Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-30
BOILING MENACED
AS ICE BREAKS Up
Byrd's Quick Wit Saves Ship.
Forty Risk Lives to Rescue
Material.
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a little so that when the break came Il
the center, parallel to the barrier
| where Demas Straddled it, the two cen
ter edges of the cakes rose until the
| formed an apex of two slopes, on
down to the ship and the other dow
toward the barrier. The top of tn
crack was about feet apart at first
but gradually opened up until it wa
10 feet wide. The inside piece ross
until for a time it threatened to turr
over, and if it had done so it woulC
have raised havoc with the ships. I
might cOnceivably have crushed the
Boiling, as the City Of New York, out
side of her, was up against the packed
drift ice. And to the north, between
the two big cakes of what had been
the dock and the slope, were high
broken pieces of ice, on one of which
was sled loaded with coal bags and
| two empty freight sledS, which slowly
slid down slope into the water. As
the big crack widened ski pedestal
heavy piece of linamented wood, slid
down to the smashed ice between the
cakes and another pedestal hung over
| toppled over into the water.
Everything in Movement.
Everything was in movement, for
there was just enough commotion in
the water partly caused by the breaking
up of the slope and dock and partly by a
slight swell to make the enormous
cakes sway and lift their ponderouS
sides as if to gnaW at us.
There was call for all hands and
men eagerly tumbled over the side to
the broken ice, with not thought of
themselves and intent only on saving
their precious material. The most i'm
portant piece of this was the center
wing section of the big Ford plane
which lay on the slope of the inner
dock cake SO far down that it could
| not be seen from the deck of the
Boiling. without that wing the plane
could not be flown.
There was need for swift and con-
| certed action to get order and safety out
Of this chaos, and Dick Byrd rose to
| the occasion, cool as he always is
| when something goes wrong. He was
one OF the first men out on the ice
| and his first thought as always was
| for his men. Balchen and Bubier were
| out of sight and for a moment there
|
instructed Capt. Brown of the Boiling
to blow the whistle and after a few
blasts Balchen and Bubier scrambled
out of the Fokker cabin in which they
had been working. THANK God" said
Byrd, and turned his attention to the
danger on the ice.
Life belts on" he ordered. IT dC
not want man out here without belt
on" When they had been found anc
put on the watch below had come up
sleepily rubbing their eyes and pulling
on their clothes. The lines holding tt
the dock and barrier were shifted anc
adjusted as much as possible to take
the strain off the cakes. Some ont
grabbed the pedestal which was totter
ing to the edge Of the crack and hauleC
it to safety. Bill Gavronski, the stow
away on the Boiling, who had beer
shifted to the New York, lay down, ant
while others held his legs h5 slipped
over into the big crack and got hole
of the other pedestal and pulled i
out. Pieces of house, heavy clums.
things which ordinarily would hav'
been moved slowly, were Jared from
the ice and to mems shoulders ant
tossed aboard as if they were match
boxes. Sweat poured down their face
and soaked their shirts. They paid NJ
attention to the movement OF the 1c
on which they were standing as
sloped more and more and the cracl
widened. Rope, guy wire, odds ant
ends of stuff were thrown over the sld'
under Byrds direction while he walked
about telling them what to save flrSt
He had donned life belt himself il
obedience to his own order after al
| the others were provided with them
and had a megaphone in his hand 81
that there would be no possibility o
not hearing him in an emergency.
Sleds Are Rescued.
Getting a section of the house on
of the water was something Of a 1ot
but Joe Deganahi jumped down on it ant
thrust his arms into the Slush on which
| it was lying so that he might pass
rope around it. Then he grabbed tn
hands Of those above him and wa
lifted out and the piece of house wa
rescued before it had time to ge
soaked. The SledS which had sllppet
overheard were lying between two cake
of ice, the nearest of which was stick
ing a few feet out Of the water. Tn
first sled was brought up with q hool
and while it was held by many hand
and the forward sled was held by tn
line leading over the wreck of tn
slope to the block ashore, Jim Feur
craWled out over the SledS to let tn
line CO. Harry Adams with lin
around his waist went down on tn
| lower and smaller cake to help, ant
after Feury had craWled back over HI
Swaying and insecure pathway, Tn
Sleds were brought up to safety ant
put back to the ship. The sled holding
the coal On another cake was then un
loaded, while the cakes smashed to
gether. The coal bags were left, bu
the sled was hauled back to safety
This had no sooner been done thai
the cake broke up and five coal bag
slipped into the water and went u
the bottom, and the other bag on
small piece OF ice is now heading nortl
for the Ross Sea and New Zealand
but won't go far.
Ordered Aboard Boiling.
When everything but the center sec
ton of the wing had been brough
aboard the Boiling, this was tn
farthest away from the ship and tn
most difficult to move because of tn
crack. Byrd ordered all bat fey
picked men aboard the Boiling. Tn
wing section was on the other side o
.eIt.e crack Although it is of du4 alumni
mum it is heavy because of Its siz
and clumsy to handle. The boWln
holding the ship to the inner piece o
ice was then taken in slowly on tn
winch in an effort to draw the side
of the crack closer together, but al
I though a few feet were gained in thi
way the strain caused the inner cake t
tip away from the ship.
Don't pull any more" yelled ByrC
"or we may up-end that ice. That
near enough"
Planks were thrown hastily acros