‘The Stowaway’: An audacious undertaking hidden no more
In 1914, during the Heroic Age of polar exploration, a stowaway was discovered midocean aboard Sir Ernest Shackleton’s southbound ship, Endurance. Legend says Shackleton subjected him to an “eloquent tirade” in front of the crew.
Shackleton finished by throwing a scare into the stowaway. He came close, and — keeping a straight face — said, “Do you know on these expeditions we often get very hungry, and if there is a stowaway available he is the first to be eaten?” That’s how Perce Blackborow joined Shackleton’s crew.
It’s unknown whether Billy Gawronski, the indefatigable hero of Laurie Gwen Shapiro’s excellent book The Stowaway: A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica (Simon & Schuster, 256 pp., heard that story before deciding to sneak aboard Richard Byrd’s ship 14 years after the Shackleton-Blackborow incident.
Even if he had, it would have only encouraged him. Gawronski was a Boy’s Life magazine story with Norman Rockwell cover come to life. He was an inquisitive Queens, N.Y., kid who, once his mind was made up, could not be stopped by his parents, Byrd’s associates, or Byrd himself.
By 1928, the Mechanical Age had replaced the Heroic Age, and Byrd was an American hero, credited with being the first to fly over the North Pole in 1926. So when he announced his own scientific expedition to Antarctica — in which he planned to fly over the South Pole in a plane transported by ship — “Byrdmania” swept the nation.
No one had the fever worse than Gawronski, who was 17 and just out of high school. He was an admirer of Byrd, and he wanted to go with him to the South Pole, but so did thousands more. After inviting people to apply — and stoking the fire of public opinion and funding — Byrd received as many as 40,000 letters expressing interest in joining his expedition.
At home, Gawronski pleaded with his parents to sign permission papers, but they refused.
That’s why the 17-year-old jumped into the filthy Hudson River the night of Aug. 24, 1928, and swam to The City of New York, Byrd’s flagship, moored in Hoboken, N.J. He had no real plan except to conceal himself below decks and appeal to Byrd after being discovered.
This is where the story picks up steam and becomes a sort of a real-life literary Perils of Pauline, forcing the reader to wonder: Is the kid going to make it?
Gawronski finds a place to hide but soon discovers he’s not alone — other stowaways are on board. They argue over who should go; two days later Gawronski is discovered and, still reeking of the Hudson, is brought on deck. The ship hadn’t even left New York Harbor.
Gawronski is put back ashore and becomes an instant celebrity in the New York press. He endures public scrutiny and ridicule and on Sept. 15 sneaks out of his parents’ house again and slips aboard a support ship that will join Byrd’s expedition. He’s discovered and put ashore — twice.
But he doesn’t yield, and, Houdinilike, he escapes yet again for another attempt.
Shapiro has rescued Billy Gawronski’s story from obscurity and given us a nuanced portrait of an extraordinary young man. It’s also a fascinating window into the life of Richard Byrd and America itself in the exuberant 1920s and crushing Depression that followed.
The Stowaway is a must-read for all polar exploration enthusiasts and lovers of well-told adventure stories.