Admiral Byrd was revered by Rotarians…and dog lovers!

One of the great American explorers from the 20th century was U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Richard E. Byrd Jr. of Virginia, who was “first in flight” over Earth’s North Pole in 1926.

He trumped that feat in 1928-29, leading an extensive expedition to Antarctica that enabled him to be the first person to also fly over the South Pole.

In recognition of his accomplishments in the realm of scientific discovery, Rear Adm. Byrd was instantly proclaimed a national hero…as well as the darling of Rotary clubs worldwide. Rotarian Richard Byrd carried a replica of the international service organization’s flag with him on both polar flyovers.

 

But the story related to Rear Adm. Byrd’s adventures that gripped the heartstrings of America in the 1920s dealt with his traveling companion – a stray dog that he adopted.

Kate Kelly of Los Angeles, publisher of the America Comes Alive! website, is a grand storyteller. She said Anita Maris Boggs (shown below) was responsible for matching Rear Adm. Byrd with the dog in 1926.

 

Boggs was director of the Bureau of Commercial Economics in Washington, D.C., a charitable organization that distributed industrial and educational films throughout the world. While waiting for her bus one cold and rainy evening, Boggs noticed a collarless, male Jack Russell terrier pup shivering in a doorway trying to stay dry. She took the young dog into her arms.

Boggs’ apartment building had a “no dogs” rule, so she smuggled the small dog into her unit by climbing up the building’s fire escape stairs. She knew she needed to find a quick fix, because this dog was too frisky to conceal for long.

She had been introduced to Rear Adm. Byrd at a reception and miraculously persuaded him to take the dog. Immersed in planning preparations for his Arctic expedition, Rear Adm. Byrd instructed Boggs to “rush him to New York. Our ship is nearly loaded.”

Boggs took the dog on the train, stuffed into a wicker basket and wrapped in a small, thick blanket.

 

As the 52-member crew readied the ship to sail to Norway, the dog was tethered to a table leg in the galley, under the watchful eye of the cook. Someone named the dog “Igloo.”

Once underway, “one of Igloo’s favorite activities was racing up and down the deck,” according to Kelly. “‘A panther could be no swifter,’ one seaman told Jane Brevoort Walden, a friend of Rear Adm. Byrd’s who became Igloo’s biographer.”

“Igloo soon encountered an opinionated cat who lived on board; he and the cat divvied up the ship so that they each had its own territory.”

The ship landed at the island of Svalbard (previously known as Spitzbergen) in a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean on April 29, 1926. Svalard lies about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. Svalbard is considered the world’s “northernmost inhabited settlement.”

It’s always cold there, so the men kept Igloo wrapped up and stationed near a warming stove so he wouldn’t freeze to death.

Igloo was glad to return to the United States and settle in Boston as the Byrd family pet. Igloo was idolized by the three Byrd children who were ages 6, 4 and 2. (A fourth child was born in 1927).

 

There was never any question about Igloo’s participation in Rear Adm. Byrd’s next big adventure – an 18-month journey to explore Antarctica beginning in 1928.

The expedition’s tailor outfitted Igloo with a snug camel hair jacket, trousers and lined boots that laced up. Igloo’s encounter with penguins was newsworthy.