Secrets of Polar Travel

by Robert E. Peary

Bartlett is the type I have in mind, accustomed to the ice and to ships from his early teens, wide experience in different portions of the globe, great endurance, abundant nerve, good judgment, and with the intensive training and experience of two voyages with me in what is probably the worst ice-navigation of the north polar regions.

To this has now been added his unusual experience during his voyage in the Karluk in Bering Sea.

Much has been accomplished by small parties in polar work. Schwatka made his great sledge-journey with four white men and an Eskimo. Captain Holm made his eastern Greenland trip with four men; Payer’s party of seven in Franz-Josef Land was found impracticable, and was reduced to three. Striking examples of what one determined man can accomplish are found in the records of Hall’s early explorations and Graah’s sledge-trip along the eastern coast of Greenland. Nansen’s most striking work was done with a party of two. Captain Cagni’s main party to the then highest north, 86° 34´, numbered four. Amundsen reached the south pole with a party of five. Scott’s south pole party numbered five. Stefansson did valuable work through several years with one companion. My own work has been done with from two to six in the party, the latter being the number in my north pole party.

I have always limited my parties to the number absolutely necessary for the work I had laid out, believing that every addition means an element of danger and failure. My reconnaissance of the Greenland inland ice in 1886, resulting in the penetration of the ice-cap to a greater distance than ever before by a white man, and the attainment of the greatest elevation on the ice-cap, was made with only one companion.

My Greenland expedition in 1891–92, the record of which includes the determination of the insularity of Greenland, a survey of Inglefield Gulf and Whale and Murchison sounds, the first accurate and complete record of the arctic Highlanders, was composed of seven members. And the 1200-mile sledge-trip across the Greenland inland ice-cap was accomplished by me and one companion.

The work of my expedition of 1893–95, covering a period of twenty-five months, included a second sledge-journey of 1200 miles across the ice-cap, the discovery of the Cape York meteorites, the completion of the survey of the region about Whale Sound, and the completion of the study of the natives. There were fourteen members in this party, eleven of them returning in August, 1894, leaving three of us to carry on the work for the last year. Summer trips were made in 1896 and 1897 to secure the last and largest of the meteorites. There were five men in the first party, seven in the last.

Twenty-one white men, including the crew and firemen of the Roosevelt, and forty Eskimos made up the personnel of my 1905–06 expedition, which resulted in the attainment of “farthest north.” The personnel of my last and successful attempt to reach the pole (1908–09) included twenty-two white men and forty-nine Eskimos.

As to the quality of the personnel of a polar expedition, my experience has proved over and over again the accuracy of my theory that it should be made up wholly of young men, of first-class physique, perfect health, education, and attainment. Such men, interested in their work and the success of the expedition, with resources within themselves and plans for the future, are able to resist in a large measure the depressing effects of the long polar night, and in field-work their enthusiasm more than makes up for lack of experience or toughened endurance.

To nine out of ten the word polar is synonymous with cold. To one who has spent a year within the arctic or antarctic it is more likely to be synonymous with darkness. Any healthy man properly fed and clothed can pass the year in these regions with little discomfort so far as the cold is concerned. But when it comes to almost four months of polar night, it is different. A man of the most sanguine temperament cannot avoid entirely its effects, and there are those of nervous temperament whom a night in the arctic would drive insane. Not that it is so extremely dark, for the three or four winter moons give a brilliant light, and at other times the darkness is not greater than at home on starlit nights in the winter. It is only during heavy storms that the darkness becomes intense and tangible. It is the absence of the actinic or the physiological effects of the sun’s rays and the contraction of the physical horizon by the darkness which render a polar night so trying. As far as I was able I have selected blondes for the personnel of all my expeditions.

Men for the field-parties should be wiry, and their weight should be within the limits of not less than two pounds, nor more than two and a half pounds per inch of height. This means for a six-foot man a minimum of 144 pounds, a maximum of 180 pounds, and a mean of 162 pounds.