THE NORTH POLE

Evening Star, Issue 14162, 11 September 1909, Page 5

THE NORTH POLE

DR COOK HONORED. A BRILLIANT GATHERING. EVIDENCE OF CHARACTER. I Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. , COPENHAGEN, September 10. Hie Copenhagen University conferred their degree of Doctor upon Dr Cook at a brilliant representative gathering, including the Crown Prince, other members of the Royal Family, Otto Sverdrup (of Fram fame), the Ministers of Instruction and Commerce, and the United States Minister, Dr Cook stated that he intended to send for and fetch two Greenlanders in order' that they might be examined bv unbiased judges DR COOK DEFENDED. AN IGNOBLE BUSINESS. NEW YORK, September 10. The Polar war is eclipsing :dl other topics in America, where the partisans of- Comniander Peary and Dr Cook *are engaging in a campaign of vituperation. Mr Osborne, secretary of the Arctic Club of America, threatens that when Commander Peary sets foot in New York he will have affidavits and facts published stamping Commander Peary as the most colossal faker America has over produced. He alleges that he has an affidavit proving that Commander Peary opened Dr Cook’s trunk, read his observations, and opened a letter addressed to Mrs Cook. r. THE RATE OF TRAVEL. WAS THERE A MISCALCULATION? LONDON, September 10. (Received September 11, at 8.20 a.m.) The ‘ Morning Post ’ comments on Peary’s remarkable rate of travel, which equals that of Dr Cook. This shows that (luring the day’s actual marching Peary covered .sixteen miles daily, and in the closing stages of the northward journey lie covered at the rate of thirty-five miles a day. This phenomenal rapidity suggests the possibility of Peary having miscalculated his position. Dr Cook’s partisans claim that Peary’s figures confirm Cook's story. CAPTAIN TESTIMONY. “MOST HONEST MAN I KNOW.” LONDON, September 10. (Received September 11, at 8.20 a.m.) Captain Ammnndsen, the discoverer of the noith-west passage, declares that Dr Cook is the most honest man he ever met, and justifies him in not risking his instruments and observations on the long and dangerous ■sledge tour from Etah to Upernivik. AN OLD QUARREL. ESKIMO EVIDENCE UNIMPORTANT. LONDON, September 10. (Received September 11, at 9.20 a.m.) Dr Cook's friends allege that the quarrel with Peary began with the Polar expedition of 1901. owing to Peary monopolising all the comforts. Several explorers attach no importance to what the Eskimos say on one side or the other. DOUBT EVERYTHING NOW. LONDON, September 10. (Received September 11, at 9.20 a.m.) The question has also been raised, on the authority of Cook’s companion, Professor Parker, whether Cook ever ascended Mount MacKinlay. [Our issue of the 7th inst. contains Dr Cook’s account of this ascent.] PEARY’S JOURNEY. A DREARY WASTE OF. ICE AND' SNOW. LONDON, September 10. (Received September 11, at 9.20 a.m.) ‘The Times’ has received the second portion of Peary’s narrative, now publishing in the ‘ New York Times.’ It covers from the 18th of August until he was near the 88th parallel, when Captain Bartlett, of the Roosevelt, turned back in accordance with their pre-arrangements to constitute supporting parties. The narrative records the explorer's monotonous experiences of snow and haze, and the difficulties of negotiating .the leads of water. (MANY METHODS, ONE POLE. In a recent article Ylr Walter Wellman, whose last sensational attempts to reach the Polo by airship recently ended in disaster, points out that there are three distinct methods by which it is possible to attain the goal. The first is the “dash” with dogs and sledges, which Air Peary adheres to. This method is also employed by Dr Cook. His chances for reaching the Pole were not considered very good, as lie had more than 300 miles to travel to reach the Arctic Sea, or that much greater distance than Peary will have to go if the latter establishes his base, as before, on the north coast of Grant Land. The second method is ihe drift method employed by Frithjof Nansen, and now to be renewed by another Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, who achieved the North-west Passage with the sloop Gjoa. Captain Amundsen announced in November that in the summer of 1910 he will sail from San Francisco in the Fram, the famous ice-ship used by Nansen and Sverdrup, intending to thrust her within the ice-pack northwest of Behring Strait, and to “ drift ” for three or four years through the Arctic Ocean. In the Nansen voyage the Fram started further west, and two years later the drift.had carried her to the 86th parallel of latitude, or within 500 statute miles of the Pole. Dr Nansen and other Arctic students have believed that if the Fram could start further east the current may carry her across the Pole itself. The third method is travel through the air. Andree tried this with an ordinary balloon, without motive power or .steering means, and lost his life. In November it was reported his grave had been found in Labrador, but the report lacked confirmation, and it is believed the grave was that of a fisherman or sailor. Ihere is now little doubt that Andree’s balloon came down in the Barentz Sea, cast of Spitzbergen and south-west of Franz Josef Land a few days after the start from Dane’s Island, July, 1897. —The Ericsen Expedition.— On August 15 'the ship Denmark, of the Danish expedition to the east coast of Greenland, arrived at Bergen, Norway bringing news that. Mylius Ericsen, leader of the expedition, had perished in a snowstorm. along with Lieutenants and Broenlund, m November, 1907. The object/ of the expedition was to explore the northeast coast of Greenland, north of Cape Bismarck. The three men had left the ship and worked their wav northward Owing to the unusual severity of the V 1 region during the summer of 1907 they were unable to start on their return before the autumn, and while traversing the high inland ice were caught in a storm. A relief party found the bodv of Lieutenant Broenlund in a crevice, not far from a depot. Beside it were sketches showing the work done by the party and t r y diary ’ ‘ n which was following enPerished at 79deg, under a trial return over inland ice, in November. Arrived

here under a decreasing moon, and cannot go on, owing to frozen feet and darkness. The corpses of the’ others are in the middle of the fiord. Hagen died November 15, and Mylius some ten days later.->-(Signed) Joei-gen Broenlund.' The relief party were unable to find’the bodies of Ericsen and Hagen, on account of the heavy snow. The expedition was successful in roughly charting nearly all of the coast of North-east Greenland, and discovered many large islands. —Peary's Previpus Nearest.— Before the past week the nearest approach to the Pole was that of Commander R. E. Peary, of the United States Navy. •He reached 87deg 6min north latitude. Next to him came the Duke of the Abrnzzi, who reached 86deg 53min in 1900, which was thirty miles better than Nansen’s record. Commander Peary started out in 1905, in the Roosevelt, from New York. He steamed round the corner of Greenland, ! through Smith Sound, and, after passing the autumn at Cape Sheridan, away up through Kennedy and Robeson Channels to the north-east; then westward, and then zig-zag up as far as he could go. This wits by no means his first trip, but his nearest approaches hitherto had been 83deg 50mm in 1900. and 84deg 17min in 1902. At Cape Sheridan Peary spent the winter, | making continual preparations for the sledge journey in the spring across the Polar ice. There was not much monotony. Every month sledges came in from the Eskimo settlements, bringing loads of musk ox moat and Eskimo families. And in February the start with the sledges was made from Point Moss, in about 83deg north latitude, in Grant Land. The members of the sledge expedition were, besides Peary. Captain Bartlett, Dr Wolf, Marvin, Denson, Clark, Ryan, twenty-one Eskimos, ami 120 dogs. This party divided into one main and five or six division parties, with which it was hoped to be able to advance supplies and maintain communication, with a base as high as Abruzzi’s farthest north, for the final point of departure. The brandy froze, the petroleum became white and viscid, the dogs (says Peary) were tired and unambitious. They had some trouble in crossing “the Big Lead,” the tidal crack between the land ice of Lincoln , V l '. t,lp central polar pack, and wind and blinding drift and broken ice much impeded them. “To face the gale,” he says once, “ would quickly wear out the strongest man living. And then the gale abated, the sun shone out, and he found he «as in 85deg 12min. A large quantity of provisions had been lost in a “ lead,” and Peary’s party became separated from lue others into which he had divided his men. '-Their trail could not be found. He abandoned everything not absolutely needed, and made on. doing ten-hour inarches. I lie weather became quite calm. “Yesterday hell.” ho savs, “to-day comparative heaven.” The position of the sun was fairly discernible. The ice grew smoother, and they came into a region of open “loads.” tending nearly north and south, and the motion of the ice became pronounced. On April 21 observations showed that they had beaten the record. 1 eary was anxious Id keep on, but his parly were worn out-, his sledges nearly omptv. the ice over which they had com’o was drifting ice, and lie remembered the width of the “big load” between them and Hie nearest land. He turned back. “My flag, he says, “ was flung out from the summit of the highest pinnacle near us, and a hundred feet or so bovond this I left a bottle containing a brief record and a piece of the silk flag which six years before ri 1 ca F l 'J e d round the northern end of Greenland. Then he turned south. —The Abrnzzi Expedition.— Nest to Peary on the list of the North 1 ole-seekers comos l?rincG Louis -Ama-deers of Savoy, Duke of the Abrnzzi. He was a fine mountain climber, and in 1897. after climbing Mount Elias, in Alaska, which had been 100 much for others, lie determined to try his luck on an expedition to the Pole. He bought the.-Jason, a whaler of 358 tons and 400 h.p. He rechristened her the Stella Polan, provisioned her for five ytfars, and set out in her from Laurvik, near Christiania, in 1899. She had on board 120 Siberian dogs. At Cape Flora, in Franz Joseph Land, a cachi left by the previous explorer, Jackson, was found in good order, and the duke stored a quantity of provisions there, in case the vessel should be lost. He then sailed cn up British Channel, passing on his way the tnembers of the Wellman expedition, who were being brought home in the Capella. Ice almost blocked the channel, jt was at last decided to winter in Teplitz Bay. The vessel was nipped, and a leak sprung, and the winter was spent in making short expeditions. In one of these the duke was caught in a snowstorm, and two of his fingers were so badly frostbitten that they had to be amputated. By March, when the sledge expedition started, the wound was not healed, so the command was taken bv Captain Cagni. Two supporting parties “went with him in the first part of the journey. The first of these to leave him was under St. Qnirini, and it was never heard of again. Probably they all fell down a crevasse. But Cagni’s party found the ice smooth, and towards the end of April they had beaten Nansen, reaching 86dcg 3am in. Then (heir provisions began to give out, and they turned back. They wore pretty nearly starved before' they reached the ship, and of the eighty dogs they had had only six remained. ’ * • —Nansen and the Fram.— The best-known name of the explorers of the North is Nansen's. He set out in 1895 from Christiania in the Fram. Previous explorers have been afraid to leave the coast. Nansen was told no ship could stand the fearful pressure of the winter K-e. He had his vessel built accordingly. The sides were 30in thick, and she ’was built so as to rise when squeezed in the ice, and when under steam and sail she was expected to travel eight or nine knots an hour. She carried a crew of thirteen, including Lieutenant Johansen, who went with Nansen over the ice. The Fram sailed up the Kara Sea, and north past New Siberia, and Nansen entered the pack ice at 78deg 50min. As soon as the ice had gripped the vessel the crew got ready for winter. The rudder was shipped, the hold was cleared to make room for a joiner’s shop, the engine was taken to pieces, and a workshop set up in its place. Tinsmith's work was done in the chart room, and shoemaker’s in the saloon. There was always something to occupy the men. The Fram drifted south-west for some weeks, then north again, always resisting the worst pressures of the ice. Sometimes she was raised up so high that her bottom was almost visible. Hansen now determined to leave the ship, and push still farther north with dogs and sledges. There would be no chance of finding the vessel again, for she was always changing her position, so it was a risky business. And with twenty-eight clogs, three sledges, two. kayacks, thirty days’ lood for the dogs, and 100 davs’ food for themselves, they left the ship.’ Nansen and Johansen needed all their pluck. High-piled ridges of ice formed constantly in front of them, and over these the men had to drag the sledges. The ice grew worse and worse as they went north, until at last, on April 22 (they had left the ship on March 14), Nansen, having climbed to the top- of the highest peak about, found nothing but packed, piled-up ice right to the horizon. “It was like a rough sea,” he said, “ that had been petrified.” They had reached 86deg 14min, and thev now tamed back.