May 2010, Holland, Vermont
I just finished reading famous old Arctic American explorer Richard Byrd’s book entitled Alone. It’s about the 7 months he spent at the southern most camp in Antarctica in 1933. He is an admiral now and has an impressive record of polar exploration under his belt. As the noble explorer he is, Byrd determines that he is the only one who should spent 7 winter months in the Advance Camp collecting meteorological information by himself. There were others who wanted to do the same or share time with him, but he determines that he alone is best for the job. Besides, he tells the readers, he needs time to himself since he has been so busy doing all that it takes to be Admiral Byrd (Ret).
There are several themes running through his narrative that I recognize from my time as an explorer. If, however, I compare my expeditions to his, we might say his had wider reaching objectives like measuring temperatures and noting weather patterns in remote regions of the world like Antarctica or the North Pole. But, I note that the information he collected was useful to the US government and might in fact been collected for that purpose since the US wanted claim on the territories of the Antarctica at this time. So Byrd was in effect furthering hegemonic intentions of America in this part of the world.
Our expeditions were almost purely for the sake of self-exploration. We learned about the world ourselves and not from a National Geographic magazine though we both had grown up with National Geo in the house. Perhaps they helped fuel a desire to explore on our own.
Back to the familiar themes in Byrd’s book. Theme one: Ego. Important because without an ego, you can’t believe that you will survive. That ego is built up with each successful expedition that is carried out. A certain amount of arrogance is also developed and I think, it helps.
Theme two: Presumption. Presumption is about assuming, without a doubt, that other will be so impressed by your expedition that they will do whatever they can to help you. And it works for the most part. I see this in Byrd’s story: many people helped him because of who he was and by association, they were part of the expedition.
Theme three: Assumption. A potential Achilles heel of all explorers. An explorer assumes she or he has the ability to carry out the expedition successfully based on previous expedition success. Assumption on the part of the explorer may lead them to take chances that may not be advisable. This appeared the case with Byrd’s decision to winter at Advance Camp alone. I remember an old sailor chiding us for assuming we could easily row and sail Excalibur amongst the icebergs and unpredictable weather conditions along the northern Labrador coast. We were full of self-assurance and a certain amount of arrogance coming off a high from our successful Atlantic Ocean row and it seemed very apparent to us, we were capable of almost anything with our rowboat. After all, we had defied the odds and proved some people wrong when they said it was impossible to row at sea. The expedition on the northern Labrador coast indeed challenged our navigation and survival skills almost to our limits.
I recognize all these themes running throughout Alone though Byrd does not address them as such. He is self-deprecating and the book is readable because of it. He also has a macho thing going on: a man must do what a man must do despite the odds against survival. Every day is about survival.
I think at one time in the history of exploration, these kinds of stories, those of man pitted against nature, were a sure sell. David versus Goliath. But when I look at the circumstances of Byrd’s difficulties, living alone for 7 months in a badly vented underground cabin in the Antarctic winter, I don’t really admire him. It’s all too obvious he chose his predicament willingly and assumed because of who he was to the world of exploration: Admiral Richard Byrd, conquer of the Poles, he was entirely capable of surviving the dangerous circumstances he put himself into.
And so, I look at our expeditions and I feel the same way sometimes and especially now, with the perspective of time (25 years). When I read about someone else’s expeditions now, the times are different and the tough ass card can’t be played as it once was. In our case, I could play the lost sextant and Polynesian navigation card and show through my writing how brilliant we were to survive it all. Gag. But, that’s not where it’s at now. It seems that instead of showing how tough you are to overcome nature, it’s about showing how vulnerable you are in overcoming nature. But which is more honest?
