Critical look at ‘Mayor of Antarctic’

Press, 30 May 1981, Page 14

Critical look at ‘Mayor of Antarctic’

By

DAVID BARBER,

NZPA Staff Correspondent

in Washington.

What kind of man was Admiral Richard E. Byrd, the polar explorer and self-styled “mayor of the Antarctic" whose memorial sits atop Wellington's Mount Victoria? A new book by an American polar expert offers a critical insight into the often-contro-versial life of Richard Byrd, who died in 1957, hailed as one of America's greatest military explorers. Byrd, "a fascinating and elusive character.” was widely resented in the Navy he served and seen as “a vain, mystical, egocentric." writes Mr Lisle A. Rose in "Assault on Eternity." the most detailed account yet of "Operation Highjump." Byrd's final Antarctic expedition in 1946-47. He quotes remarks by men who knew him which depict Byrd as a determined, headstrong man who would stop at nothing to further his ambitions in the Antarctic which became “the complete focus of his life, his dreams and his activities.” If thwarted, he could be “meaner than a barrel of pickled a—s,” according to one who incurred his wrath. “He was seen as a consummate egoist, a total prima donna, frequently petulant and

headstrong when his role or his wishes as 'Mr Antarctica’ were in any way called into ques-tion,’-’"Mr Rose writes. But the author, himself a participant in a 1956 Antarctic expedition, has no doubts about Byrd's place in history as “probably the greatest polar explorer of all time.” He stressed in an interview with the NZPA that he had not set out to “do a hatchet job" on Byrd. “I thought the world of him,” he said. “He was a very strong character. Most people either loved him or hated his guts, but I have tried to see him as a whole. He had to be a showman and a huckster because that was the only way he could get support for ’ his expeditions. He was ultimately a very tragic figure, because just at the time he began to get the resources he needed, the Navy shoved him aside.” Mr Rose set out originally to write a biography of Byrd, but was denied access to the Admiral's papers. His book instead is an exhaustive study of "Operation Highjump,” the largest and most alaborate exploratory expedition ever sent anywhere. The United States devoted 4700 men and 13 ships, including an aircraft carrier

and a submarine, tp the project, which was designed to firmly establish an American claim to the last continent. Mr Rose largely rejects claims that Byrd drank heavily and that the man who became the first aviator to fly over both the South and North Poles was afraid of flying. “Probably all that can be said with certainty is that if Byrd was truly afraid of flying in those flimsy aircraft of 1929 and even 1947 and took a few drinks to calm his nerves before embarking on the dangerous polar flights, he was no different than 60 per cent or so of contemporary air travellers who, while flying on soft computerised carpets from one great airport to another, imbibe heavily, wondering if the plane will get off the ground or. land safely or suffer some massive structural failure while aloft.” Mr Rose sums up much , of the internal Navy criticism of Byrd — "finally and above all, many simply could not abide the power and wealth that stood behind the man and the fact that at times he could seemingly command it at will.”