Our first effort as we start up a YouTube channel on the website will be opening with an introductory video on the life and times of the Antarctic Snow Cruiser during Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s third Antarctic visit from 1939-1941.
A trailer will be released shortly. The full video is being produced currently and is part of a planned three-part series around the military life of Felix L. Ferranto. Using Ferranto’s own saved notes, orders, photos, videos. magazine features, and his correspondence to add to the telling of the story. ¹
Ferranto’s mastery of radio led to attaining his radio broadcast license before his 20th birthday in 1931. Two years later entered the United States Marine Corps, where his radio and electronics training aided his career advancement to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before his retirement.
Then USMC Sargeant Ferranto’s time and experience with the 37-ton Snow Cruiser came after being selected from hundreds of military personnel to be a member of the vehicle’s 4-man crew. The history of the project is not well documented, here we share what he has left for us.
His appointment necessitated a transfer from the USMC into the newly formed United States Antarctic Service in 1939 as the vehicle’s radio and tractor operator. Even before it arrived at the South Pole, the vehicle was not all it was supposed to be. The failure of the project eventually led to its being buried, literally and figuratively.
Shortly after arrival on the frozen shores, the behemoth was no longer unable to traverse the terrain as designed, spending the next two years as living quarters for the crew. Anchored into the snow and ice a short distance between the vehicle’s landing point and the intended base camp, “Little America” on the Bay of Whales.
Unfortunately, the Snow Cruiser put more miles on roadways in the US and at sea aboard the U.S.S. Bear being transported than it would ever come close to covering in the Antarctic.
For his efforts on the expedition, Mount Ferranto, Antarctica (76°32’00.0″S 145°25’00.0″W) was named for Ferranto later in 1941.
In December of 1941, the Pearl Harbor attack brought the United States into World War II. The USAS was dissolved, and the Snow Cruiser was left near the Little America camp. The vehicle was located and revisited several times over the next two decades. Before being released with a calved ice shelf and eventually being dropped somewhere in the Southern, South Pacific, or Atlantic Oceans.
Sargeant Ferranto returned to the Marine Corps, where he went into battle in WWII while already having a mountain named for him. A decade later he was to spend three years in Korea as a Prisoner of War, where they weren’t as keen on heroes.
But those are only a couple of his other stories we hope to share.
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¹- Magazine pieces referencing the Snow Cruiser in the Ferranto collection include:
Life (4): October 30, 1939, November 13, 1939, April 15, 1940, July 8, 1940.
Motor: December 1939.
Popular Mechanics (2): October 1939 vol 72, June 1940 vol 73 no 6.
Reminisce (2): November-December 1994, January-February 1995.
Special Interest Autos (2): April 1982, June 1995.
Authors note- Ferranto had two daughters, and he set the bar remarkably high for himself in life and for those around him. He introduced me to a radio microphone at the age of nine, taught me morse code, and was a Giants fan even though he was from Brooklyn. I am his oldest grandson and just hope to share with others who have an interest in the story.
Anyone with more information or knowledge, a family member of another who was part of this expedition, or the USS Bear and would like to share, feel welcome to reach out to us here.
Thank you -Mike ‘Lips
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