South Pole, North Pole News and Guide

	Home
	Latest News
	Expedition List
	Maps
	Ice & Weather
	Polar Statistics

Exp Survival Kit

The Dream

Point Zero

Ground Work

Surviving

The Trek

Golden Rules

Links

Operators

Mountain Tech

Suppliers

Polar Tech

Icescapades

Polar Community

Newsletters

SMS Arctic Flash

WAP/PPC/I-mode

Speed record attempt to solve North Pole controversy: Part 3

Oct 27, 2004 21: 59 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.

Yesterday we described the controversy surrounding Peary's expedition, including Cook's claims and the question of Peary's time and navigation. Today final part 3 of this story:

The Fiennes factor

Much like scientists and entrepreneurs, explorers carry big egos and controversies abound. One explorer stirring feelings with other explorers is the Guinness Book of Records Explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

On the Peary controversy, he said: "Sadly, I doubt that Henson and Peary ever got to the North Pole. It can be mathematically proved that they could not have done it on the basis of their notes."

That really got the website Pearyhenson.org going; in defense of Peary’s name, they are ready to bash anyone opposing to the American’s success. The website contains heaps of information, from old files and postcards to last events and press releases, as well as some mean-humored but nevertheless hilarious comments.

"Get some experience - then I will listen to you"

The controversy will probably never settle. After the combatants passed away, their heirs continued the battle.

Some explorers have attempted before to prove that Peary‘s achievements are possible by going to the Pole themselves, using similar methods and logistics.

In the year 2000 Paul Landry & Paul Crowley reached the North Pole after repeating Peary’s journey riding dog-hauled sledges. Pearyhenson.org quotes Paul Crowly as saying: “If you want to criticize Peary and you want to have credibility, get some dog sledding experience. Get some experience living with Inuit and understand what they're capable of doing. Get some experience seeing what the dogs are capable of doing. And then I will listen to you."

Paul & Paul: "We proved it"

Landry said his and Crowley's expedition shows Peary could have reached the Pole in the time he said he did. "As Peary did, we did this as a marathon race to the Pole. We were able to maintain and actually pass Peary's mileage all the way until two-thirds of the trip. I'm not a professional navigator, but I now know for sure that the distances Peary claimed are doable. We proved it."

Plane vs. divisions

Their trip took 42 days, in comparison to Peary's 38. The expeditions of Peary and Landry, while similar in spirit, were however far different in scale. Landry and Crowley traveled alone and received only one resupply, from an airplane that landed halfway through their journey at 86 degrees 30' North.

Peary, meanwhile, carried out his 1909 expedition with military precision, commanding 24 men, 19 sleds and 133 Canadian Inuit dogs. Groups of men, which Peary calls "divisions" in his book The North Pole, traveled ahead of the explorer, dropping off supplies and building igloos for him to use along the way.

Now Tom Avery & Team are ready to repeat the feat, to confirm at least that – it could have been done - in favor of Peary’s claims.

Peary: To Greenland with wife and Cook

Robert Edwin Peary was born in Cresson, Pennsylvania, on May 6, 1856. An 1877 graduate of Bowdoin College, he joined the U. S. Navy as a civil engineer, eventually rising to the rank of Rear Admiral. After distinguishing himself in tropical assignments, including the surveying of a possible canal route through Nicaragua, Peary turned his sights to the arctic.

In 1888 he married Josephine Diebitsch, who shared his ambition and many journeys. In fact, their first child was born in Greenland in 1893. Peary led four expeditions to northern Greenland between 1886 and 1900, proving that Greenland was an island, not a continent. Accompanying him was his wife and the same Frederick Cook who later claimed the North Pole first for himself.

756 people had died trying

Having a successful experience at the rigors of arctic exploration, Peary set his sights on finding the North Pole. 756 people had died trying. The person who achieved this, Peary realized, would become a very famous person, and be remembered in history for a long, long time. As his assistant, he chose a young black man, Matthew Henson, who was to prove essential to the expedition.

"Mine at last ..."

For his final assault on the North Pole, Peary set off from New York City with 23 men on July 6, 1908 and wintered near Cape Sheridan on Ellesmere Island. From there they departed for the pole on March 1, 1909. The last support party turned back on April 1, 1909 in latitude 87°47' north.

On the final stage of the journey to the North Pole only five of his men, Matthew Henson, Oatah, Egingwah, Seegloo, and Ookeah, remained. Those two men along with four Inuits were the party who made the 130-mile last leg of the journey to the North Pole itself.

In his diary for the 7th April (but actually written up much later when preparing his journals for publication), Peary wrote "The Pole at last!!! The prize of 3 centuries, my dream and ambition for 23 years. Mine at last ..".

Driven but unpleasant?

After his return, he developed an interest in airplanes, particularly their potential for use in exploration and the military. When World War I began, Peary was named chairman of the National Committee on Coast Defense, due to his previous work on such an enterprise.

In 1917, he was found to be suffering from anemia, which was an incurable disease. He died on February 20, 1920 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. In his book Ninety Degrees North, polar historian and author Fergus Fleming describes Peary as "undoubtedly the most driven, possibly the most successful and probably the most unpleasant man in the annals of polar exploration."

Image compiled by ExWeb of Paul Crawley (left) Paul Landry (right) and a dog sledge expedition, courtesy of NorthWinds and Barcapultimatenorth.com.

Feature Stories