William Gawronski Jr. is WG Jr.
The deceased Francesca Gawronski, whose motherly scrapbooks proved invaluable as well, is FG.
Byrd scholar Eugene Rodgers is ER.
PROLOGUE
three inches short: 1928 Ohio BAE 1, file 4876; 1930s and 1940s resumes; and William Gawronski death certificate.
“You are a late bloomer”: Interview with GG.
The 161-foot wooden vessel . . . 34 inches thick: City of New York boat measurements come from multiple sources, including the 1930 New York Times celebratory booklet The Barque “City of New York,” by Russell Owen.
Nine days earlier: Copy of Billy Gawronski’s 1929 speech at Textile High School.
A few minutes past four in the morning: Written copy of speech for radio address on WOR, April 24, 1929.
ONE: THE GOLDEN DOOR
Billy’s future father . . . Ellis Island: Rudolf Gawronski immigration details are from naturalization and shipping records.
East Eighteenth Street: Old letters, collection of GG.
he’d courted pretty fifteen-year-old Fromia Zajac: Interview with GG.
Deutsch Brothers: Old letters, collection of GG.
57 First Avenue: New York City marriage license.
An alderman at city hall wed: Ibid.
SS Patricia: Photos, correspondence in collection of GG.
the Polish Falcons: Much of this historical information was drawn from Larry Wroblewski, “Polish Falcons: A Historical Stretch,” Polish American Journal, July 1985.
impressive swimmer by the age of six: Interviews with GG and WG Jr.
pasted into a family album: Collection of GG.
seven languages: Interviews with GG and WG Jr.
Rudy’s hero, General Józef Piłsudski: Interview with GG.
Frederik VIII: Correspondence, collection of GG.
Tootsie: New York Daily News and New York Daily Sun (dateless) articles pasted in scrapbook created by FG.
Shabbos goy: Interview with GG.
budding suffragette: Ibid.
Babcia: Interviews with GG and WG Jr.
Bayside, in Queens: Research on Bayside in the 1920s conducted at the Bayside Historical Society with Alison McKay.
Ford Model A: Photos, family album.
he befriended the female librarian: Interview with GG.
Bayside’s Hook and Ladder 152 and Engine Company 306: Private correspondence and “Youth with Byrd Sends Message to Home Friends,” Flushing Journal, October 13, 1928.
He had a solid B average: Details of classes from the New York City Board of Education official requirements of interior design students at Textile High, and the Textile High 1928 yearbook, The Loom.
Vincent van Gogh and his friend Paul Gauguin: Interviews with GG and WG Jr., and Billy Gawronski’s letters home.
Aurie Aileen Carter . . . Florizel Cunningham: Gleaned from details and autographs in the Textile High 1928 yearbook, The Loom, and interview with GG.
He sought the guidance of Edward Bernays: Interview with ER.
TWO: GOOD MEN SHOULD APPLY
in a February 1928 Popular Mechanics article: J. Olin Howe, “The Bottom of the World,” Popular Mechanics, February 1928.
forty thousand people had applied to go to Antarctica: Various sources; best estimate via interview with ER.
But not, Billy noted, a single Pole: Dan J. Kallen, “Byrd’s Polish Stowaway,” Poland, April 1929.
suite 340: Byrd stationery, collection of Ohio State University Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center.
first steady girlfriend: Interview with GG; photographs in her collection.
Billy’s senior prom: Details of Textile High senior prom from the Textilian, undated scrapbook clippings, June 1928, and additional coverage in the Textile High 1928 yearbook, The Loom. The 1928 Loom, collection of GG.
that commenced Monday, June 18: Textilian, June 1928 scrapbook clippings.
His pet quote: Interview with GG.
applications from women and girls: Information about women applicants to the Byrd expedition is from Ohio State University Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, BAE 1, folder 4393.
Billy had taken his rats to school: Background on yearbook rat quip from my interviews with GG.
Not many things in the world frightened Amundsen, except his mother: 2013 lecture, polar historian Carol Knott.
she gave him her special spiritual charm: Collection of the Józef Piłsudski Institute of America, Brooklyn, NY; interview with GG.
something vonderful . . . many amulets: Interview with WG Jr.
Kurrent: Postcards from Francesca to her mother from the collection at the Józef Piłsudski Institute of America, Brooklyn, NY. Translation of postcards by Ruth Bloch.
Billy caught sight: Copy of 1929 speech to Textile High auditorium.
Cooper Union accepted Billy: Various articles, including O. R. Pilat, “Ship Off for Antarctica as Byrd Explains Liquor Aboard; Stowaway Found,” Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle, August 26, 1928, 1.
His badges included: Paul A. Siple, A Boy Scout with Byrd (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1931).
meet and greet at Gimbel Brothers: Interview with GG.
Byrd Hop: “ ‘Byrd Hop’ Divides Dancing Teachers,” New York Times, August 29, 1928; Ralph Giordano, Satan in the Dance Hall (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008).
President Hoover’s Belgian shepherd, King Tut: Clipped scrapbook article, FG.
Diamond brand walnuts: Ibid.
THREE: THE CITY OF NEW YORK
East River pier at . . . Central Lanes: Interview with WG Jr.
The whisky was smartly cloned: Shackleton malt whisky historical details from Mackinlays / Whyte & Mackay corporate office.
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi: Elizabeth Mitchell, Liberty’s Torch: The Great Adventure to Build the Statue of Liberty (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2014).
Jack Solomon was actually Jack Solowitz: Much of the information on Jack Solowitz comes from interviews with his two adopted sons—Alan Solowitz and Larry Solowitz—as well as from Jewish journals of the day that covered “the Jewish stowaway” widely.
an aerial stowaway on the Graf Zeppelin: Interviews with Alan and Larry Solowitz; August 26, 1963 Tampa Times clipping by Jody Padgett, collection of Alan Solowitz.
The three stowaways quickly: A very popular article that cemented the story of the multiple stowaways in the public imagination was published in The Literary Digest, no author. “A Million-Dollar Attack on the South Pole,” September 15, 1928.
FOUR: THE TRIUMPH OF THE CENTURY
“Doomed to Study Interior Decoration”: O. R. Pilat, Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle, August 26, 1928, 1.
William Todd’s Tebo Yacht Basin: Charles Cooke and E. B. White, “Tebo Basin,” New Yorker, April 26, 1930; advertisements in Motorboarding, January 1928, 167, 170, 285.
Adams’s book: Beyond the Barrier with Byrd: An Authentic Story of the Byrd Antarctic Exploring Expedition (Chicago: Goldsmith, 1932).
The three-story, high-ceiling, cream-colored Victorian manor: Details on Byrd’s childhood home come primarily from the children’s biographies listed; also Alden Hatch, The Byrds of Virginia (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969), and vintage postcards.
FIVE: SOUTH POLE OR BUST
easy target for pranks: Adams, Beyond the Barrier with Byrd, 81.
nicknamed him Captain Klim: Interview with ER.
“Oh! I just felt happy”: Letters, collection of GG.
Settled by Scots in 1848: 1928–30 information on Dunedin comes from brochures and the Dunedin Public Library archives.
SIX: FIRST ICE
Asked for his opinion on the pink whale: Adams, Beyond the Barrier, 168.
crew members spotted the first emperor penguins: Penguin information comes from my interview with penguin scientist Dr. Gary Miller, conducted in Antarctica, 2013.
The good Boy Scout crafted: Interview with ER.
long story about Billy: Kallen, “Byrd’s Polish St
owaway.”
A Radiogram that Petersen sent from Billy: Collection of GG.
The Matson freighter Golden State: Multiple New Zealand and Australian papers covered Robert White Lanier’s arrival and trial, available online at Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand.
most treasured possession: Collection of GG.
Tennant rustled up meals: Drawn from various speeches, articles, and especially Jason C. Anthony, Hoosh: Roast Penguin, Scurvy Day, and Other Stories of Antarctic Cuisine (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012).
Bennie Roth became the first to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover on the ice: Roth’s experiences were wildly covered in the Jewish press from 1928 to 1930, including “Jewish Member of Byrd South Pole Expedition Had Talith, Tefilim, Sidur with Him,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, June 22, 1930.
SEVEN: THE STOWAWAY REPORT
Bob Lanier, newly acquitted: Multiple articles online, National Library of New Zealand.
model of Little America: Interview with GG.
Billy’s letter to his folks: Collection of GG.
EIGHT: FINE ENOUGH
he flew Miss Silvertown at record speed: Multiple Associated Press stories, April 1–7, 1930.
cyclorama of Little America: “Luna Park Has Huge Cyclorama of Little America, Byrd’s Antarctic Base,” New York Times, May 18, 1930.
(“Greeted by Mother: Wife Not on Tug”): New York Herald Tribune, June 20, 1928.
ditty bags and first aid kits: Research at the Queens Library Seamen’s Church Institute Collection, Queens, New York.
Several expedition members, including Billy, were said to want to get into the “flying game”: Paul Harrison, NEA (Newspaper Enterprise Association) syndicate, “Men of Byrd Expedition Now Are Exploring for New Jobs,” July 2, 1930.
Pacific Whaling Company: Billy in the whale game: Stella Polaris. Captain Stenhouse: Emily Dorman.
A reference letter was penned to President Nicholas Murray Butler: Columbia-related correspondence from Ohio State University Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, BAE 1, file 6604.
NINE: GREAT DEPRESSION
a free Thanksgiving meal: Associated Press Wire Service, “Six Old Comrades of Byrd Talk Shop over the Turkey,” November 25, 1932.
Dar Pomorza: Interview with GG.
Billy gave it one last shot with the admiral: All correspondence between Byrd and Billy Gawronski comes from Ohio State University Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, BAE 1, file 6604.
Francesca wrote to Byrd: Ibid.
The ship had originally headed to Havana: “Voyage of the St. Louis.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005267.
Today you can still see the upholstered sides of the campus chapel: Personal tour of US Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, NY, with in-house experts.
twenty-three-year-old George Gibbs: Glenn M. Stein, “George Washington Gibbs Jr.,” American National Biography Online, last modified February 2000, www.anb.org/articles/06/06-00895.html.
in the hills of northern Tanganyika: Interview with GG.
several hundred once-malnourished Polish youngsters: Information gleaned from photographs, ship logs, Lynne Taylor, Polish Orphans of Tengeru (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2009), and Lucjan Krolikowski, Stolen Childhood: A Saga of Polish War Children (San Jose, CA: Authors Choice Press, 1983).
a boy who called himself Tarzan: Interview with GG.
Billy’s favorite poets were the Romantics: Ibid.
Billy’s run was farther north, to ice-free Murmansk: Information on Billy’s time in Murmansk and his general experiences there come from interviews with GG and WG Jr., as well as with George G. Billy, chief librarian, US Merchant Marine Academy, and Captain Kenneth Force, US Merchant Marine Academy, director of music; also Robert Carse, A Cold Corner of Hell: The Story of the Murmansk Convoys, 1941–1945 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969), and Herman E. Rosen, Gallant Ship, Brave Men: The Heroic Story of a World War II Liberty Ship (Kings Point, NY: American Merchant Marine Museum, 2003).
a captain’s hat made by Wallachs: Billy’s captain’s hat from World War II is located in the Józef Piłsudski Institute of America, Brooklyn, NY.
EPILOGUE
Sailing to Taipei, Taiwan . . . In the Italian port of Gioia Tauro: Interview with GG.
“Dreams of the Sea”: Ibid.
Billy met the young antiques shop manager Gizela Trawicka: Ibid.
He and Gizela opened a nursery: Background on Billy and Gizela’s time together in Northport, Long Island, and Cape Elizabeth, Maine, ibid.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Adult Literature
Adams, Harry. Beyond the Barrier with Byrd: An Authentic Story of the Byrd Antarctic Exploring Expedition. Chicago: Goldsmith, 1932.
Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s. New York: Harper & Row., 1931.
Anthony, Jason C. Hoosh: Roast Penguin, Scurvy Day, and Other Stories of Antarctic Cuisine. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012.
Bertrand, Kenneth J. Americans in Antarctica, 1775–1948. New York: American Geographical Society, 1971.
Bown, Stephen R. The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen. Boston: Da Capo Press, 2012.
Bryson, Bill. One Summer. New York: Doubleday, 2013.
Bukowczyk, John J.A History of the Polish Americans. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2008.
Bursey, Jack. Antarctic Night. London: Longmans, Green, 1957.
Byrd, Richard E. Skyward. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928.
———. Little America. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1930.
Carse, Robert. Rum Row: The Liquor Fleet That Fueled the Roaring Twenties. Mystic, CT: Flat Hammock Press, 1959.
———. A Cold Corner of Hell: The Story of the Murmansk Convoys, 1941–1945. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969.
Carter, Paul A. Little America: Town at the End of the World. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979.
Cherry-Garrard, Apsley. The Worst Journey in the World. London: Constable, 1922.
Church, Ian. Last Port to Antarctica. Dunedin, NZ: Otago Heritage Books, 1997.
Foster, Coram. Rear Admiral Byrd and the Polar Expeditions. New York: A. L. Burt, 1930.
Giordano, Ralph. Satan in the Dance Hall. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008.
Glines, Carroll V. Bernt Balchen: Polar Aviator. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999.
Gould, Laurence M. Cold. New York: Brewer, Warren & Putnam, 1931.
Hatch, Alden. The Byrds of Virginia. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969.
Hoyt, Edwin P. The Last Explorer: The Adventures of Admiral Byrd. New York: John Day, 1968.
Krolikowski, Lucjan. Stolen Childhood: A Saga of Polish War Children. San Jose, CA: Authors Choice Press, 1983.
McKay, Alison. Bayside. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia, 2008.
Miller, Francis Trevelyan. Byrd’s Great Adventure. Chicago: John C. Winston, 1930.
Mortimer, Gavin. The Great Swim. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2008.
Murphy, Charles. Struggle: The Life of Commander Byrd. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1928.
Owen, Russell. South of the Sun. New York: John Day, 1934.
Railey, Hilton H. Touch’d with Madness. New York: Carrick & Evans, 1938.
Rodgers, Eugene. Beyond the Barrier: The Story of Byrd’s First Expedition to Antarctica. Annapolis, MD: Bluejacket Books/Naval Institute Press, 1990.
Rose, Lisle A. Explorer: The Life of Richard E. Byrd. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008.
Rosen, Herman E. Gallant Ship, Brave Men: The Heroic Story of a World War II Liberty Ship. Kings Point, NY: American Merchant Marine Museum, 2003.
Siple, Paul A. A Boy Scout with Byrd. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1931.
Taylor, Lynne. Polish Orphans of Tengeru. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2009.
Vaughan, Norman D., with Cecil B. Murphey. With Byrd at the Bottom of the World.
Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992.
Children’s Literature
Bursey, Jack. St. Lunaire: Antarctic Lead Dog. Grand Rapids, MI: Glory, 1974.
Duble, Kathleen Benner. The Story of the Samson. Illustrated by Alexander Farquharson. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge, 2008.
Green, Fitzhugh. Dick Byrd: Air Explorer. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928.
Macdonald, W. A. A Farewell to Commander Byrd. New York: Coward-McCann, 1929.
O’Brien, John S. By Dogsled for Byrd. Chicago: Follett, 1931.
Rink, Paul. Conquering Antarctica: Admiral Richard E. Byrd. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Press, 1961.
Ross, M. I., ed., South of Zero: The Journal of John Hale Meredith While with the Clark-Jamison Antarctic Expedition. New York: Literary Guild, 1932.
Seiple, Samantha. Byrd & Igloo. New York: Scholastic Press, 2013.
Smith, Dean C. By the Seat of My Pants. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1961.
Steinberg, Alfred. Admiral Richard E. Byrd. New York: Van Rees Press, 1960.
Strong, Charles E. We Were There with Byrd at the South Pole. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1956.
Van Riper, Guernsey. Richard Byrd: Boy of the South Pole. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958.
———. Richard Byrd: Boy Who Braved the Unknown. Illustrated by Aubrey Combs. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958.
West, Wallace. With Admiral Byrd in Little America. Racine, WI: Whitman, 1934.
Wilson, Patricia Potter, and Roger Leslie. Eagle on Ice. New York: Vantage Press, 2008.
BOOKLETS
Owen, Russell. The Barque “City of New York.” New York: New York Times, 1930.
SELECTED ARTICLES
Note: The New York Times was the official newspaper of the first Byrd expedition, and covered the related events almost daily. I consulted numerous Times articles, mainly by Russell Owen, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting. Joe de Ganahl, who traveled on the Eleanor Bolling and served as auxiliary reporter, authored several key stories that mentioned or featured Billy Gawronski.
The Stowaway Page 21
