The present writer, throughout the sixty years and more of his connection with polar research, has always deprecated the diverting of exploring energy to dashes for the Pole, if this be the sole object.
In former days the enterprise of reaching the Pole was looked upon as including important discoveries, and the opening of a route to the east. It was for these objects that John Davis made his attempt; that the Government in the eighteenth century offered a reward for reaching 89° N.; that Phipps, Buchan, and Scoresby tried how far north it was possible to go in a ship, and Parry with boats and sledges. Sir George Nares was ordered to attempt an approach to the Pole in the erroneous belief, inspired by Hall’s map, that the land trended north, in which case such a journey would have useful results. But since Nansen’s discovery that the Pole is in an ice-covered sea there was no longer any special object to be attained in going there, except for magnetic observations.
Nansen made an interesting journey northwards which showed the character of the ice to be crossed. As the floes are in motion during a great part of the year, and there is danger from the lanes of water that form and much obstruction from the lines of hummocks thrown up by ice pressure, progress is difficult and uncertain. Nansen wisely took kayaks with him, capable of carrying the sledges across lanes of water.
The Duke of the Abruzzi was bitten with the idea of reaching the Pole by way of Franz Josef Land, following Nansen’s route and adopting his plans for sledge, tent, and other travelling equipage. He bought a Norwegian sealer and was fortunate in reaching the northern part of Franz Josef Land (near Cape Fligely) for winter quarters. But a severe frost-bite, necessitating the amputation of a finger, prevented him from leading the main journey. His place was ably filled by his second in command, Captain Cagni of the Italian Navy.
Captain Cagni arranged his scheme for travelling with great care. His sledges and tents were on Nansen’s pattern, but he altered the reindeer-skin sleeping bags so as to have room for three persons. Three limited parties of four sledges each were to enable the fourth extended party to start full after the 45th day. The sledges constantly required repairs, and were in worse condition every day. Captain Cagni encountered the same difficulties as Nansen from lines of pressed-up hummocks and lanes of water. He succeeded in getting a few miles beyond Nansen’s furthest to 86° 33′ N.
Detentions by gales of wind and other misfortunes threw out the original scheme, but the most important lesson taught by Cagni’s journey is the danger of steering in a wrong direction, and the absolute necessity for frequent observations to obtain true bearings. As he approached the land again he found that he was fifty miles out in longitude. This shows the necessity for taking amplitude observations of the sun whenever it is possible. In going towards the Pole it is still more essential, for to attempt to reach a point like the Pole without a true course constantly verified must inevitably lead to error. Cagni and his party suffered great hardships before they succeeded in reaching the ship again.
Peary commenced the first of his three attempts to reach the North Pole in 1896, when he reported having been to 85° N., travelling from the north coast of Ellesmere Island. His plan was to hire the sledges and dogs of the Arctic Highlanders and to get the natives to drive, so that the white man merely has to walk alongside. The Danes have always travelled in this way; indeed it is a necessity when the white man has no companion or only one or two, and nothing could be better for journeys along the Greenland coast or over the inland ice. Peary, who holds that the fewer white men in an expedition the greater its chance of success, also thinks that the Eskimo dress of furs is the best, but there is much difference of opinion on this point.
The Arctic Highlanders, whose sledges and dogs and skill as drivers enabled Peary to make his journeys, deserve the greatest credit. All explorers speak warmly of their generosity, their hospitality and trustworthiness, as well as of their prowess in hunting. Such praise is well deserved163. Kane, who has given the best account of the Arctic Highlanders, was indebted to them for much kind assistance, and Allen Young bore similar testimony.
Peary, who was a man of exceptional perseverance and indomitable energy, was well backed financially, and was able to proceed to his third attempt on the Pole in a well-found steamer. The most northern accessible coast—the north coast of Ellesmere Island—is of course the best point of departure. Great ranges of pressed-up hummocks and open lanes of water were to be expected, with the danger of being drifted with the pack. Both Nansen and Cagni provided themselves with kayaks, and M’Clintock was always prepared for the necessity of having to cross water. Peary, however, appears to have made no such provision. He reported having reached 87° N. in 1906, but he was in great danger from inability to cross the open lanes of water, and from miscalculations. He returned with the intention of making another attempt.
He was preceded by a similar attempt, made with much smaller means, by his former colleague Dr Cook. In July 1907 a schooner yacht belonging to a Mr Bradley arrived at Etah, near the entrance to Smith Sound. Stores were landed at Anoatok, 25 miles from Etah, and Mr Bradley departed, leaving Dr Cook and Mr Rudolf Francke at Anoatok, where they built a house of packing-cases with a roof of shingles. Dr Cook had been ethnologist in Peary’s first expedition and had acquired the Eskimo language as spoken by the Arctic Highlanders. He had also served in the Belgian Antarctic expedition.
Anoatok, which lies in lat. 78° 20′ N., is the most northern settlement of the Arctic Highlanders, and here 250 Eskimos were established with their dogs. During the winter Cook was busy making sledges. These were of hickory, 12 ft. in length and only 2½ ft. wide, the width of runner 1⅛ in. The dress adopted was much the same as that of the Eskimos. The principal food was to be pemmican made by Armour of Chicago. A 10 ft. collapsible canvas boat with wooden frame was considered essential. The party which started from Anoatok on February 19th, 1908, consisted of Cook, Francke, nine Arctic Highlanders, and 103 dogs in prime condition, with 11 sledges carrying 4000 lbs. of supplies.
The party crossed Smith Sound to Cape Sabine, and then took the route discovered by Sverdrup across Ellesmere Island and proceeded up the west coast of that island. Abundance of game was met with, and Svartevæg, the most northern point of Axel Heiberg Island, was reached. This was to be Cook’s point of departure for the Pole. He took leave of his Arctic Highlanders, only retaining two lads of about 20, named Etukishuk and Ahwilak, as his companions, and proceeded with two sledges, 26 dogs, and the collapsible boat. Francke had already returned. The provisions were almost untouched, as the party had been able to live on the game its members had shot during the journey of 400 miles from Anoatok. An important depôt was left at Svartevæg.
The final start was made on March 18th, 1908, the travelling being difficult owing to the lines of hummocks caused by ice pressure and the lanes of water. On March 30th Cook sighted land to the westward in 84° 50′ N. which he named Bradley Land, but he did not alter his course to examine it. On April 21st he reports having taken a sun’s meridian altitude which gave a latitude of 89° 57′, but he must have been mistaken, both overrating his distances and failing to make sure of his direction by observations. He doubtless did make a long journey over the ice, in a more or less northerly direction; but without observations to obtain true bearings, no reliance can be placed upon his positions.
Cook’s instruments were a sextant and a glass artificial horizon adjusted by screws and spirit levels. He also relied on shadow observations, and on an odometer fitted to his sledge. But there is no mention of any observations for true bearing of the sun and that he made none is conclusively proved by the fact that in returning he was unable to follow his outward tracks and his route was consequently far to the west of Svartevæg, until at length he found himself in Hassel Strait between the two Ringnes Islands, unable to reach his depôt.
Cook was in great difficulties, but eventually he found his way to Jones Sound, thanks to the collapsible boat and to the efficiency and resourcefulness of the two Eskimo lads. The party wintered at Cape Sparbo in Jones Sound on the north-west coast of North Devon. Cartridges had run out and they had no native weapons. It was due to the wonderful skill and energy of the two young Arctic Highlanders that weapons were contrived out of unpromising materials, and sufficient game obtained to enable them to live through the winter. In the spring they had to make the long journey from Jones Sound to Anoatok, a great part of the route being over new ground. Eventually Cook returned by a Danish ship, having gone from Smith Sound across Melville Bay to Upernivik. He left his instruments and some notes behind to be taken back in the next ship, considering that there was danger of losing them if he had taken them with him on his long journey.
Peary, with strong financial support, fitted out a well-found steamer, the Roosevelt, in the following year, with Captain Bartlett, a native of Newfoundland, as Master. With him went his secretary, Ross Marvin, Dr Goodsell as surgeon, two volunteers named Macmillan and Borup, and his negro servant Henson. There were 22 men all told when the steamer started in July 1908, and at Etah 22 Eskimo men, 17 women, and 246 dogs were taken on board. On August 18th the voyage was resumed, and on September 4th the neighbourhood of the Alert’s winter quarters was reached, and autumn parties were sent forward to Cape Colombia to form a depôt, this being Peary’s starting-point for the Pole.
In order that the expedition might be of some use, the American Coast and Geodetic Survey officials arranged that there should be tidal observations, and that soundings to fix the position of the continental shelf should be taken. Tidal observations had already been taken and discussed by the Alert and the Discovery. The Roosevelt observations also included 29 days at Cape Aldrich. The continental shelf with a depth of 100 fathoms extends for about 46 miles from the land. In latitude 85° 23′ N. the sounding was only 310 fathoms.
The distance from Cape Colombia to the Pole and back is 826 miles, a distance which had been greatly exceeded in the sledge journeys of the British officers of the Franklin search expeditions. M’Clintock made a journey of 1210 miles in 99 days without the help of dogs, and Lieut. Mecham travelled over 1336 miles, the average rate outwards being 18½ miles, and on the return journey 23½ miles per diem; a feat that has never been beaten by dog-sledging. The peculiar difficulty of Peary’s undertaking was caused by the drift and by the open lanes of water. Against the latter formidable obstacle he again appears to have taken no precautions.
In February 1909 the sledging parties proceeded to Cape Colombia, Bartlett starting on the 15th, and Peary with two Arctic Highlanders, two sledges, and 16 dogs on the 22nd. On the last day of February Bartlett started for the north, as a pioneer party to cut leads through the ridges of hummocks, and thus make the route easier for the sledges that were to follow. On March 1st Peary started with his own sledges and the limited sledges—24 men, 19 sledges, and 133 dogs. Iglus were used instead of tents, which was a mistake, and the scale of diet was practically much the same as M’Clintock’s, the great master of Arctic sledge travelling.
On the 5th March they came to a lane of open water, which detained them for several days owing to lack of means for crossing it. “During five days Peary paced up and down deploring his luck.” Afterwards they crossed seven lanes of water on young ice. Bartlett was the last to return, after taking an observation with the resulting latitude of 87° 46′ 49″ N. Thus 280 miles had been traversed in a month and they were 133 miles from the Pole. The speed had been calculated at under 15 miles a day.
From this spot Peary went on for the Pole with only his negro servant and four Eskimos, five sledges and 40 dogs. It was a great mistake to enter upon what he considered the most important part of his journey without any white companion, more especially as bearings and distances do not appear to have been ascertained by observations. For help in making these rough estimates, and for such observations as were taken, a colleague was imperatively necessary.
Directly Peary parted from Bartlett his estimated distances were more than doubled, and the course was assumed to be due north. Peary refers to the meridian of Cape Colombia as if he had never deviated from that meridian during the whole journey. Yet there is no record of the latitude and longitude of Cape Colombia having been fixed164, and no mention of any observations for amplitude during the whole journey. Without such observations it would not be possible to keep on the same meridian. Yet, after journeys during four days estimated at from 25 to 30 miles a day, a meridian altitude of the sun was taken which gave a latitude of 89° 25′ N. or 97 miles due north from the position where Bartlett observed. Without amplitude observations this would not be possible, so that there must be mistakes in the observations for this and subsequent meridian altitudes. The sun was very near the horizon at noon at that time of the year. The distances were, perhaps naturally, over-estimated. Peary was very fortunate in being able to follow his tracks during his return journey, in spite of a furious gale which might have obliterated them.
It is to be hoped, in the interests of geographical discovery and of science, that there will now be an end of the North Pole except as a necessary point on maps of the world, and that the energies of explorers will hereafter be turned to more useful work. A complete series of magnetic observations at the 90th degree of north latitude would, however, be important in the opinion of those who believe that terrestrial magnetism is connected with the earth’s axis.