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Speed record attempt to solve North Pole controversy: Part 2
Oct 26, 2004 12: 03 EST
British explorer Tom Avery will lead a four-member team to the North Pole in a bid to solve the so-called ‘greatest polar mystery of all time’.
“We're basically recreating Peary's disputed expedition to the North Pole, same route (Cape Columbia), small teams of Canadian Inuit dogs, sleds built on exactly the same design as Peary's, and 4 food and fuel caches placed at exactly the same point as Peary's," Avery told ExlorersWeb. Today we investigate the controversy, divided in a 2 part report.
The North Pole controversy, Part 1
Robert Edwin Peary, along with his African-American assistant Matthew Henson and four Inuit men were the first to reach the North Pole on April 6, 1909. An officer in the United States Navy, it was Commander Peary's eighth attempt to reach the pole in two decades of exploring arctic regions.
The key to his success was his deep knowledge of Inuit skills to progress on the vast frozen surfaces and, of course, strong and well trained dogs. He pioneered a system (which he called the "Peary system") of using support teams and supply caches for Arctic travel. The successful group covered the130 miles long leg after the rest of the support members turned around one by one.
The joker in the game: Dr Cook
Peary announced his success to the world on September 6, 1909, only to find that a former colleague from his 1891 Greenland expedition, Dr. Frederick Cook, just had claimed to have reached the North Pole one year earlier.
That was the beginning of a bitter cross-fire. Media fed the fire and both Peary and Cook lead and/or got stuck in consecutive conspiracy campaigns. Some claimed there was a racial bias against Peary because his assistant was black. But the fact was that Cook never offered real proof for his claims. In 1911 a congressional inquiry concluded that Peary, who had been promoted to Rear Admiral, deserved the credit.
A question of time
In recent years the weight of opinion has shifted to Peary's side, but not entirely. In the 1980's the controversy arose again.
Not involving Cook this time, the doubt was instead if Peary at all was capable to cover the long distance in such a short amount of time (42 days), and if he actually reached the exact Geographic North Pole, based on calculations made from Peary's navigational notes.
The National Geographic Society again endorsed Peary's claims in 1989, as the navigational notes were determined to be from a previous expedition.
Sloppy navigation
Peary’s detractors maintain the following statements: The party that accompanied Peary on the final stage of the journey included no one who was trained in navigation and could independently confirm his own navigational work, which appeared to be particularly sloppy as he approached the pole.
The distances and speeds Peary claimed to have achieved once the last support party turned back border on the incredible, almost three times that which he had accomplished up to that point.
Peary's account of a beeline journey to the pole and back -- the only thing that might have allowed him to travel at such a speed -- is contradicted by Henson's account of tortured detours to avoid pressure ridges and open leads. A 1996 analysis of a newly-discovered copy of Peary's record indicates that he was almost certainly 20 miles (32km) short of the Pole.
Tomorrow final part 3: 42 days and the Fiennes factor
Image: Robert E. Peary, in costume he wore when he discovered the North Pole." United Press between 1909 and 1920. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Courtesy America's Library.
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