"Adventures of an Ocean Vagabond": Raymond Mercola

              ADVENTURES OF AN OCEAN VAGABOND
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RAYMOND MERCOLA
A Penniless Youth who Became the Youngest Member of the Byrd Expedition to the Antarctic

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Adventures of an Ocean Vagabond
An Amazing Story of a Penniless Youth who became the Youngest Member of the Byrd Expedition to the Antarctic



RAYMOND MERCOLA
ADVENTURES of an Ocean Vagabond is an amazing story of travel and exploration by a still more amazing boy.  All his life Raymond Mercola, who became the youngest member of the Byrd Expedition to the Antarctic, when he joined the crew of the Eleanor Boling at Dunedin, November, 1929, after a journey of 10,000 miles on land and sea, working his way, has had the urge for travel and adventure.

Raymond Mercola was born in Chicago, September 2, 1911.  Up to the present time he has finished three and one-half years in Lane Technical High School and has traveled 100,000 miles in 48 States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, South America, Africa, South Sea Islands, Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand, the Antarctic.  He always worked his way.  On land he worked as a dishwasher, bus boy, waiter.  On the ocean he worked as a bell boy, assistant steward, and what not on various merchant ships.

When school was over the Summer of 1924 and he was 13, Raymond Mercola went on his first adventure, auto-hiking to Florida and working his way on a boat to Havana, Cuba, where he secured a job as proof reader on the Havana Post.  This was one of the best jobs he ever had, he claims.  Then back to school again.  But the following summer the urge was on him once more.  New York, Cuba, and Mexico this time.  Going to New York at the close of school in the spring became a regular habit with him.  The extreme beauty of the harbor at Rio de Janeiro gave him a thrill.  He met a strange people in Morocco and had his first camel ride there.  He was fascinated by the lazy life of the South Sea Islands.  The knowledge of Spanish he gained in Cuba, Mexico, and South America, was a great help to him in his travels.

Raymond Mercola was just one of 10,000 who wanted to go with Byrd.  He was too young—just 16.  Another thing, Byrd was already on his way to the Antarctic.  But Ray was determined to join the expedition.  The summer of 1929, penniless, he started out to join Byrd.  His first destination was New York City.  He secured a job as bell boy on a boat bound for Seattle.  From Seattle he went to San Francisco.  He finally got a job on an O. & O. line boat, but the destination of this boat was Honolulu, so he soon found himself in San Francisco again.  The next time he had better luck.  As second steward on the Golden Gate he worked his way to Auckland.  But Auckland was more than 400 miles from Dunedin, the Expedition headquarters.  He walked 400 miles from Auckland to Wellington.  A friend loaned him five dollars to cross over to South Island.  When he reached Timaru he got his first auto ride of the journey.  An old Ford carried him the remaining 75 miles to Dunedin.

When he arrived at the Byrd Expedition Headquarters at Dunedin, there seemed to be no openings.  One day he was told there was an opening as mess-man on the Eleanor Boling.  He grasped this opportunity by just going to work at a job he well knew by experience.  Said he was 21.  The dream of a 16-year-old boy had come true.  The trip he made on the Eleanor Boling to the Ice Pack and Little America was full of adventure.

Ray has a great story to tell and not a little of it, of course, is about Byrd.  Ray speaks well.  He has always given talks about his adventures to schools and other groups since he was thirteen.  He gave his first talk about the expedition in New Zealand, where Byrd was forced to leave him in a hospital on the return home.  There were speeches in Los Angeles and he has told his story many times in Chicago.  The Chicago papers have given him much publicity on account of his youth and unusual career as an ocean vagabond.  The Chicago Daily News ran a series of five stories about his adventures with The Man Byrd that attracted a great deal of attention.

Raymond Mercola is a fine American boy.  His life has been one of remarkable adventure.


CHICAGO DAILY NEWS
Your first glimpse of the boy sets you to wondering of whom does the lad remind you.  Tall, erect, handsome, with dark brown eyes and a look of unusual intelligence that makes you think it is no wonder he became a member of the Byrd expedition.  Sincerity is stamped on every word that Raymond utters when he is talking of his beloved Commander.  He's the kind, beamed young Mercola, the son of a loving Italian father, a Chicago furrier, and a doting German mother, who passed many sleepless nights forgiving Raymond for running away—he's the kind, in the first place, who absolutely effaces himself when there are others to be thought of and planned for.  Admiral Byrd is my idea of a real hero—to me he is the greatest of heroes.


CHICAGO DAILY TIMES
The Cold Antarctic so affected members of the Byrd expedition that the music California, Here I Come nearly drove them mad.
Raymond Mercola, 18-year-old member of the expedition, today gave a thrilling account of the hardships encountered on the expedition before the Collegiate Club at the Morrison Hotel.  It was the first public address by a member of the history-making expedition.



CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Ray said he liked thrilling things.  I'm afraid the older generation won't leave much for us younger fellows to do, he said.  About all there is left is to make a non-stop flight across the Pacific.  But I am going on an expedition of my own some day.  I want to explore the Amazon regions and then return to the South Pole.  There's lots left to be done down there.

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