Term Paper on "Peary Cook Controversy"

Term Paper 15 pages (4078 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Peary-Cook

Peary and Cook: The 100-year battle for the North Pole

In 1891, polar explorer Robert E. Peary was on one of the many failed attempts to reach the North Pole that defined his early career when disaster struck. He injured his leg, which could have been a life-threatening condition in the severe arctic cold. Fortunately, a young doctor on his expedition, Frederick Cook, was able to treat Peary and perhaps save his life.1

Out of such an experience, one might expect an uncommon bond of friendship to develop. Instead, Peary and Cook spent their later years as bitter enemies embroiled in one of the major controversies of the early part of the 20th century - both of the men claimed to be the first to reach the North Pole; Peary in 1909 and Cook in 1908. Both camps initiated a war to discredit the other side and the men took the fight to the grave and, in a manner, beyond it. Both sides continue to use the Internet, books and articles to wage a nasty war of allegations, accusing each other of everything from racism to outright fraud.

How did such an acrimonious battle develop and what has allowed it to persist almost 100 years later? The answers lie within the personalities of the men themselves, public doubts about each of their achievements, the politics of the time and the mystique of the North Pole.

Peary was, without a doubt, a man obsessed with reaching the North Pole. When he claims to have reached the Pole, on April 6, 1909, he wrote in his diary that he had achieved "the prize of three centuries, my dream and ambition for twenty-three years," and there was not an ounce of hyperbole intended in his words.2 Peary made several unsuccessful expeditions to the Pole before claiming success, letting its cold, inhumane temperatures and dangerous terrain push him to the brink of death repeatedly.3 His recurring failures seem to have emboldened, not embarrassed, him, and he returned to the Arctic each time more determined than ever to claim its elusive prize.

As Maeder points out, Peary was not only a brave explorer, but also an egomaniac.4 an honor student at Bowdoin College and an accomplished engineer whose work took him to some exotic places, Peary had a taste for adventure and was accustomed to success. And Peary was not, by many accounts, a team player. When Peary and Cook returned from their ill-fated expedition at the end of the 19th century, Peary forbade Cook to publish his scientific observations on arctic life, stifling Cook's scientific urges out of fear of increasing Cook's notoriety.5 There would only be one star on Peary's team: Peary.

Some historians have alleged that Peary's ego also prevented a critical African-American team member, Robert Henson, from receiving the recognition he deserved for assisting Peary's expedition.6 While race was a fairly obvious factor in history downplaying Henson's achievements (he was not awarded a medal from the National Geographic Society until 2001, long after his death), Peary's practice of keeping Henson's contributions in the background likely played a role as well.7 What should have been a great moment in African-American history remains somewhat obscured to this day, lost in the long shadow cast by Peary.

Partly because of Peary's ego and partly because of his many failures to reach the North Pole, we can imagine the sense of indulgence and pride he felt when he was finally able to telegraph in September 1909 that he had planted the American flag at the North Pole.8 So, imagine Peary's frustration when he learned that five days before he announced his successful expedition, his former pupil, Cook, claimed to have reached the North Pole the year before, in 1908.

While Peary believed he had achieved one of the great feats of mankind, little did he know that Cook was being celebrated in the press and wined and dined by European royalty.9 in fact, that same September Cook visited New York where he was greeted by thousands of cheering fans, driven in a motorcade, serenaded by a choir, and received telegraphed congratulations from Pres. William Howard Taft and the Pope.10

Cook initially congratulated Peary on his feat, saying Peary's observations would confirm Cook's, but the warm sentiments were not returned and hostilities simmered and then broke into an open, public war.

After parting ways with Peary, Cook had become an accomplished explorer in his own right, perhaps to Peary's chagrin. Cook's crowning achievement to that point was a claimed conquering of Alaska's Mt. McKinley, which had never before been climbed, in 1906. In the public's view, he had developed solid arctic credentials and his claim to have reached the North Pole was credible, even if the timing of his announcement was somewhat dubious.

Cook was honored by world dignitaries, made a small fortune speaking around the world, and authored several books about his arctic experiences. Cook was at the pinnacle of a long and arduous life journey, for he was the ultimate boot-strap man pulling himself up from difficult circumstances.

Cook spent a spartan childhood in New York's Catskill mountains, and was forced to care for his widowed mother while putting himself through medical school.11 He married, but subsequently lost his first wife during a difficult childbirth.12 His palpable need to exit reality for the surreal life of the explorer is almost understandable, and this life path brought him notoriety and wealth that must have previously been unimaginable.

Without question, there was fame to be had in becoming the first man to conquer the North Pole, but perhaps for Peary and Cook, the stakes were a bit higher still. After Peary's many failures and Cook's personal difficulties, the Pole held a promise of redemption for each man, and they both wanted badly to claim the achievement. The Pole was not big enough for both of them.

When both men claimed in 1909 to have reached the North Pole, they touched off a race that would prove longer and more grueling than any of their previous polar expeditions - the race for credibility.

Peary's expedition was remarkable for the speed with which he claimed to have reached the North Pole, particularly in light of his previous failures. but, in fairness to Peary, he made some key changes that seemingly allowed for better results. First, be brought a team of native Inuits on the expedition and used their methods of arctic survival, such as wearing the furs of arctic animals and building igloos for warmth.13 He planned his trip carefully, spending the winter on Ellesmere Island in Northern Canada before setting out for the North Pole with his team on March 1-1909. He claimed to reach the Pole just 37 days later, a speed considered remarkable by even today's standards.14

Cook, by contrast, claimed to have taken a route that was several hundred miles west of Peary's, accompanied by two Eskimos and allegedly reaching the Pole on April 21, 1908. The natural question, of course, was what took Cook nearly a year and a half to report his achievement? Cook claimed that he and his crew became bogged down by severe weather on the return to Greenland, and that he was forced to live with his companions in a dug-out barrow and to kill animals at knife-point to stay alive.15

It was an amazing tale of survival that would have made excellent dime-novel fodder, and, indeed, there was great interest in the tale. The New York Herald paid Cook $30,000 for the rights to his tale of courage and survival, and Cook was a hit in the publishing market and on the lecture circuit.16

Peary smelled a rat and he and his supporters sought to undermine Cook's claim - Peary even claimed that Cook's Eskimo guides affirmed that Cook came nowhere near the Pole.17 Still, there were already some interesting politics shaping up. As was mentioned, the Herald had $30,000 invested in Cook's story and the National Geographic Society, the definitive source on matters of world exploration, and the New York Times were sponsors of Peary's trip.18 Everyone seemingly had a stake in the outcome of the Peary-Cook war and the public was left unsure who to believe, as conflicting accounts were published by all three media sources.

The controversy created a public frenzy that both Cook and Peary were too happy to feed, waging their war against each other openly in the press. Cook even attended one of Peary's speaking engagements, to wide press coverage, receiving applause from attendees as he walked to take his seat in the front of the auditorium.19 a confrontation was avoided, but the situation only made the public more interested in knowing who had, in fact, reached the Pole first.

The truth was, there were problems with both men's versions of events. The problems with Peary's claims were centered on speed and geography. Peary's claim that he had reached the Pole in 37 days was labeled as impossibly fast by some… READ MORE

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