The Club sent the Windward, repaired and improved and in command of Captain Samuel W. Bartlett, North in the following year, 1900, with Mrs. Peary and Marie Ahnighito Peary on board, leaving Sydney, C. B., on July 21st, with instructions to proceed to Etah, and failing to find there Commander Peary, to cross Smith Sound to Cape Sabine and press forward as far as might be necessary to open communication with him. The Windward failing to return, the Club in 1901 chartered the Erik, and despatched her in command of Secretary Bridgman from Sydney, C. B., July 18th, with instructions to proceed first to Etah, and then to act as circumstances suggested. The Erik arrived at Etah on August 5th, where Commander Peary and the Windward were found, all on board well, the ship having wintered in Payer Harbour under Cape Sabine, where she was joined on May 6th, by Commander Peary from Fort Conger. The Erik and Windward, after the greater part of August in the north waters, returned, the former to Sydney, C. B., September 15th, with Commander Peary’s report of his delineation in 1900 of the northern end of Greenland, and Lockwood and Brainard’s original record from their cairn in 1882 at their farthest, and the Windward to Brigus, September 24th.
New boilers and engines having been installed in the Windward, she sailed a third time for the North from Sydney, C. B., July 20th, 1902, with Mrs. and Miss Peary on board; effected a junction with Commander Peary on August 5th at Cape Sabine; and, after a stay of less than a day, brought away the expedition with the record of 84.17 North (the highest on the Western Continent), in May, 1902. The party, library, instruments, and all the remaining equipment of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition arrived at Sydney, C. B., September 5th.
The founders of the Club were: Morris K. Jesup, Henry W. Cannon, James J. Hill, John M. Flagler, Frederick E. Hyde, E. C. Benedict, H. Hayden Sands, A. A. Raven, Henry Parish, Eben B. Thomas, James M. Constable, Herbert L. Bridgman, Henry H. Benedict, and Eliphalet W. Bliss.
Full contributing members, Edward G. Wyckoff and Clarence W. Wyckoff, of Ithaca, N. Y., and Grant B. Schley, of New York, were in 1899 elected to membership in the club, and President Charles P. Daly, of the American Geographical Society, to its executive committee, in recognition of the contribution by the Society.
1904–190–(?)
The Charter of the Peary Arctic Club, April 19, 1904, recites that the objects of the incorporation are “to aid and assist in forming and maintaining certain expeditions to be placed under Commander Robert E. Peary, U. S. N., with the object of continuing his explorations of the Polar Regions and completing the geographical data of the same, receiving and collecting such objects of scientific interest as may be obtainable through such expeditions; collecting, receiving, and preserving narratives and manuscripts relating to Arctic explorations in general; soliciting and administering funds for the maintenance of such expeditions, and, in general, providing funds for Commander Peary’s efforts to reach the farthest northern point on the Western Hemisphere, and to coöperate with any other association for the same purpose,” and names as incorporators:
Morris K. Jesup
Anton A. Raven
Herbert L. Bridgman
John A. Flagler