“This much should be
understood from the beginning: that above everything else… I really wanted to
go for the experience’s sake… to be by [myself] for a while and to taste peace
and quiet and solitude long enough to find out how good they really are.”
I had no difficulty at all relating to Richard Byrd’s
desires for solitude, being somewhat of a solitary man myself. What intrigued
me, however, was his desire to seek his solitude in one of the most dangerous
places on earth, the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. I came to know this incredible
corner of the world while reading “The Worst Journey in the World” which we
will get to later in the Man’s Book Club (seriously one of the most amazing
books I’ve ever read). I was eager to go back with Admiral Byrd. It was
fascinating to read about his little hut that they buried in the snow, how they
filled his supply tunnels with food and fuel, and then how they turned around
and drove away, leaving him to face the arctic winter alone. He shares his
thoughts from his first night:
“About 1 o’clock in
the morning, just before turning in, I went topside for a look around. The
night was spacious and fine. Numberless stars crowded the sky. I had never seen
so many. You had only to reach up and fill your hands with the bright pebbles…
And all this was mine: the stars, the constellations, even the earth as it
turned on its axis. If great inward peace and exhilaration can exist together,
then this, I decided my first night alone, was what should possess the senses.”
Little did he know the trials that awaited him.
For me, the most intense part of the story was when Byrd
accidentally locked himself outside at night during a blizzard. Actually, more
than just being locked out, his door was frozen shut and nothing he could do
would open it.
“Panic took me then, I
must confess. Reason fled. I clawed at the three-foot square of timber like a
madman. I beat on it with my fists, trying to shake the snow loose; and, when
that did no good, I lay flat on my belly and pulled until my hands went weak
from cold and weariness. Then I crooked my elbow, put my face down, and said
over and over again, You damn fool, you damn fool. Here for weeks I had been
defending myself against the danger of being penned inside the shack; instead,
I was now locked out; and nothing could be worse, especially since I had only a
wool parka and pants under my windproofs. Just two feet below was
sanctuary—warmth, food, tools, all the means of survival. All these things were
an arm’s length away, but I was powerless to reach them.”
Byrd would surely have died within 30 minutes, with
temperatures at 65 degrees below zero and the storm pounding down on him. He
only managed to survive by stumbling onto a shovel that had been left outside
earlier that day. With this he was able to pry open his door and escape to the
protection of his hut (where it was a much balmier negative 20 degrees).
A month or so after this incident Byrd would come even
closer to losing his life. The accident that crippled him, and which brought
him within an inch of death, occurred during a routine radio contact with his
companions at Little America. He had failed to clear the exhaust pipes for his
generator and was knocked out by carbon monoxide poisoning. For the next two
months he hovered between this life and the next, unable to help himself and
unwilling to ask his team for help, lest they risk a rescue attempt in the
black of winter. In the end, Byrd was able to pull through, though it would be
two more months after his friends came to his aide before he would be able to
make the journey back himself.
From this period of utter isolation Byrd shares several gems
of wisdom that he was able to work out while facing his own mortality.
“If I had never seen a
watch and should see one for the first time, I should be sure its hands were
moving according to some plan and not at random. Nor does it seem any more
reasonable for me to conceive that the precision and order of the universe is
the product of blind chance. This whole concept is summed up in the word
harmony. For those who seek it, there is inexhaustible evidence of an
all-pervading intelligence.”
“The universe was a
cosmos, not a chaos; man was as rightfully a part of that cosmos as were the
day and night.”
“A man’s moments of
serenity are few, but a few will sustain him a lifetime. I found my measure of
inward peace then; the stately echoes lasted a long time.”
And this last one that I love.
“Few men during their
lifetime come anywhere near exhausting the resources dwelling within them.
There are deep wells of strength that are never used.”
Though Byrd’s adventure turned out far different than he had
originally planned, he certainly found the solitude that he went searching for.
Though for him it turned out to be more like solitary confinement. He was lucky
to escape with his life. I know that if I ever plan to spend a winter at the
bottom of the world, I’m taking someone with me!
My rating: 7 out of 10
My rating: 7 out of 10
