Q: How big was advance base and how much room did Byrd have to move
around?
SC: I have forgotten the details of the size of advance base but it was a
small room, held a bunk and a stove and ah radio facilities, gave him room to
turnaround in. Toilet facilities were out outside, a tunnel that connected
advance base to a place, out in the snow.
Q: What went wrong at advance base and what effect did it have on Byrd?
SC: I think initially, we start with him and just say that, he wasn't the most
robust man in the world. Secondly, I think that the failure on his part, not
to knock the accumulation of moisture in the stove, in the ventilating pipe,
permitting the building up of ice, in that pipe, so that gradually it almost
shut off the fresh air supply.
Q: So, what was going wrong for Byrd? What did he fail to do at advance
base that caused him trouble?
SC: We had impressed on him, we thought that this fuel, this stove pipe,
so-called which was the air vent, was to be kept clear. He either didn't do it
often enough or forgot, so that the moisture that accumulated in the cabin,
going through that pipe, instead of going completely out, accumulated on the
inside and built up, so that the 12 inch diameter that we started him with, got
down to just a very few inches, resulting in the fact that the fumes that were
not, fresh accumulated and caused I suppose, a poisoning of, I'll say carbon
monoxide, I don't know that that's the proper one. But, that poisoned him and
didn't help and that contributed to a great deal of his discomfort and
problem.
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