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Los Angeles Times
September 7, 1909
Was Robert Peary actually the first to reach the North Pole? Frederick Cook claimed to reach it in 1908, and Matthew Henson, a member of Peary's own party, may have arrived on the spot before his leader. This article, celebrating the telegram Peary sent announcing his success simply reports on Peary achieving his goal without expressing an opinion on the subject.
Washington, Sept. 6.—”Should an American first of all place the Stars and Stripes at that coveted spot, there is not an American citizen at home or abroad but would feel a little better and a little prouder of being an American.”
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Commander Robert E. Peary almost three years ago thus prophetically outlined his view of the value and interest attached to the achievement he announced in his dispatch today.
The news of Peary's feat, following lose on the heels of Dr. Cook's planting the American flag at the same spot, evoked enthusiastic plaudits in Washington.
“Such wonderful achievements as this make epochs in the history of the world,” declared Capt. Veeder, in charge of the United States Naval Observatory.
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“Peary adds still another name to the long list of American heroes,” said Prof. Asaph Hall of the observatory.
“The energy he has displayed, his persistence and the intelligence he has brought to bear on this great problem are worthy of all commendation.”
Those persons who had associated with Peary here spoke of him today as a man of wonderful capacity for doing things and they instantly accepted the statement that he had discovered the pole.
The courses taken by Commander Peary and Dr. Cook, did not differ very materially, according to Prof. Henry Grannett, the geographer.
“It seemed to me that Peary was being delayed when he left a year or so ago,” said Prof. Grannett.
“Peary's plan was to get up to the northwestern cape of Grant Land, where he made his former headquarters, before the ice closed in. He had been previously to the vicinity of Lady Franklin Bay, and then northwest along the coast for quite a distance before proceeding away from land and starting out for the pole. I should say he took about the same course this time.
“Dr. Cook started at Etah and crossed over into Grinnell Land to some point on the north coast near where Peary started. Their courses seem to have varied little.”
Peary's attainment crowns the work of expeditions that he has led for a number of years. His last expedition was in 1906, when by means of the little Arctic steamer Roosevelt, and by journeying on sledges, he succeeded in reaching 87 deg. 6 sec. north latitude. This was accomplished April 21, 1906, after a zigzag journey in the Arctic Ocean, exactly two years to a day before Dr. Cook reached the pole. He regarded that expedition as simplifying the task by 50 per cent, and his failure to reach the pole was attributed by him to the fact that the winter was not normal, being a particularly open season throughout the northern hemisphere. He believed he could have reached the pole then in spite of the open season if he had known actual conditions northward as he subsequently knew them.
An exploration following him, according to Commander Peary, could not easily attain the pole, but could make deep-sea soundings throughout the central polar ocean and delineate the unknown gap in the northeast coast line of Greenland from Cape Morris Jessup to Cape Bismarck.
Commander Peary's last public appearance at Washington was when President Roosevelt presented to him, December 15, 1906, the Hubbard medal of the National Geographic Society. It was then that Peary declared that man and the Eskimo dogs are the only two mechanicisms that could meet all the contingencies of Arctic work.
Prof. Willis L. Moore, in discussing the achievements of Cook and Peary, said it was entirely probable that the data of one would not check up with that of the other, because of the moving ice, and that Peary may not have found April 6 last any trace indicating that Cook had been there the year before.
The statements of both explorers that they have found the pole are accepted by Prof. Moore, who says he believes that they will be substantiated by satisfactory scientific data. He states that he will call a special meeting of the Geographic Society directors later in the week to take action toward making suitable recognition of the remarkable exploits of the two American explorers.
“That dispatch from Peary means that he has finally achieved what he has so long been after,” said Prof. Gannett. “I am awfully glad that he has reached the North Pole, whether he was the first to reach there or not. He certainly worked hard enough to get there. Such a dispatch from Peary would signify only his own achievement. Even if Cook was there first, whatever he left there would have floated miles away. I always thought that Pearly had the best chance of all the men who have gone out in the effort to reach the pole. He was fitted by long experience and well-known qualities....”
Source: Los Angeles Times, September 7, 1909.
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