Page:LA2-NSRW-4-0012.jpg



POLAR EXPLORATION

1514

POLAR EXPLORATION

sailed from New London, United States, and reached 82° 16' N., which was surpassed in 1876 by the English expedition under Captain Nares. More famous and more disastrous was the Lady Franklin Bay expedition of 1881 under A. W. Greely (q. v.). In October, i8Sj, Graely landed at Cape Sabine, one of the Bleakest spots in the arctic regions, and there, in June, 1884, Commander Schley found the six men who still survived. In 1869-70 Captain Coldewey's expedition reached 77° on the east of Greenland. The Jeanette expedition under Commander De Long (q. v.), sent by the New York Herald in 1879 to push north by Bering Strait, ended in disaster, the vessel being ice-crushed in June, 1882.

In the summer of 1886, Robert E. Peary (q. v.) advanced one hundred miles on the icecap of northern Greenland due east from the head of Disco Bay, reaching an altitude of 7500 ft. In 1888 Nansen crossed the ice-cap in southern Greenland from east to west, attaining an altitude of 9000 ft. Peary set out again June 6, 1891, reached McCormick Bay July 24, and established his winter quarters there, his ship commanded by Heilprin returning home. Starting northward May 14, 1892, across the inland ice-cap of Greenland he reached the unknown northern part of the east coast of Greenland July 4, at Navy Cliff, Independence Bay. In 1892 Heilprin came north again for the expedition and it returned home, having determined the northern limits of the Greenland ice-cap. In the same year Jackson, under the patronage of Sir Alfred Harmsworth, explored Franz Josef Land. In 1895 Peary again crossed the ice-cap to Independence Bay but was compelled by lack of food to return without having accomplished much beyond his previous trip.

A noteworthy attempt was made by Nansen, who, having constructed a ship after his own designs, permitted it to be frozen into the icepack of Kara Sea in 1893, and with the ice his ship was drifted across the frozen seas. He had hoped to come out of the ice between Iceland and Spitzbergen; but, the ice-pack not floating so far north as he had supposed, he left the ship and sought to go further on foot. At last he was obliged to turn back; and he reached Franz Josef Land in 1895 and returned to Norway in 1896. His furthest north was 86° 15'.

In 1897 Peary brought home the three great Cape York meteorites which he had discovered in 1894. I*1 1898-1902 Peary went north again and was gone over four years and three months. In this expedition he rounded the northern end of Greenland, and proved conclusively its insularity. He reached 83° 17' N. Lat., on the sea ice north of Grant Land. The Duke of Abruzzi, who sailed in 1899, reached a point 19 geographical miles nearer the goal sought than had been reached by Nansen, Cagni, his captain reaching 86° 33'. In 1898-1901 Sver-drup made extensive explorations in Ellesmere

Land. In 1905 Peary made another attempt in his ship the Roosevelt, built for him by the Peary Arctic Club. With the ship he reached 82° 27' N. Leaving his ship in Feb., 1906, he pushed forward with dog-sledges and reached 87° 6' N., the furthest north. In 1903-06 Amundsen* (q. v.) determined the northern magnetic pole and traversed the northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In 1906-08 Leffingwell, Mikkelsen and Skarkersen explored unknown Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska and west of Parry Archipelago. Wellman tried to sail by airship from Spitzbergen to the pole.

In 1909 came the announcement that the long sought goal—the North Pole—had been reached. Dr. Frederick A. Cook(g. v.) who went on a cruise in arctic waters in the summer of 1907, announced from Copenhagen Sept. 2, 1909, that he had found the Pole April 21, 1908. Five days later Commander Robert E. Peary reported by wireless message from Labrador that he had planted the flag at the Pole April 6, 1909.

Dr. Cook's account of his expedition related that during the winter of 1907-8 at Annootok on the west coast of Greenland, he gathered an equipment of sledges, men, dogs and provisions and on Feb. 19, 1908, started north. Advancing into the polar sea, on March 18 he sent back a part of his men and dogs and when the crossing of the polar pack was begun the train was further reduced to two men and twenty-six dogs. With these he started on his final dash of four hundred and sixty miles to his goal, which he reached on April 21, 1908. Remaining there for two days for taking observations, he began the return journey April 23. Delayed by unfavorable conditions and baffled by westerly drift, he struggled southward, was carried down to Crown Prince Gustav Sea, wintered on Jones Sound, and the shore of Greenland was finally reached April 15, 1909.

Cook's claim was promptly challenged by Peary, and was assailed from many sources. To his critics Cook replied: "I honestly believe I have found the North Pole, and I am willing to submit all my evidence to competent scientists, astronomers and explorers." He later submitted his records to a committee of scientists appointed by the University of Copenhagen, with the result that on examination his proofs were found insufficient, his claim was discredited and his honorary degree of Doctor of Science which had been conferred upon him by the University was withdrawn. Cook's narrative describes conditions near the pole in harmony with Peary's testimony in respect to temperature, ice surface and absence of land. This coincidence is held by Cook's friends to indicate that he really reached that region, even though through lack of scientific knowledge .he was not able to establish his claim.

The Peary expedition sailed from New York in the steamer Roosevelt in July, 1908,