On his second expedition (1933-35) Byrd planned to establish an advance base, named Bolling, in the interior of the continent to collect meteorological data. Byrd, alone, collected most of the data because he felt he could not ask fellow crew members to assume such a risky assignment, and because he desired the solitude.
Look inside the Advance Base Hut using Java Script.
Place the cursor over the image to stop it from rotating. Click on image and pull cursor to left or right to pan through the hut's interior.
Clicking on the + allows you to zoom in, and - button zooms out.
The
hut was designed to insulate in the extreme cold. Before he left for this
expedition Byrd asked a Boston cabinetmaker to build the hut, which was shipped
with him to Antarctica. Though the hut was framed in yellow pine, the walls
were only 4 inches thick. The walls consisted of wood sandwiched between strips
of cardboard. Fire-proof canvas lined the interior and kapok, a cotton-like
material, insulated the thin walls. Aluminum sheets covered the ceiling and
upper walls to reflect light and heat. To keep the wind drafts to a minimum,
the crew buried the hut completely in snow and the entrance was through the
roof. Two tunnels extended from the hut where Byrd stored supplies for his
long encampment. For seven months, he lived in this hut which was 9 feet 10
inches tall, 14 feet 3 inches long, and 10 feet wide.
The only major problem with the hut was it lacked sufficient ventilation. The kerosene heater kept Byrd and the hut quite warm, but carbon monoxide built up inside. He used the heater sparingly, even when the temperature dropped to -70 degrees Fahrenheit.
After 2 non-stop days of construction in -60° F temperatures, the southern-most
weather station in the world appeared with the southern-most weatherman ready
to take readings for the next few months. The expedition crew of 9 left Byrd
in April 1934 at the Advance Base and did not return again until August with
more supplies.
See the location
of the Advance Base, and a drawing
of the layout of the Base.
By August, Byrd's health was in jeopardy because of carbon monoxide poisoning, malnutrition, and hypothermia. A 3-man crew stayed with Byrd to care for him before they all returned to Little America in October. The physical and psychological challenges for Byrd were innumerable, but he remarked in his memoirs of this expedition that he never regretted his stay at Bolling advance base because he learned to appreciate "sheer beauty and miracle of being alive."
Read Byrd's memoir of this challening expedition, Alone.
Below is a list of supplies Byrd brought with him and packed away in 2 tunnels just outside the hut.
