[3] He grew up fishing on the Grand Banks from his father's schooner, driving dog teams across the frozen land and bay, and skinning seals for food and clothing.
His family worked six days a week, gardening in the rocky soil and fishing in the summer, mending nets, dog sledding, and catching seals in the winter.
With assistance from a doctor in St. Anthony, Bursey left home at 21 and enrolled at a Boston institute in the United States.
Source:[4] In 1927, Bursey read in a newspaper that Commander Richard E. Byrd was planning an expedition to the Antarctic and needed dog drivers and skiers.
While Bursey was not initially selected, he brought a letter of recommendation from his employer to the expedition office and appealed to one of Byrd's men.
In a later (1979) interview, Bursey remarked that he was disappointed when he first met Byrd, having pictured him as a "7-foot giant with fire in his eyes," but said that he found him both humble and friendly.
He was signed on as a seaman on the barque SS City of New York,[disputed (for: Lack of sources, information that doesn't add up) – discuss] one of two ships Byrd was taking on the expedition to the Bay of Whales, Antarctica.
Built of wood in Norway in 1882 for the Greenland sealing trade, with sides 34 inches (860 mm) thick, she was made to withstand much of the pressure of shifting ice.
On it were the parts of a Ford Trimotor airplane, the Floyd Bennett, which, when assembled, was to carry Byrd over the South Pole.
Bursey was on the barque when it left New York on August 25, traveling through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific Ocean, reaching New Zealand in 91 days.
With the Antarctic spring approaching, the two ships left New Zealand on December 2 on the final 1,200-mile (1,900 km) lap to the frozen continent.
We had only the foresail and the two lower topsails set on the fore and main masts to help out the Bolling, but were gradually running up on her as the wind was fair and we were making good time.
[attribution needed]According to Bursey, the C. A. Larsen, a whaler that worked the area every summer, met the City of New York and towed it through the pack ice while the Bolling returned to New Zealand for more supplies.
It took seven days for Bursey and the rest of the crew to force their way through 200 miles of Antarctic pack ice and break through into the Ross Sea.
The fuselage of the Ford plane had landed on top of the barrier, but the wings were floating on large pieces of ice by the ships.
The men worked hard in the weeks ahead, and before the sun went down and the long winter night set in, the camp was ready.
One was to mark a safe trail and leave caches of supplies over the 200 miles of treacherous crevasses and open chasms between the main base and the Queen Maud mountain range, where the geological party would make camp and conduct their studies.
Finally, at 1:32 a.m. June's voice relayed this message from Byrd: "My calculations indicate that we have reached the vicinity of the South Pole."
According to Russell Owen, a special correspondent for the New York Times who was on board, "As the men were ready to drop from weariness, the clouds opened, and ahead of them was the magnificent peak of Mount Erebus, the living volcano of the Antarctic."
[6] Bursey went on to accompany Byrd on his third Antarctic expedition in 1939–41, during which he and two other men made one of the longest dog-team trips ever recorded.
During World War II, Bursey joined the U.S. Coast Guard and was captain of a freight and supply ship in the Philippines.
[7][8] In this expedition, he led a party of Seabees a distance of 996 miles (1,603 km) toward Byrd Station at latitude 80 degrees south, traveling in two vehicle-type Sno-Cats and one tractor-type Weasel.