“Dear Franklin . . . We have already investigated twenty-one islands and surveyed ten. . . .

Many of the islands have no harbor even for small boats.  We have to ride the surf to shore.

My experience with this has been helpful.”

Richard Evelyn Byrd, Jr., 1888-1957.  Pioneering American aviator and polar explorer. Superb Typed Letter Signed, Dick Byrd, with autograph postscript signed Dick, one page, quarto, Bora Bora Island, October 27, 1943.  With accompanying cover Autograph Note Signed, Dick Byrd, one page, small octavo, [no place, no date].

This is an extraordinary pair of World War II-dated pieces, a letter in which Admiral Byrd writes to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom he addresses informally as “Dear Franklin,” and a cover note to Roosevelt’s secretary, Grace Tully.   Byrd sends stamps for the President’s collection and reports on his important survey of Southeastern Pacific islands for possible use for airfields in the war against Japan.  He notes his own escape from an accidental gasoline explosion aboard his flagship, the USS Concord, that damaged the ship and killed 24 crew members.

Byrd writes the President:  “I am enclosing a first stamp issue cover of Pitcain Island. . . .  /  I am also sending you two Christmas Island stamps which I think are rare.  /  I have a couple of rare stamps and envelopes which I don’t dare send by mail.  /  We have already investigated twenty-one islands and surveyed ten.  We are able to do this quickly because we prepared very thoroughly for the job.  I have about eight more islands to survey.  /  We lost twenty-four men from an explosion several weeks ago.  This included the executive officer, Commander Rogers Elliott, who was a very splendid man.  We buried them all at sea, it was a sad affair.  /  I was standing near the explosion and was lucky to come out o.k.”  In a handwritten postscript, Byrd writes:  “Many of the islands have no harbor even for small boats.  We have to ride the surf to shore.  My experience with this has been helpful.”

Byrd adds in his cover note to Tully:  “Howdy Grace Tully!  Wish you were with us.  Interesting.”

The United States maintained landing strips and facilities on a number of Pacific islands during World War II.  Bora Bora, the South Pacific crown jewel of French Polynesia from which Byrd wrote this letter, served as an American military supply base, oil depot, airstrip, and seaplane base.  The base was closed in 1946, but abandoned American guns serve as a lasting reminder of Bora Bora’s military role.

Roosevelt and Byrd became close friends early in World War I, when Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy and Byrd was assigned to the USS Dolphin, which FDR occasionally used to transport himself and his family.  They remained close in the following years.  Roosevelt awarded Byrd the gold star in 1940 in recognition of his service as commander of the U.S. Antarctic Expedition.

As President, Roosevelt was the world’s most famous stamp collector.  During his presidency, philately became the world’s most popular pastime.  Roosevelt’s parents introduced him to the hobby when he was eight years old, and throughout the years he assembled a huge collection containing dozens of albums with stamps from virtually every country.  Wherever he traveled, including Casablanca and Yalta during World War II, he took his collection along.  Shortly before he collapsed and died from a massive cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, 1945, he approved the design for the new “Toward United Nations” stamp and spent an hour with his collection. 

Byrd has signed the letter and added the postscript in black fountain pen.  There are two horizontal mailing folds.  The letter shows a bit of handling, and it has filing holes at the top and and paper clip impressions and stains in the blank top and left margins.  The accompanying note to Tully has corresponding paper clip impressions and stains at the top and one horizontal fold, none of which affects the text or the signature.  Overall both pieces are in fine condition.

Unframed.