Scholar Says Byrd’s Notebook Puts Him Short Of The Pole Navigation Expert Says Explorer’s Diary Proves Amundsen Was First

As Adm. Richard Byrd closed in on his bid to become the first person to fly over the North Pole, the engine noise in the cockpit was so bad he had to communicate with his pilot by exchanging questions and answers in his notebook.

Now, a closer examination of that notebook suggests that the celebrated explorer never actually made it to the North Pole and that his claim to the contrary was a lie.

“It’s quite clear to me he exaggerated and knew it,” said navigation scholar Dennis Rawlins, who was commissioned by Ohio State University to study the diary. “I would say Byrd saw virtually to the pole from the height he was at, but this diary disproves his claim that he reached the pole.”

Rawlins said Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen should be recognized as the one who first flew over the North Pole, three days after Byrd’s May 9, 1926 flight.

Ed Jezek, director of the university’s Byrd Polar Research Center, said it was premature to conclude on the basis of diary entries that Byrd did not reach the pole.

“I think that these are calculations and information that were taken on the fly and really don’t represent a conclusive navigational analysis of where he was,” he said.

Byrd’s weathered, 8-by-9-inch brown notebook was discovered in January by archivist Raimund Goerler in a box labeled artifacts at the research center.

The university, which plans to publish the notebook, officially released the findings Thursday to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Byrd’s flight.

In a report to the university, Rawlins cited several entries that indicate Byrd and pilot-mechanic Floyd Bennett were concerned about an engine leak and turned around about 150 miles from the top of the world.

At one point in the notebook, there is a blank where something has been erased. Rawlins determined that the erased line was a question by Byrd to Bennett: “How long were we gone before we turned around?” The reply, written below the erased question is, “8-1/2 (hours).”

“This is not the sort of question one expects from a navigator who has been keeping close track of times and distances,” Rawlins said. “It also sounds like the turnaround was pretty sudden. And it doesn’t feel like the words of someone who has just reached a great goal.”

Byrd, who was honored with a parade in New York and medals from President Coolidge, reported in later statements, “At 9:02 a.m. our calculations showed us to be at the pole!”

Yet Rawlins notes that in the notebook, 9:15 a.m. was recorded as the time when Byrd was a few miles short of the North Pole. And in a report to the Navy three days after the flight, Byrd said 9:15 was the time of departure from the pole, after 13 minutes of circling it.

The notebook, however, appears to have squelched a suspicion that Byrd had not even tried to reach the North Pole but instead had flown around Spitzbergen, Norway, Rawlins said. He also said it should restore Byrd’s reputation for courage by documenting the “amazingly dangerous” flight.

Since engine noise made communication difficult, Byrd and Bennett exchanged questions and answers in the notebook, and logged times and chart readings. Rawlins said the entries contrast sharply with Byrd’s public account of the expedition.

“The disagreements between the two versions are multiple and nontrivial: they leave little doubt that Byrd knew … that he had not succeeded and that he was thus taking the honor of first reaching the Pole from Amundsen,” Rawlins said.

Norwegians have long believed Amundsen was the first man to fly over the North Pole. They claim Bennett admitted as much more than a half a century ago.

Susan Barr, historian for the state Norwegian Polar Institute in Oslo, said, “This has been well-known for quite a long time.”