ANALYSIS OF ADMIRAL PEARY'S TRIP TO THE NORTH POLE

William E. Molett

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	On September 1,1909, Dr. Frederick A. Cook telegraphed from Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands, that he had reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908. Six days later Admiral Robert E. Peary telegraphed from Indian Harbor, Labrador, that he had reached the Pole on April 6, 1909. The genial and likable but unscrupulous Cook, by claiming a first, was feted and bemedaled, and he sold articles and books and was paid handsomely for speaking engagements. Peary, because of his vast experience with travel in the arctic, considered it an impossibility for Cook to have travelled to the Pole and back with only two sleds, two eskimo drivers, and 26 dogs. He denounced Cook as a fraud. The millions of people who had hailed Cook as a hero did not like their hero being called a fraud, and many of them denounced Peary and began a campaign of truths, half-truths, and outright lies to discredit him. Literally millions of words have been written on both sides of the argument. As evidenced by this paper, the argument. continues.
Published in:	NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 36, Number 2
Pages:	139 - 146
Cite this article:	Molett, William E., "ANALYSIS OF ADMIRAL PEARY'S TRIP TO THE NORTH POLE", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 36, No. 2, Summer 1989, pp. 139-146.
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