CHAPTER XXIV
Dr. Frederick A. Cook.—Claims discovery of the Pole.—His return from the Arctic.—Reception by the Danes.—Announcement of conquest of the Pole by Peary.—Denounces Dr. Cook.—Delay of Dr. Cook to produce his data.—Acceptance of Peary’s claims by the American Geographical Society.—Dr. Cook finally sends manuscript to Copenhagen.—Verdict.—Prior claim to the discovery of the North Pole.—Not proven.
The announcement in the New York Herald on September 1, 1909, of the discovery of the North Pole by Dr. Frederick A. Cook, of Brooklyn, New York, astounded the civilized world. For some years Dr. Cook’s name had been associated with Arctic enterprise, but to the majority of the public his name was strange.
In the summer of 1907, Cook had accompanied Mr. John R. Bradley in that gentleman’s yacht in an excursion after big game beyond the Arctic Circle. Later Mr. Bradley sailed home, leaving Cook with a fair supply of provisions and equipment, and one white companion, a German-American named Francke.
On March 8, 1908, Cook left Annooktok, accompanied by eleven men and one hundred and three dogs, with the avowed purpose of reaching the Pole. Francke remained at Annooktok, with instructions to return to the United States in case Cook did not return by June, 1908.
News of Cook’s departure for the North Pole had meanwhile aroused interest in the United States. One of the objects of Commander Peary’s expedition of 1908 was “The Relief and Rescue of Dr. Frederick A. Cook.” The big supply station at Etah was, in fact, established by him mainly for the benefit of Dr. Cook. When the Roosevelt and Erik arrived at Annooktok on August 7, 1908, Francke was found in a pitiable condition, and he begged to be sent “home.” He was returned in the Erik (commanded by Captain Bartlett), and from St. John’s, Newfoundland, sent out the news that Cook had probably perished on his way to the Pole.
This announcement aroused so much interest that early in August, 1909, a relief ship left St. John’s for the purpose of searching for Dr. Cook and for carrying provisions to Peary. News travels slowly “north of 53,” and meanwhile Cook had returned.
In April, 1909, a white man and two Eskimos appeared at the relief station at Annooktok, the station immediately north of Etah. The three were utterly fatigued and were made as comfortable as possible by the men whom Commander Peary had left behind. A few days later Cook left Annooktok for South Greenland, whence he took steamer for Copenhagen.
Despatches from the Shetland Islands, the last of August, 1909, proclaimed that Dr. Cook had reached the Pole in April, 1908. Cook declared his route to have been by Smith Sound, across Ellesmere Land, to Nansen Sound; to Land’s End, thence by Cape Thomas Hubbard, which he left in March, 1908, to the Pole, four hundred and sixty miles distant, which he claims to have reached on April 21, 1908.