ARCTIC EXPLORERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19235, 26 January 1926, Page 9

ARCTIC EXPLORERS.

DISCOVERY OF NORTH POLE.

AMUNDSEN RAISES CONTROVERSY A. and N.Z. NEW YORK, Jan. 24. The question as to who discovered the North Pole' has been reopened as a result of a lecture delivered by Captain Iloald Amundsen before a tense audience. Captain Amundsen said that Dr. Cook's story of his discovery of the Pole was just as plausible as that of Peary. He deplored the weight which had been given to the testimony of Eskimos on which Dr. Cook had been discredited. Captain Amundsen recently visited Dr. Cook in prison and talked over old times. Both had been together in Antarctic explorations in 1897. Captain Stefansson is inclined to believe Peary's data. He says his own observations in 1915 revealed the land which Peary called Crocker Land. Major-General Adolphus Greeley, a noted Arctic explorer, comments on Captain Amundsen's statements. He says neither' Cook nor Peary ever reached the North Pole. General Greeley conducted an Arctic expedition as early as 1881, and reached the furthest north up .to that time. He discovered new land north of Greenland.

To Robert E. Peary, a civil engineer in the United States Navy, belongs the honour of having first reached the North Pole. As early as 1886 Peary visited Greenland, and had aroused in him an interest in polar exploration. He participated in several expeditions and then turned his attention to the Pole, which was 396 geographical miles farther north than any man had penetrated on the Western Hemisphere. In his first expedition, 1898-1902, Peary failed to get nearer than 343 miles from the Pole. On the next attempt he made a wonderful march in 1906 to 87deg. 6min., but winds of unusual fury prevented him reaching the Pole. In his third attempt, however, Peary was successful. The expedition left New York in the . Roosevelt, commanded by Captain It. A. Bartlett, on July 6, 1908. Winter quarters were established at Cape Sheridan, on September 3- Sledge work proceeded, and in 'February f,he work of establishing a chain of depot's lj>egan. Upon leaving the Roosevelt, Pearjr and his sledge party set out for Cape Columbia. In five marches 85deg. 23/nin. was reached, and from that point the leader started on with 12 men, sledgifs and 80 dogs. From 87deg. 48r>i:i.—the farthest north • attained at that time—Peary went on with only Henson (a negro), four Eskimos and the pick of his dogs (40 in number). The 125 miles of the first dash were covered in five equal day marches, and the North Pole was reached on April 6, 1909. Peary's entry in his diary was as follows"The Pole at last. - The prize of three centuries. My dream and goal for 20 vears. Mine at last. I cannot bring myself to realise it. It seems all so simple and commonplace." Peary and his party remained at the Pole for 30 hours and the party then started back. The return proved more perilous than the advance, and the expedition ultimately reached Indian Harbour (Labrador) on September 5. After his return to the United States Peary was involved in n, bitter controversy with l)r F A. Cook, who claimed to have reached the North Pole first by nearly a year. Cook's -claim was, however, never substantiated. In 1923 Dr. Cook was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment on a charge of fraud in connection with the promotion of oil companies.