A farewell to ice

Sea Power, Dec 2000 by Walsh, Don

The U.S. Navy and the Polar Regions 1838-2000

During the course of the past 162 years, the U.S. Navy has forged a pioneering tradition of exploration, scientific research, and naval operations in the vast, remote expanses of the Arctic and the Antarctic--deploying ships, aircraft, and submarines to the very frontiers of earth's most hostile environments. Despite this historic record, there has been a gradual but steady decline in the Navy's presence at the Poles during the past 25 years. A grand tradition is on the point of extinction. As 2000 draws to a close, the Navy is poised to bid its "farewell to ice."

The Tradition Begins

Led by Lt. Charles Wilkes, the U.S. Navy first ventured to the southernmost reaches of the globe during the six-ship "Great American Exploration Expedition" of 1838. For five years, Wilkes explored large areas of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, including a long route that would take Wilkes's ships along the ice-ribbed coast of a southern land mass newly discovered by Russians in 1820.

During a two-year span, Wilkes charted 1,500 miles of the coastline that today bears his name: Wilkes Land. He is credited with giving the land its name: "Antarctica."

More than 30 years would elapse before the Navy directed its attention to the Arctic--a delay imposed by the exigencies of the Civil War and the reductions in military expenditures that followed. Under the command of Lt. George Washington De Long, the privately funded steam yacht Jeannette left San Francisco with 32 men aboard in July 1879. Their goal was to be the first group to reach the North Pole-which at the time was believed to be on land, as Antarctica is. The hardy explorers' plan called for Jeannette to steam as close to the Pole as possible before landing the expedition for its overland trek.

Moving along the Siberian coast, Jeannette encountered massive ice floes and soon was trapped. Gripped in a westward-moving ice mass for 17 months, she sank 150 miles from the nearest land. After a difficult struggle over the ice, survivors reached the New Siberian Islands to await eventual rescue. Only a handful remained alive by the time a three-ship relief expedition led by Cdr. Winfield Scott Schley arrived in June 1884. De Long was not among the survivors.

Three years after Jeannette sank, some of its debris was found off southwestern Greenland--3,000 miles away. This discovery proved that the Arctic Ocean's circulation was in a generally clockwise direction; calculations of its velocity were made based on the time it took for the debris to travel the 3,000 miles.

To the Ends of the Earth

Another U.S. naval officer, Rear Adm. Robert E. Peary, is generally credited for leading the first expedition to reach the North Pole. As a serving officer in the Navy, Peary took numerous leaves of absence for his Arctic explorations. Over a span of 23 years, starting when he was a lieutenant in 1886, he led seven expeditions north.

Peary's quest was realized in April 1909 when, with fellow U.S. Arctic veteran explorer Matthew Henson and four Eskimos, he reached the vicinity of the Pole--aided by donations from the Navy League of the United States and other private sponsors. Congress recognized the magnitude of his explorations and ordered then-Cdr. Peary promoted to rear admiral.

Less than 20 years later, the Navy followed in the footsteps of Great Britain and Norway to explore the other side of the world during the remarkable aerial explorations led by Cdr. Richard E. Byrd.

A consummate explorer, adventurer, and expedition leader, Byrd was an icon of U.S. polar exploration during the 1920s and 1930s. During one of his leaves of absence he made the first flight over the North Pole in 1926. From 1928 to 1930, and again from 1933 to 1935, Byrd led private expeditions to western Antarctica from a base camp named "Little America." In 1929, during the first expedition, he made a flight over the South Pole. As with Peary, Congress recognized these feats by ordering that Byrd be advanced to the rank of rear admiral.

From 1939 to 1941, Byrd was the military commander of three U.S. government expeditions for the newly established U.S. Antarctic Service. Using aircraft and the most modern scientific devices available at the time, his team mapped and surveyed many unknown areas of the continent. World War II intervened, and Byrd would not return to the ice until 1946.

The Frozen Continent

In 1946, with Byrd in charge of Operation Highjump, the Navy sent a force of 4,700 men, 13 ships (including one submarine), and numerous aircraft to carry out the first large-scale survey of the frozen Antarctic continent. Among the ships was the aircraft carrier USS Philippine Sea, which delivered six Douglas R4D (DC-3) aircraft for logistics and aerial-survey work. The Highjump aircraft were used to map 1.5 million square miles of the continent-- much of which had never been seen before.

In 1947, "Operation Windmill" was conducted in the Antarctic to complete the aerial-mapping tasks. Using shiplaunched helicopters, the two-year expedition was able to establish the ground control points needed for the preparation of accurate maps.