Evening star., 1926-05-17
BY LIEUT.. COMDR. IL. Y. BYRD,

Leader of the BYRD Polar Expedition.
KINGS BAY. Spitzbergen. May Ii
(By Wireless)-As we circled over the
Pole I thought of a little coin / car
| rled pinned to my shirt that had been
pinned to Peary's shirt when he
reached the Pole. For the second time
that little coin had reached the tor
of the world. / had also carried ii
with me in the Arctic last year
Now for the first time we concerned
ourselves with out return. What
would we do about the leaky Oil? II
was running out Of one of the extra
oil tanks we ourselves had put in the
plano and was no fault of the motor
which was functioning perfectly. We
| had Installed the tank to carry the
extra oil needed for the long flight
Much writing went backward and
! forward. Bennett wanted to try to
| md a landing place and land to
repair tho motor, but I vetoed that,
| for landing in uncertain places has
| ended number of otherwise success
full aviation expeditions.
Decided to Keep On.
For some hours Yet we would be
| probably be impossible to return
afoot. We decided to fly with motor
| until the oil pressure would drop, in
| dicattnS that the oil was gone
| l set our course for Greypoint,
! SpitZbergen, few miles eastward of
! Amsterdam Island, where we had left
! the land on the north course. Had
| the sun not been bright and the at
| moSphere clear ahead we would have
| aimed for the middle of the Spitzber-
| gen Islands, so as not to miss the
! lENN, ,Izk-
| Atlantic Ocean.
Soon It became my turn to pilot
| again. l checked the course carefully
| before taking the wheel and noted
| that the compass showed variations
/ as high as 80 degrees.
On the way to the Pole the varia-
| tfons of the compass had gradually
| increased from the time we left SpitZ.
bergen until the Pole was reached.
This was very interesting to me.
l knew it would interest the scientific
world, for variations in the polar sea
are largely unknown. and being un-
known is what makes uncertain the
navigation by compass from anything
moving as fast as an airplane.
Was Gauge of Wind Drift.
I was convinced now that we could
tell how much we might be drifted
by the wind to the right or left by
the amount the magnetic compass
would differ from the sun compass.
Suddenly it occurred to me that
here was a way to navigate, while
flying above a fog with no view of
the ground. So I no longer felt ap-
prehension about the airplane's great
enemy-fog.
When I took the wheel to pilot I
allowed myself to relax and the
rhythmical hum Of the motors made
me extremely drowsy. Before I
realized it 1 dozed off for an instant
and was brought to alertness by the
increased noise from the motors,
caused by increased speed from going
downward. 1 quickly brought the
plane to an even keel and saw to it
that I did not doZe off again.
Our labors before leaving had put
us under considerable strain and we
could not relax for a moment without
feeling fatigued.
Sextant Was Broken.
We had known that the wonderful
weather we had had would not last
long and had hurried to take advan-
tage Of it. We had perfect confidence
In HaineS of the United States
Weather Bureau and wanted to go
when he gave the word.
When Bennett took the wheel again
I found my precious sextant had
fallen from the chart board to the
deck, the vibration of the machine
having Jared it off The glass was
broken.
This sextant was a veteran of three
flights, including our 5000 miles of
flying in the Polar region last year.
But it will be easy to repair.
We had with us in addition to our
dashboard clock two Greenwich time
chronometers which I had corrected
daily for so long that 1 knew Green
wich time accurately to within q
second. MY two sun compasses. my
wrist watch, a present from Edsel
Ford, and another small watch had
all been set true to the time of the
meridian of longitude we were flying
along on our southerly course.
Extreme cold sometimes slows
watches greatly and 1 Rad to be alb
solutely certain that our sun COM
passes registered the correct time
AS a matter of fact, / was compelled
to change them several times, espe-
cially the one exposed to the cold
wind on the trap door.
When I brought these two sun
compasses with me there was none
left in the United States, but I pre-
dict that a great many will be In use
in a few years. not only for aircraft,
but for surface ships as well. I had
given the only other one in the States
to Capt. wilkins before he started on
his trip to Alaska. These compasses
were made by Albert Bumsted of the
National Geographic Society and pre-
sented to me by Dr. Grosvenor, the
society's president.
Elements Aided Flight.
The wind began to freshen and
change direction after we left the
Pole, and in an hour we were making
more than hundred miles an hour
The elements were surely smiling on
us that day, two Insignificant specks
Of mortality flying there over that
great, vast, white area in a small
plane speechlesS and deaf from the
motors-just q dot in the center of
10000 square miles of visible desc
lation.
We felt no larger than a pin point,
as lonely as tomb and as remote and
detached as a star. Here in another
world, far from herds of people, the
passions and Smallnesses of life fell
from our shoulders. What wonder
that we felt no emotion of achieve
ment or fear Of the death that lay
stretched beneath us, but instead i'm
personal and disembodied!
On and on we went it seemed for
ever onward. Our great speed had
II I4Ir k~1