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Peary went on with his black
companion, Matthew Henson, four
Inuit and the best dogs.
Peary reached the North Pole
on 6 April 1909 and camped there
for the night. The next day he took
photographs of the group. Turning
for home, they reached the
Roosevelt
in 16 days.
Cook Reaches the Pole First?
Just five days before news of Peary’s success reached New
York, Cook announced that he had reached the North Pole
a year before. In 1908, Cook led a hunting expedition to
Greenland. During the trip he sent a message home that
he was going to the North Pole.
Cook had learned, like Peary, to travel with Inuit.
He left Greenland on February 18, 1908, with 10 Inuit,
11 sleds, and 105 dogs. He crossed Ellesmere Island and
sledded over the sea ice to the tip of Axel Heiberg Island.
From there Cook sledded over sea ice toward the North
Pole. Cook and two Inuit with 26 dogs arrived at the
North Pole on April 21, 1908.
While Cook was returning over the sea ice, the current
swept him off course. He missed food supplies left on Axel
Heiberg Island for his return. Instead he landed further to
the west. He continued on the sea ice to Jones Sound where
he camped for the winter. By now all the dogs had died or
been shot. Cook and his companions started back across
Ellesmere Island to Greenland in the spring of 1909. They
arrived half starving and in a terrible state.
Arctic Exploration
Why Peary and Cook
are Doubted
People question whether Peary could
have traveled as fast as he said he did
across the sea ice. Neither he or Cook
could produce convincing navigational
records. Cook’s diaries of the trip were
left in safekeeping in Greenland and
were never seen again. The two stories
do not seem to stand up to close
examination. It could be that the first
to sled to the North Pole was in fact
the Briton Wally Herbert in 1969.
However, most experts now believe
Peary was the first to make it.
C
ook claimed he was first at the Pole.