"The Snow Cruiser"-Antarctica's Abandoned Behemoth

no place on earth really carries the same level of mystery sense of discovery or adventure than that of the frozen continent of Antarctica since its tentative discovery by Captain Cook in the 1770s and its eventual sighting by von Belly Houston in the 1820s people have been desperate to understand explore and of course lay claim to this harsh bleak wasteland to do this however innovation was required each expedition to the Antarctic from the very start until today has brought new and experimental equipment and techniques to better explore and conquer Antarctica's unforgiving almost otherworldly and vitamin innovation would not prove easy however specifically early vehicles and motorized equipment were still very much in their infancy during the very early Antarctic explorations and each early attempt to introduce them to the difficult landscape and conditions suffered faults and failures and numerous setbacks Ernest Shackleton in the Nimrod expedition that achieved the furthest south in 1909 managed to bring the first motorcar to the continent a specially designed vehicle for cooling sledges donated by the Scottish William beard Moore & Company however it was ultimately unsuccessful in navigating the ice in the deep snow and running in sub-zero temperatures Robert Falcon Scott seeing potential and Shackleton's idea though pioneered experimental though ultimately unsuccessful motor driven sledges in his ill-fated race to the pool two years later finally Mawson the famed Australian explorer attempted to bring the first aeroplane to the continent in 1911 the plane however crashed during an airshow demonstration before they even left for the expedition Mawson was forced to make the best out of a bad situation and had it hastily converted into an experimental air tractor for pulling sledges this too was unsuccessful and it was eventually abandoned and claimed by the Antarctic snowdrifts much like the motorcar and the motor sledges before at the road to success they say is paved with failure but worst was yet to come for in the 1930s the Antarctic was home to one of the most incredible vehicles ever made impressive not just in its gigantic size and innovative features for the time but remarkable in its almost instantaneous and complete failure and referring to the relatively unknown but nonetheless incredible Antarctic snow cruiser in New Jersey accepting an autogyro for a South Pole expedition Rear Admiral Richard Hebert says farewell to the USA I wish you good luck and goodbye Richard Ebert was an American naval officer and polar explorer Byrd had become known for his disputed flight over the North Pole as well as a transatlantic flight in 1927 from the late 1920s he had been organizing expeditions into Antarctica taking the place of what I'd predominantly been a British and Norwegian effort during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration he had established two bases on the continent little America in 1929 and little America too in 1934 the end of the 1930s war was threatening to engulf the globe for a second time both Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan were increasing activities and territorial ambitions around Antarctica President Roosevelt wanted to make US presence in the Antarctic firmly established and thus Byrd's newly planned third expedition grew from the smaller privately funded enterprises of the past two trips and into a far-reaching US scheme to establish bases on both sides of Antarctica one which was to be the third little American base it was to be organized jointly with the u.s. departments of state war the Navy and the Interior and it was one of the major turning points in America's interest and dedication to the Antarctic on a governmental level the world especially the nation's very much interested in laying Clavin to parts of Antarctica or on tenterhooks to find out the final scale and aims of this grand American Antarctic expedition the largest one seen so far none however could probably guess just what was about to rule onto the stage you see Byrd had been inspired by the partial success of Robert Falcon Scott swatters ledges from 1910 and Byrd had had considerable success with tracked vehicles in a second expedition in fact there you said directly saved his life when he had been stranded alone in a remote outpost during the second expedition his deputy dr. Thomas Poulter had spent the years since trying to replace the motorized adapted tractors they are used with a more reliable form of transport that could be better suited to the difficult Antarctic conditions working with the armour Institute technology in Chicago now the Illinois Institute of Technology Porter designed what he called the snow cruiser 55 feet long 25 feet wide and weighing 37 tons fully loaded this gigantic vehicle was designed to have the range of over 8,000 miles and sustain a crew for up to a year on the ice without resupply the giant machine was powered by two huge diesel engines giving a proposed speed of up to 55 miles per hour she was also crowned with a lot of clever innovations her 4 10 foot tall balloon wheels could be moved individually and lifted clear of crevasses and other obstructions they could also retract into the chassis of the cruiser itself where the innovative central heating system could keep the rubberized tires warm via the heat directed from the engine bay inside featured all the facilities a crew of four could need for exploring and living in the Antarctic wastes while they racked up the miles included a control cabin a machine shop a combination galley and darkroom extra tanks for fuel food stores a crew quarters and even space aft for two gigantic spare tires and the range of gadgets and proposed capabilities didn't end there on the top of the snow cruiser was even a cradle for an aircraft that could be used for finding routes through the snow and ice with a range of around 300 miles this plane could be loaded via the sloped back of the cruiser acting as a scout to the gigantic wheeled mothership the snow cruiser would be one of the most ambitious vehicles ever designed and to justify this monster bolter had big plans for how this one of a kind of vehicle would revolutionize the Antarctic exploration US government officials gave the go-ahead on the project handing over a hundred and fifty thousand dollars almost three million dollars in today's money to construct just the cruiser for the forthcoming expedition the Antarctic cruiser received as a clear advantage to the u.s. expedition especially when recent competition from other countries was starting to pick up while the US was preparing for more expeditions a German catapult ship Schwaben lands had been operating survey planes around the Antarctic and claiming large tracts of land in the name of Nazi Germany in an effort to further impress and justify the huge budget for this project Poulter made extraordinary claims about the cruisers capabilities telling one congressional committee it could explore over 500 thousand square miles of unknown territory shooting a single Antarctic summer with international competition worrying the government and the deadline for the expedition now looming the Antarctic Cruiser was hardly constructed in the Pullman coach works in Chicago just in time for the expedition's departure it created a national stir as it raced off the production line and across over a thousand miles of American roads to reach the Boston dock yard where the expedition would depart wider than most roads the cruiser closed highways and forced cars off the road as it trundled through the states followed by a convoy of police cars the cruiser at one point actually ran off the road and became stranded in a creek which was hardly the most encouraging show of strength for a vehicle it was supposed to soon traverse some of the most difficult and unknown landscapes on earth nonetheless it reached the expedition docks in time and was loaded onto the deck of the supply ship North Star along with expedition supplies stores prefabricated huts and several tanks that had been loaned by the Department of War for testing on the Antarctic ice entire aft wheel section of the vehicle had to be removed just a fitter on board and it was only with Byrd's absolute insistence that she was even allowed on at all due to worries about her huge bulk destabilizing the ship finally with much fanfare the North Star with the cruiser strapped precariously Teradek nervously edged out of the Boston docks and left for Antarctica on the 15th of November 1939 the New York Times reported perhaps somewhat presumptuously that the snow cruiser has connected west base with East base or has rolled along the coast which no man has surely seen or perhaps made itself a laboratory base for periods of months at the pool itself none of these hopeful claims it turned out were to come true the expedition arrived at the site of little America 3 in January 1940 as you can see from some of the only pieces of colour film footage of the snow cruiser the unloading itself almost ended in disaster when it broke through the wooden ramps leading from the North Star and onto the ice itself you can see Byrd here writing on the roof and being nearly thrown off when the giant cruiser suddenly shifts the situation is only safe and Poulter who's at the controls of this huge machine hits the accelerator lurching the cruiser forward and onto the relative safety of the ice unfortunately worse was to come for the cruiser the vehicle that was meant to be able to claim slopes of up to 37 degrees was practically a moveable on the snow and ice even after the two huge spare tires were fitted for extra traction nicknamed the bouncing betty it was simply too heavy and its innovative diesel electric drivetrain was too underpowered the cruisers only limited success was found in driving it in reverse and even then at such slow speeds that are essentially proved useless after some fruitless attempts at longer range exploration the expedition was forced to admit the cruiser was useless as anything other than a cramped stationary laboratory and crew quarters its innovative heating system and insulation actually proved quite effective but the great beast was consigned to forever remain at the western base of the Antarctic continent eventually buried in snow it was abandoned when the little America 3 base was defunded and eventually evacuated in 1941 as concentration moved towards the war effort so what happened to the snow cruiser well in 1946 five years later just after World War two and part of operation Highjump another American Antarctic expedition teams located the abandoned base and the gigantic snow cruiser still sitting where that had been left the team found the vehicle to be in remarkably good condition reporting that only even the tires and a basic servicing would have had it up and running again however nothing further was done than the Beast was once again left to the elements finally in 1958 the cruiser made her final appearance this time to an international expedition who uncovered the snow cruiser from its tomb of snow and ice with a bulldozer she was hidden underneath several feet of snow but a long bamboo pole still marked her position the team were able to dig down to the bottom of the wheels and measure the amount of snowfall that had seen since the cruiser was a band inside the vehicle was exactly as the crew had left it almost two decades ago with papers magazines and cigarettes still scattered around they then left the final time probably unaware that they were to be the last people to ever see this incredible and unique snow cruiser ever again or were they could it be that the snow cruiser still sets under the snow and ice of the Bay of whales only recently a team located the remains of Mawson's air tractor from the 1911 Australasian and to expedition buried under three meters of ice where she too had been abandoned relics of the various expeditions in the South are still discovered on a semi-regular basis preserved in the sub-zero temperatures some conspiracy theories even maintained that the Soviets recovered the cruiser for themselves after its last discovery so is there still hope for the snow cruiser the reality sadly is probably not you see in February 1963 the US Navy icebreaker Edisto sighted an unusual streak of black amongst the whites and blues of passing icebergs in the Ross Sea as they edged closer they were amazed to find what appeared to be the remains of one of Little America's stations buried in the ice the distros helicopter landed on the iceberg and attempted to gain entry to the station but they were ultimately unable to find a way in however what could be clearly made out where the remains of tents fabric and even prefabricated huts bisected as the iceberg had broken away from the Ross Ice Shelf much like the team who had discovered the base and the cruiser in the 1950s cans and equipment placed neatly and left on shelves were still clearly visible still preserved in time from the moment the site had been abandoned all those years ago five telephone poles and antenna fittings stood there above the snow and what's more - bamboo marker poles were still in place if we are to presume that this was likely the remains of little America 3 it means the majority if not all of the site has now washed out to sea we don't know what part of the base that iceberg held but it's entirely possible that one of those bamboo markers stood over the Buried cruiser now drifting out into the Ross Sea and eventually to the seabed part of me still hopes that one day shall maybe emerged jutting out of a decades-old iceberg somehow maybe clinging to the Ross Ice Shelf maybe even dredged up from the seabed by a confused trawler one thing's for sure though however much the Antarctic snow cruiser completely failed in her task to explore the southern continent of Antarctica she'll still live on as one of the most impressive and ambitious pieces in automotive history and exploration thanks very much for watching this video on the Antarctic snow Cruiser I'm absolutely mad piece of Arctic and Antarctic exploration history and I actually brought the notes for this with you about three or four years ago I didn't really know what I was gonna make although it's gonna be a video an article or app see these of tweets whatever but something about this stories always really fascinated me and I think what I like the most is just how misguided and odd this whole project was for one bird had been inspired by Scott's use of motor sledges that were by almost all accounts completely useless they were a failure and a burden compared to the cost in the time associated with using and maintaining them out there and Scott had only jumped on board with these ledges because of what he had thought was a success with Shackleton's motor car which had also been largely useless and was to be honest essentially a publicity stunt to raise interest for this expedition all of these things were really and from the motor car to the plane or the the air sledge or the air tractor they've been something to write a lot public interest to make it more than just another return to the antarctic but leave it to the americans to make their publicity stunt this multi-million pound behemoth of american engineering that was essentially useless and bird wasn't stupid he'd been out there numerous times why they choose to use these tread list tires and very odd design choices on it I'll never know but hey the whole thing worked I'm obsessed with it as are many others people remember little America and Byrd's contribution and Poulter's mad machine and I just wish they'd actually managed to take the whole thing home if the Russians did steal it and did somehow reverse engineer it to something that was useful good on them I'm glad they actually got a chance to take it back and use it now there is loads I haven't actually covered properly in this video and if you're interested in the subject I'd recommend looking at the description below what I've detailed all the sources I've used and referenced there's also my website Cal Gillis comm I've got an article up there and I'll go into the subject along with all the links and full content video content that I've used and where they got it from and there's also a great website called Joel dinette slash snork loser and it is probably the most definitive best source for videos photo content plans even models of the cruiser I think it's just a personal website and that was made up to kind of compile a lot of this information and I'd really recommend though Antarctica a biography it's by David Day and it's got a that much larger overview of the history of the Antarctic exploration in general and where little America and and birds exploitations and the snow cruiser fits into the larger history of the continent and it's where I first found out about the Explorer and and Birds expeditions in general because I'm more focused on the early heroic age of Antarctic exploration as it's sometimes referred to I have almost every book I can find on the subject of early exploration in Antarctica but I found that Antarctica our biography is probably the best read for an overview of the subject but anyway thank you very much for watching feel free to look at a few of my other videos I tend to do a lot of different things so you're probably not gonna find a whole playlist of videos all about Antarctic machines but there's other stuff on there as well and yeah we'll see you later thanks very much for watching bye bye

Channel: Calum

Views: 4,208,402

Rating: 4.8340187 out of 5

Keywords: The Snow Cruiser, Antarctica, The Antarctic Snow Cruiser, Richard E Byrd, Antarctic Mystery, Abandoned, Lost Vehicles, Exploration, Shackleton, Captain Scott, What happened to the Antarctic Snow Cruiser

Id: zR0M7KjnJTE

Length: 16min 14sec (974 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 20 2019