Byrd's Ship, on Inspection Tour, Offers Intimate Glimpse of Living in Antarctic

The "City of New York", a description of which follows, is the ship used by Admiral Richard E. Byrd on his voyage to Little America, and has now been fitted out as a museum of his discoveries. At present the ship is lying in Boston not far from the South Station on Summer Street.

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The "City of New York", veteran sailing ship of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition, has won the right to be called a gallant ship, not alone from her unfaltering battles with the Antarctic gales and towering ice, carrying men and supplies of the Expedition; she has a history as a ship alone.

The craft slid from the ways at Arendal, Norway, in the year 1886. No expense or genius was spared in her construction, for she was built to crash a path through the ice to the sealing fields, where the smaller, weaker vessels of the seal-fishing fleet could follow. 210 feet long over all, and of 31 foot beam, the sheathing of her three-foot-thick hull is of greenheart, a wood now very rare, but known for its ability to resist the tearing grind of the ice. On one of her first voyages north with the sealers, she carried as a member of her crew a youth named Ronald Amundsen, whose achievements later became famous in the annals of polar exploration. It was Captain Amundsen who, in 1926, recommended the staunch old ship to Admiral Byrd for the long voyage southward to the Rose. Barrior, where Little America, the base camp of the Antarctic Expedition, was later to be located.

After battling terrific odds in her voyages to little America, her ice-scarred bow and hull give ample evidence of the clutching, ripping fingers of the polar giants that tried to hold the ship back; but there is no visible proof today of the gales she outrode or the times she struggled under tons of sleet and frozen spray that weighted her rail to the water's edge and nearly sank her. So the visitor who views the "City of New York" today sees only a proud, old, ship, a member of a fast-vanishing generation of square-riggers that curled the sea away from their blunt bows and braved all the storms that nature brought forth.

After the homeward voyage from Little America was over, it was decided to put the now famous ship on exhibition. She was outfitted with the most interesting of the treasures brought back from the South Pole, and some things were added which it was thought would better enable the world to appreciate the life and work of the men during the two-year adventure.

As the visitor steps to the deck of the "City of New York", he is greeted by a guide who is thoroughly familiar with the Expedition, its work, and its achievements. On the deck he is shown the quarters where Admiral Byrd lived and planned and commanded the 84 men of his Expedition. His quarters are preserved nearly intact. Visitors are shown the chart room, where the navigation of the ship on her long and difficult voyages was carried out. Farther aft, in the radio room, what is considered to be one of the most powerful instruments afloat, is to be inspected; this is the radio that carried dispatches and brought tidings of good cheer and sometimes bad news to the hardy explorers.

Exhibit of Equipment

Below decks is the large room containing the exhibit of mementos of the Expedition. A glass-enclosed model of Little America, which occupies the center of the room, was constructed by the Museum of Natural History in New York, and is a model faithful in every detail. There are in miniature the wireless towers, the huts, and the paths across the ice over which the loads of supplies and equipment were carried. The lighting within the glass case is so controlled as to produce an exact representation of the polar day, growing gradually in brilliance, then fading away into Antarctic night, when the beacon-lights atop the wireless towers shine out across the frigid wastes.

Relics of Little America

Along the walls of the exhibition room are placed the many things brought back from Little America. Glass cases are filled with specimens of Antarctic life and with pieces of equipment used in camp. There are condensed and dehydrated foods, clothing, including boots, gloves and outer garments, birds from the bottom of the world occupy their case: the small Adelie penguins, the mighty Emperor penguins, petrels and gulls. There is also a display of navigation and scientific equipment.

At the forward end of the exhibition room is a tableau depicting an overnight camp on the ice. Such camps were necessary when a party went out from Little America to explore or gather scientific data. A tent accommodating two men stands in the center of the display; in the foreground is the powerful radio with which the party transmitted its daily report of the condition of the men, dogs, and food supply back to Little America. The Nansen cooker and the device for melting snow into drinking water are also shown.

In the bow of the ship one may visit a part of the crew's quarters, preserved much as they were during the long voyage. It was in here that the noise was said to be almost deafening as the "City of New York" crashed her way through the tons of ice encountered in the Ross Sea.