DR COOK'S POLAR EXPEDITION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIV, Issue 10290, 1 November 1909, Page 2

DR COOK'S POLAR EXPEDITION.

By John R. Bradley, Svho financed the Expedition.)

The story of Dr Cook's successful "dash" for the North Pole, so far as my connection with the event is concerned, really began with m,v" first acquaintance with tlie doc tor-some years ago. He interested me from the first. We had a -common love of travel and discovery, and both were members of the Explorers' Club.

I had studied carefully the work he had done on the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897-1899, and his successful climb of Mount M'Kinley in 1906. He impressed me is a seasoned and. resourceful explorer, full of courage, the self-confidence that is born c ( knowledge, and a circumspection that is born of caution and calculation. Dr Cook'is no.dreamer, no romancer; his several noted achievements attest that he is a practical and reliable man. He never tells what he/is going to do, but pursues the scientific! method of doing tilings first and demoiiivtrating them afterward. ; For three years I had often spoken to him about my desire to shoot polar bear. He had been north with Pearv in 1891-1592, and his experience stimulated my eagerness io take one more big shooting trip before writing my reminiscences, which 1 desired to name "Hunting Big Game from the Arctic to the Equator." On my return from Asia, in December, 1906, I said to Cook: "My next wii 1 be the Arctic." In the spring of 1907 1 had fully made ~p my mind to "go thv-t year, anr 1 invited Dr Cook to go as my guest. That was the way the idea originated. He was ; to photograph Eskimos and I was to shoot walrus and polar bear. Nothing was then said about a'-dash for the Pole. That was a later development, but one, nevertheless, that was fully and carefully planned before we started north.

The first thing necessary was a suitable vessel. I wrote to Baring Brothers, of St. Johns, N.F., knowing that in the summer the sealers are idle and vessels are chartered then for hunting and fishing trips. A large sum was asked for the use of a vessel. 1 did not object to that, but they wanted me to be put under the command of a captain, and this. I did not want. We didn't have time to build, so we decided to buy. We looked over vessels at New London first, then wejit to Gloucester, where ,we found a fishing schooner named the "George Lufkin," of til tons, built at Essex. We figured on what' it would cost to refit her, and I finally bought her. I overhauled her completely, cleaned her out, braced her fore and aft, put in new rigging and sails, sheathed her. with steel plates on bow and stern', put in a gasoline, engine ' and gasoline tanks, and, in short, after repainting her white and gold and rechristening her the "John R. Bradley," transformed her into practically a new craft, stanch enough for the trip to Etah. Captain Moses Bartlett, whom I engaged to command her, said he'd just as soon be in her as any vessel he'd ever sailed in. She had cabins like a yacht—a cabin for Dr Cook, an aft cabin for officers, and a forward cabin for eighteen sailors' and a galley. Everything essential in the way of equipment was as perfect as one would have on a private yacht. We had 5000 gallons of gasoline, provisions for two years in case of shipwreck, and everything necessary for shooting and navigation in the Arctic. When all these preparations were complete, and about four weeks before, sailing, Dr Cook and I were lunching one day at the Holland House, and lie said to me: "Wliv not trv for the Pole?"

I replied: "Not I. Would you like to try for it?" He said: "There's nothing that I would rather do : it's the ambition of myi life." He thought ■it- would cost only about £I6OO or £2OOO more to furnish an equipment for this purpose, and we figured it out. Finally I said : "We'll fit this expedition for the Pole, and say nothing to any one about it." We did not want the newspapers to get at it. Peary was waiting to go, and we did not want him to beat us into Etah and get all the dogs ; moreover. I wanted to shoot on the way up and did not want to be in'a hurry.

We fitted the ship according to the doctor's ideas. He believed in making the dasli with as light a burden as possible. For example, strvos to burn coal oil, which Greely took north with him, weighed fifteen pounds each : our stoves weighed three pounds. Everything else was cut down the same way. At the same time we had everything that was needed for the doc-tor's preliminary work of preparation in his winter quarters, his camping equipment, provisions, tools, material for sleds —every necessary detail was carefully thought out and "provided f<u\ We figured this way: In case we got up to Etah and found the natives wf-ro not well, or the dogs scarce, or any other condition unfavorable, we would call it a hunting, trip, and return quietly home again. Wo sailed from Gloucester, July 1. 1907. Everything went well. We put in at Sydney and Battle Harbor, Labrador, and after going a few hundred miles up the Labrador coast we crossed Davis Strait to the south end of Greenland to escape the ice, reaching the Greenland coast near Godhaven. We encountered rough weather here, "but the boat stood it splendidly. ' After crossing, we ran into considerable ice, which bent a blade of our propellor and disabled the screw, compelling us to beach the ship at Disko to make repairs ; then we "hiked" out for the north again. At first Ave found very little ice; then we mot a good deal of ice and much fog. This was at the entrance to Melville Ray near Duck Island. I had a motor boat, with which I planned to shoot eider duck, but the fog was too thick, so I said : "Go on across Melville-. Bay." We found' it very rough going. We were "nipped" three times in- the ice—that is, the ship was caught and squeezed by the pack, and once we thought we were lost. Xfter seven days of hard work we made Cape York, where we expected to meet with northern Eskimos. We saw plenty ofbear on Melville Bay, but they were on pan ice, and I couldn't, get at them. At Cape York, which is simplv a point of land where a few Eskimos liv\ we ran into an awful" storm, which made it too dangerous to approach the coast, so we decided to continue northward. As we proceeded we met blinding snowstorms, but one morning the sun came.out, and the same day, about nooii, we sailed into North Star Bay. Here we saw hundreds of walrus, and I got out my big harpoon. The best place to anchor, Captain Bartlett .said, v.a's at a diamond-shaped head of land where the "Roosevelt" had "touched some years before. We fired guns to attract the natives, and two came out +o ineet us in their skin canoes (or kayaks). Dr Cook spoke to them in their own language, and as we were moving slowly they accompanied us to shore. On the other side of the point we saw the Eskimo settlements —men. women and dogs—and in an hour we h«.d nearlv the whole copulation of the place on board the ship. We took a census of the tribe and counted 240, which was 10 less than there were seventeen years ago. We spent five days here shooting and putting things to rights about the schooner : and with the use of the motor boat I found good sport in hunting walrus, the meat of which I gave to the Eskimos for their does.

Then we made our wav north again, shooting. ducks. seal, -walrus, boar and evorv other kind of northern same, until we got to Etah. our destination, the northernmost settlement in Greenland, on the west coast, in: latitude about 78deg. It was good to mot there, and especially satisfnct.orv to- r°olis: 1 that we had, "poomnlished the journey to the northern limits of navigation in R»"ith -Sound in an auxiliary schooner. This was late- i n August. ,1007. "VVe climbed the hills back of. Etah pnd had fine vi«»ws looking westward over Smith Sound, where the ;air. was_ so clear that we .could seo for! miles without glasses. Twenty-fivp miles across is Cane Sabine, near which Greely was nicked up by; Schley.. There was very little ice. "' i • Br Cook,' the • first mate and I decideid to take the motor bopt and,provvsions for a, of weeks' trip on the Greenland side for the. purpose /0 { finding the Eskiniso who were said to live a few miles north of Etali. When we got there we found the men were

all away hunting narwahl and walrus, so we-camped there a cciuple of days and went back to the schooner. Dr Cook and I were getting breakfast one morning, when he said: "I'm going to stay." •'All right,'' I replied; "you're past twenty-one years of age. Think it over before you finally decide." We brought all the natives down with us to Etah, and' here we had quite a butich of them. . One of the older men had recognised Dr Cook and called him. by name. ■ "I am going to stay," the doctor repeated. " Then we told Captain Bartlett. Naturally ho was startled, but- no said; "I suspected it from the kind of stores you put on board." We took the ship as far north as we could, and effected a landing of the stores with. great difficulty at Annootok, some miles north of Etah. Instead of clear water, we began to have the worst , ice we had seen on Smith Sound, just .where# it chokes in and fills Kennedy. Channel. We were thirteen hours landing the stores, throwing them on the coast from the motor boat and dories wherever we could. Already there, had been a call for volunteers to stay with Dr Cook, and five of my men had responded. We considered all their offers carefully. First, the engineer—no, we needed him ; then the' steward —no,- fie was too giddy;; the:i one of the sailors — no; then Kirby—no, he had toothache ; and last; my cook, .Rudolph Francke, a good, healthy mail. We decided to land him with Dr Cook, and when he had been put on shore the Doctor came on board, wrote some letters home, and We .bade him good-bye. That was the last we saw of him. I can answer fully for Dr Cook's equipment. He had everything that could be desired. He had 150 dogs and 70 men,' women and children for Eskimo companions that winter, and one. white man. He had his winter house, machine shop, 40 tons of coal, 150 feet of stove pipe (for heating his workshop and for drying walrus meat), medicines, books, pemmicari, hickory for fifteen sleds, nails, screws, all tools; besides the provisions for his polar dar.h he had biscuit, canned goods, coffee and tea, tobacco, needles and thread—everything to begin the winter season with on September 1, 1907, to make ready for his dvsh to the Pole. He had September and part of October in which 'to build_ his house and have everything in readiness. I proceeded south with the vessel and tried to make Cape Sabine, to go after musk-ox, but we had to give it np on account of the. ice. It was near here, -however, that I got my largest polar bear; he weighed 900 pounds. When we struck the coast of Labrador we ran into the worst storm we ever saw, in which, I afterward learned, more than seventy vessels were Jost. Four men were kept working at the pumps for many hours. We made the Bay of Islands, N.F., and anchored, and the stay here gave me a week's opportunity .to go hunting for caribou. At Sydney, Cape Breton, the %'essel was put in dry dock, and it was found that the ice had cut the sheathing. After my return home I was asked a good many times how Dr Cook expected to get back to New York. To these inquiries I replied that I had told Dr Cook, "I am not coming up again," and lie had replied, ,"I do not want a relief ship ; I will cross the inland ice to Cape York. I can get there. I shall cross Melville Bay to Upernavik (a little Danish settlement on f;lie southwest coast of Greenland. Once a year a blubber ship takes blubber from Upernavik. I can pay passage from there to Copenhagen." Thus, 'it will be observed, Dr Cook did exactly as he planned.- He expected to return to New York, he said, about November, 1909. Those-who knew of the Doctor's plan —Mrs Cook, Captain Bartlett, and Rudolph Francke, as well as myself—have been confident that Dr Cook has been alive and would be heard from, and that if lie failed to reach the Pole he would certainly return home with the record of the Farthest North.

His intentions were, after landing at Annootcik, to make his sleds and his winter quarters as soon as there was enough light to see. The details of his experiences up to the time he was last heard from on March 17, 1908, have been given to us fully by the letters brought home by Francke and by Dr Cook's own reports during the last, few days. There lias never been any doubt, in my mind about his safety, knowing him and his methods as well as I do. When Nansen wintered in the Far North, he and his men did what they were forced, to do. They had to study conditions. The dogs may die, there may he open water, or the men may get sick or frozen —there, are lots of chances of getting into trouble —but in spite of all possible calculations of disaster, I have been confident- of Dr Cook's success. He is a man who would figure ahead, and this time, as- on his previous exploits, he has proved that his calculations were coriect.