The 1926 Race to the South Pole

On this episode of Our American Stories, The History Guy remembers when explorers raced to go where no one had gone before, Amundsen, Byrd, and the future of aviation.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American Stories, and our next story comes
to us from a man who's simply known as the
History Guy. His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands
of people of all ages on YouTube. The History Guy
has also heard here in Our American Stories, where he's
a regular contributor. Here's the History Guy with the fascinating

(00:30):
story about the Medal of Honor recipient Rear Admiral Richard Byrd,
The Age of polar exploration and the future of aviation.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
We live in an era where air travel is common.
According to the International Civil Aviation Organization, three point five
billion passengers were carried by scheduled air service in twenty fifteen.
But if you flown, the odds are that you flew
in a heavier than air aircraft and the general alternative
lighter than air. Air traps largely relegated to a leisure activity,

(01:03):
but that was not always a case. There was a
time when great airships challenged the airplane for dominion of
the skies, and the pinnacle of that era was arguably
in nineteen twenty six, with a competition between two of
the world's greatest explores. Its history that deserves to be
remembered In general, aircraft come into categories Lighter than air
aircraft or aerostat works by principles of buoyancy. The average

(01:26):
density of the craft is lower than the density of
atmospheric air and so rises. Essentially, a bag filled with
gas that is less dense than air produces lyft. The
alternative aero dines fly to the aerodynamic lift, which requires
movement of a wing service through an airmiens. In the
nineteen twenty so the competition between aerostat and aerodyn took

(01:48):
on a particular importance. In terms of polar exploration, the
period of the end of the nineteenth century in the
first years of the twentieth century included what was the
so called Chroic Age of polar exploration. Explorers from a
number of nations went to explore the most hostile at
least understood environments on Earth, in both the Arctic and
the Antarctic. This was called the Heroic age because technology

(02:10):
was limited, conditions were primitive, and the exploration was extremely
dangerous and very often deadly. These explorers risked their lives
and scientific pursuits, putting their lives on the line for
the betterment of the world. These explorations made huge contributions
to science, but national prestige was also on the line.
Scientific discoveries and first represented national honor, and nations saw

(02:33):
it as a way to prove themselves of the international stage.
One of the most significance of these contests was the
race to get to the Poles. Despite little real scientific
value in reaching the North and South Poles, they represented
the pinnacle of remote exploration at the time, and for
the first time seemed to be within reach. Being the
first to reach one of the poles would gain an

(02:54):
explorer international fame. Norwegian rolled Amtsen was one of the
legend uder explorers of the Heroic Age. Born into a
family of Norwegian shipbuilders in eighteen seventy two, he had
been inspired by explorers of the eighteen eighties. Between nineteen
ten and nineteen twelve, Ammonson led the first expedition to
reach the South Pole using sled dogs, and arrived at

(03:15):
the South Pole on December fourteenth, nineteen eleven, five weeks
ahead of a rival team led by British explorer Robert
Falcon Scott, who died on his return trip. But sometime
in the early nineteen twenties, most historians cite the nineteen
twenty twenty one Quest expedition in which legendary explorer Sir
Ernest Shackleton died. The heroic age of Polar expiation gave

(03:36):
way to the mechanical age of polar expiration. The mechanical
Age of expiation represented a time when the mechanical advancements
of the age, notably aircraft and motor cars, changed the
nature and method of polar exploration. Now the exploration was
not only a test of humans but of machines. Discovering
not only meant national prestige, but it represented the reliability

(03:58):
of modern technology, a fortune for the companies who built
those technologies, and the pinnacle achievement of the mechanical age.
The race to be the first to overfly the North
Pole represented two of the greatest explorers of the era.
Born in Virginia in eighteen eighty eight, Richard E. Byrd
was the quintessential example of the mechanical Age of exploration.

(04:18):
A pilot with the US Navy during the First World War,
he had planned the flight path for the first Atlantic
crossing by air done by the US Navy in Curtis
Flying Boats in nineteen twenty five. He commanded the aviation
unit of an expedition to northern Greenland and to become
convinced of the value of aircraft in Arctic exploration. In
nineteen twenty five, Aminton had tried to fly to the

(04:38):
North Pole using flying boats, but when one was damaged
during a landing, he and his crew barely made it
out with their lives. He became convinced that the best
possibility that crossed the Pole by air was to use
an airship, and planned an expedition in nineteen twenty six.
The same year, Richard Byrd, then a lieutenant commander in
the United States Navy, become determined to fly to the
Pole in an airplane. It was now a race between

(05:02):
Rold Amanson and Richard Byrd. Was also a race between
Aerostat and Aerodyne. While an airplane was faster, as Adminson
had learned in his attempt in nineteen twenty five, if
anything went wrong, they had to set down right away.
It's not always possible in the Arctic, and taking off
again might be impossible. An airship, while slower, could repair
its engines in flight if need be. Airships also carry

(05:25):
more weight. Amerson signed a contract with the Italian airship
designer Umberto Nobli to use his semi rigid airship than
called the N one. The N one was three hundred
and forty seven feet nine inches long and eighty five
foot four inches in diameter, powered by three six cylinder engines.
The N one was officially sold to the Aero Club
of Norway, which was financing the expedition, was modified for

(05:47):
cold conditions and renamed the NORG, meaning the Norway. A
wealthy American explorer named Lincoln Elsworth also helped to finance
the expedition and accompanied Amonson and Noble on the trip.
After several weather delays and a wait to build a
docking tower there jumping off point at the Norwegian island
of Spitzbergen, they finally arrived in April of nineteen twenty six.

(06:09):
For his flight, Bird decided to use a three engine
monoplane built by the Dutch airplane manufacturer Fokker. The Fokker
F seven, commonly called the Fokker Tri Motor, was one
of the most popular passenger aircraft of the nineteen twenties.
Berd needed financing, so he had named the plane Josephine
four after automobile manufacturer Edsel Ford's daughter in order to

(06:30):
procure a donation from Ford to fund the trip. When
Bird's ship, carrying the Josephine Ford, steamed into King's Bay
on Spitzbergen, he found Abinson ship already taking the only
space at the dock. Bird was forced to last the
ship's light boats together to carry his airplane to shore.
Bird made his attempt, accompanied by pilot Floyd Bennett on
May ninth. No one had ever taken off using a

(06:52):
Fowkker tri motor on skis before, and it took three
attempts to take off. Eight hours in, one of the
engines started leaking oil. Bennett wanted to set down to
try to fix the problem, but the ice below was broken.
With no place to land, Berg decided to press on
as there were only an hour from the pole. At
just over nine hours in, they reached the north Pole,
winning the race. The return was dicey given the oil leak,

(07:15):
but the plane was lighter as that it burned so
much fuel and made it back to Spitzbergen. Berg returned
to international acclaim and the United States awarded him the
Medal of Honor. The Nord made its trip two days later,
leaving May eleventh, and reaching the pole on the twelve,
three days after Bird. As they crossed the pole, Amonson,
Ellsworth and Nobly each throughout their nation's flag to land

(07:38):
on the pole while Bird had beaten them to the pole.
The nord was the first to fly over the ice
cap between Europe and North America, making the voyage important
to the understanding of the nature of the ice cap
and its geography. But of course there was a twist.
Almost immediately, there were questions whether Bird's calculations were correct,
arguing that given the plane's airspeed, it must have come

(07:58):
short of the pole. Protroversy became even more heated in
nineteen ninety six when Bird's diary was released and showed
erased but still legible sextant recorders that differ from the
official report. The controversy rages on today. Bird went on
to become the first person to fly over the South
Pole in nineteen twenty nine, became an admiral when in
World War II, was a special advisor to Chief of
Naval Operations Ernest King, who was present for the Japanese

(08:21):
surrender in Tokyo Bay on September second, nineteen forty five,
and helped to establish permanent Antarctic bases in the nineteen
forties and fifties. He died of a heart ailment in
nineteen fifty seven, the age of sixty eight. For a while,
airships competed against airplanes and ocean liners for passengers service,
but they lost their appeal after the spectacular explosion of
the Zeppelin Hindenburg in nineteen thirty seven, and fate played

(08:43):
a strange trick on rolled Immansen and in Berto Noble.
In nineteen twenty eight, Nobly built another airship, named it
the Italia or the Italy, and attempted to make an
all Italian flight over the North Pole. They reached the
pole on May twenty fourth, but the following day, caught
in a gale, the Italian Crown ashed into Jagged Eyes,
destroying the airship. In all, eight of the crew lost

(09:04):
their lives, and it took nearly two months to rescue
the survivors, and in that another tragedy, gold Amondson, being
one of the most experienced Arctic explorers in the world,
was called to assist in the rescue. On June eighteenth,
nineteen twenty eight, flying in dense fog, the plane in
which he was flying along with five other crew members
searching for survivors of the Italia disappeared. The plane and

(09:26):
the remains of the crew were never found. Amondson was
fifty five umberto noble, survived the wreck of the Italia
and passed away in nineteen seventy eight at the age
of ninety three, the last survivor of the nineteen twenty
six race to the Pole that represented the golden age
of the competition between Ariostat and Aradine, an age that deserves.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
To be remembered, indeed, and it's why we bring you
these stories. A great story, the nineteen twenty six Treacherous
raised to the Pole's gear on now American Stories