NORTH POLE REACHED

Evening Star, Issue 14187, 12 October 1909, Page 3

NORTH POLE REACHED

REPORTED DISCOVERY BY DR F. A. COOK. AN AMERICAN TRIUMPH. [From Our Special Correspondent.] LONDON, September 3. The name of Uook, already world-famous in the annals of exploration through the .achievements of the great Captain Cook, Is now,. if reports speak true, destined to be associated inseparably with the discovery of the North Pole." Thero is nothing to add to what has boon alreadv cabled regarding the exploit of Dr F. A. Cook, as the steamer on which ho is travelling to Copenhagen is not due here till morrow. Or Cook is a seasoned and resovrrcefid Arctic explorer. He was surgeon and ethnologist of the first Peary expedition in 1891-92; commander of the expedition in the yacht Zeta in 1893: organiser and commander of the expedition on the steamer Miranda the next year ; surgeon, anthropologist, and photographer of the Belgian Antarctic expedition of 1897-99; and surgeon with the Pearv auxiliary expedition on the Krik, 1901.' He was'head of the party that climbed Mount MKinlev. the highest peak of the North American continent, in September. 1906. The ascent required four days up and down. Xo whit© man accompanied Dr Cook to the Pole. The latter is known to have carried an automobile sledge that, made a high speed over the ice, and that became n motor boat when open water was struck. At lea.st that was the avowed purpose of the contrivance. A PRESKNTFMI-'NT.

Captain Bosbon. secretary of the Arctic Club of America, when told Unit Dr Cook had reached the Pole, leaped to his feet and exclaimed : " [ knew it : Only yesterday I wrote to Mrs Cook that I had'a pre-M-ntirnent that he,- liusku:.! had reached ■■nc Pole, and that she would have coniimatory news of his iVai in ; , ,>„■ day" ■aptain ISosbo:, then said he was confident ■•hat Dr look, contrary to ihe ,-ule cstil l,. ishcd by other explorers, had made his ■lash in the waiter, -diners, von know." f *?■ '• "'lT'', illwa . vs I'J'-ked-thc summer for the.,- hnal dash, iu .d disaster aad failure have invariably followed i> e, tort I heard of Dr Cook was <„, March 17 w i r a i- , ,"' as Ul( '" ;lt U'l* 'l'l'omas Hubbard, which, according t<» our reckoning, is only 2CO miles from !h:> Pole, and at that time there was no open water dotting the ice. and he had clear sledding to the Pole. Those of us here who had confidence in Dr Cook believed that he alone would be the man to reach the Pole, and when we heard he was within 200 miles of his we were confident that it was only a question of time before we should hear of his success."

On .March 7,. 19C8. Dr look let: his sole white companion, Mr Rudolph L'rauke. at K»>h. Oreenland, and started out. with eight Eskimos, four fudges. ;, n <| twelve dog teams to Cape Thomas Hubbard, on the edge, of the Polar «ea of ice. The explorer crossed Ellesmcrc Land .-afely. killing enough musk oxen, hours. ,".u<f Arctic HSV.TC« to ensure plentv of fo.:d for the iiSSafflK'Jiafe future.

RKVEXTEEN MONTHS' SILKXCR. The last word the world received .mm Dr Cook was in a. letter io Mr t-'raake at the supply station. This was wriueu on .March 17. 1908, at Cape Huhbard. on the north-west side of Ellesmere Land. It in strueted Mr Frankc to wait at Ktah until June, and if Dr Cook did not appear bv that time. Mr Frankc was to go to Acl>onie. off North Star Island, and take the first, whaler back to America. .Mr Franke followed his instructions. When Dr Cook did not appear at the appointed time, he fell m with the Pearv auxiliary ship, and returned to New York last autumn. Before Mr Frankc finally loft Dr Cook's supply station lie had taken a. trip to North Star Island, and finding no whaling .-hips there, had returned to Ktah, under great privations, to find that in his absence tiie .supply hut had been rifled bv marauding Kskmios. ■ The theft of these supplies constituted a source of peril to Dr Cook, an<l when nothing had been heard of him at the end of 1908 his Rrooklvn friends decided to send out ;v relief expedition. Dr Ros■well S.tebbins. chairman of the Committee that organised the relief expedition said that no news of anv kind regarding the explorer had Teaehed his friends and the Explorers' Club since March, 1908. when Dr Cook started inland from Etah. CAPTAIN SCOTT'S OPINION.

Captain Scott, of the. Discovery Antarctic expedition, ungrudginsrlv admitted that did the earlier news prove to be correct the American explorer was deserving of the highest congratulations. " "The report, which I have onlv just eeen, is very meagre," said Captain' Scott, "but if it is trne. there are few people ■who bettor deserve to onjov such a startling success than Dr Cook. He has for many years devoted his attention to Polar work, and was a member of the Belgian expedition to the Antarctic, doing valnablo scientific work, about ton rears a"o. It appears that Dr Cook left Cape Columbia on March 17, 1908, and reached the Pole thirty-five days later. Cape Columbia 16 about 420 miles from the Pole, and therefore Dr Cook must have covered about twelve miles a day. When it is remembered that on this route Markham found extremely heavy obstacles in 1870. and that Peary did the. same in ISO2 it would seem that Dr Cook was extre-melv lucky in finding such easy travelling and in making such excellent progress. Moreover," aded Captain Scott, "it has been generally supposed from the experience* of former journeys that the whole of the north coast of Greenland is bordered with extremely heavy ice pressed up bv the general movement of the ice across the Polar £oa. It is certainly a matter of congratulation for America tliat the Americans have finally triumphed in a campaign which has cost many lives and a ereat deal of money. And if the North c Po] e has been discovered," were the captain's closing words, " I hope that Britain will not relax the efforts which have given her a loading place in the work of Antarctic exploration until the discovery of the South Polo can be claimed as her share of the reward."

LIEUTEN ANTKH ACKLETON'S

TRIBUTE.

'The world will wait with the keenest interest,' Bays Lieutenant Shackleton, ''for the fiifl details of the attainment of the North Pole, the goal towards which eo many brave men have strived, and the region of which has boon tho scene of so many splendid failures. Dr Cook has eucceeded, it seems, -where many men have failed, ami from tho world at large, and from Polar explorers in particular, h'ewi'l receive the wannest congratulations. I have very recent recollections of hards hi d and struggle in ice-bound regions, and therefore I can realise what the effort must have cost, and feel personal pleasure that it should have been crowned with such magnificent success. As regards the result of Dr Cook's achievement, the attainment of either Pole will, of course stop the fitting oat of expeditions that are designed solely for the purpose of reaching that particular Pole, but even after both Poles have been Teachod, scientific expeditions will still continue to penetrate the Polar solitudes. There will remain, apart altogether from the Poles themselves, a vast field for scientific research, * field that seems to grow larger with wach effort to garner its information and wolve its problems."