Blog Post #6 - EOTO Reaction: Carrier Pigeons

The carrier pigeon is the first and fun starter to the EOTO presentations, and I learned some confusing but fun information that I never knew about carrier pigeons. 

The exact date is actually unknown, but the first instances were likely in Ancient Egypt and quickly became the fastest way to get a message from point A to point B. These pigeons were specially trained to provide specific messages to a certain recipient, secretly and discretely.

This was where my understanding of carrier pigeons was fully halted, since I’ve only ever learned about the basics of them and where they came from, but not the actual history of the carrier pigeon or their impact. I only knew about their existence and utilization in some wars and how they were trained to provide messages discretely. 

The next big instance was through the Roman Empire. This method of delivery was initially for the wealthy who wanted to deliver their mail faster than those on horseback, which is a common ideology of the upper class today, with them being more privileged than the lower class, and being able to have opportunities like this at their disposal. The Roman Empire was when this type of delivery method was utilized the most by the upper class when compared to Ancient Egypt and is when the basis of carrier pigeons really took off.

Another area of the world where the pigeons were highly regarded was in the Middle East. These pigeons are also known for being extremely helpful during the World Wars, more specifically and most prominently in World War I especially where they were used extensively to send hundreds of short messages on land, in air, and at sea. These carrier pigeons were utilized for specific espionage and emergency messages, seen heavily in no-man's land when attacks were about to take place. Around 100,000 carrier pigeons were used throughout the British, French, American, and German militaries throughout the Wars. 

There are many stories about these pigeons, with some of them being how a pigeon flew twenty-two miles in twenty-two minutes to deliver a message that helped with the rescue of two wrecked seaplane piolets, or how a pigeon fought against a gale with an emergency message of four airmen who were wrecked at sea, where it died from exhaustion shortly after arrival. One other incredible story is how one of the pigeons was shot in the left eye while attempting to deliver a message through hails of gunfire and heavy artillery, but despite the injury, the bird was still able to deliver the message. These pigeons were so incredibly vital to the information gathering and relaying from destination to destination and deserve so much respect for what they accomplished and fought through during these wars.

They are still actually utilized in the world today, mainly through the Royal Family collecting them, and a small area that still utilizes them for pigeon racing. The population of these pigeons is likely much higher today due to their past usefulness that it would be otherwise obsolete if they weren’t so utilized in their previous endeavors. The study of pigeons and their continued usefulness today laid the groundwork for the RPRA or the Royal Pigeon Racing Association.

This showcase of expertise with pigeons created an understanding of not only the birds but set a groundwork for how we wanted our messages to be carried, through the air, and faster than others. These pigeons might just seem absurd overall but actually contributed so heavily to the forms of communication we utilize today, and most likely should be recognized as a groundwork for the privilege of normalized communication we have and understand today.