, and that would not be so hot.

01:19:33There it is now, a ghost ship, the city of New York.

01:19:36Her hull hidden, but her wraith-like spars rising above the low-hanging mist.

01:19:41The men see it and cheer. Here is the means of escape from the ice.

01:19:45Here is the ticket home. The dream ship materializes out of the fog,

01:19:49bright and ghost-like, but still the sturdiest little bark in the world.

01:19:53Igloo welcomes her with a quizzical look. That hound needs a tailor mighty bed.

01:19:59On the focus of the ship, a number of the crew gather to be the first to greet these lost

01:20:04snowmen,

01:20:04for whom they have battled their way through hundreds of miles of floating ice.

01:20:08Every spar and line is caked in solid white.

01:20:12She pulls alongside the bay ice, a regular crystal dock made to order by old man Winter himself,

01:20:17and the lost are found with a hearty exchange of boisterous greetings and stories.

01:20:22Bird was not there to meet the boat. He was back in Little America, last to leave the abandoned camp.

01:20:27I guess we all know how he felt. You know that little pang that strikes inside

01:20:31during the stirring moments such as this?

01:20:34McKinley gathers the folds of the old flag in his arms and turns the tattered emblem over to the commander.

01:20:40Little America is to be merely a spot on the map, a dead city on a dead continent.

01:20:46Over there in the distance are the two planes. They served him well. Goodbye, old timers.

01:20:51The good ship, Bowling, couldn't get through the pack to take them back.

01:20:56And there is one of the sleds that served goo. Left there is a monument on the desolate plain.

01:21:02The ship had to be loaded in six hours, and Captain Melville is about ready to shove off as Bird

01:21:07arrives.

01:21:08Melville did a great job. The bowling crew was eager to come too, but the ship couldn't stand the ice

01:21:13pressure.

01:21:13And look at that armor plating of solid ice. More than 200 tons of ice on her hull and rigging.

01:21:19She had been blown off of her course 300 miles. Looks like that stuff is half a foot thick.

01:21:25That coating gets thicker as more spray and moisture freeze on. What a swell place for a morning bath.

01:21:32This stalwart son of the North takes a last look to the South. It's farewell forever.

01:21:43The city of New York heads North, pulls away from that solid cake of ice on the doorstep of the

01:21:48Antarctic, and no one left behind.

01:21:53The commander takes one long last look at the land of his glorious adventure and scientific achievement.

01:22:00Oh, I've beendar from that.

01:22:01Come, oldian.

01:22:03Come, old man.

01:22:05Come on.

01:22:12Looks like a crop season.

01:22:13Oh, laid off myакиys.

01:22:13Come, arm standing.

01:22:16Oh, my God.

01:22:18This is life for miedo.

01:22:20Come.

01:22:21Hello?

01:22:21Come, old man.

01:22:22You're welcome.

01:22:32You

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