WEBVTT - Meet Peary and Henson 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:03.120 The Quest for the North Pole is a production of 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:12.920 I Heart Radio and Mental Floss. It's summer in the 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:19.440 northernmost reaches of Greenland. The temperature hovers around freezing. American 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:23.120 explorer Robert E. Peary and his assistant Matthew Henson are 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:25.959 on a back breaking journey by dog sled across the 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:30.080 ice cap from Independence Bay, a large fjord on Greenland's 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:33.640 northeastern corner, to their base camp at Bowden Bay on 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:37.800 the west coast. They're nearly out of food, and they're 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:41.120 desperately searching for a herd of muskoks to stave off 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:46.040 their depths by starvation. The animals they're stalking way up 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:49.280 to eight hundred pounds and are built like battering rams, 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:53.040 with a coat of shaggy hair and sharp curved horns. 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:58.680 Muskoks are powerful and unpredictable, and their peers and Hanson's 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:03.440 last hope for revival. All day, they look for snags 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.200 of the oxen's hair on rough rocks and scan the 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:11.560 snow for tracks. Finally, they locate hoofprints and follow them 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:16.240 across a valley. Anticipating fresh meat. They spot a herd 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:19.319 of eight adult oxen and their calves about a hundred 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.120 and fifty feet ahead of them, munching on tufts of 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:26.280 grass on a wind swept slope. According to his biographer 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:30.840 Bradley Robinson, Henson stops his dogs and sled and let's 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:34.400 us lead dog out of its trace. It sprints towards 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:37.800 the herd. The panicked musk ox form a circle around 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:41.000 their calves. The adults face outward from the circle, ready 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:45.200 to fight. Perry and Henson aim and fire, but they 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:48.120 are so weak with hunger that their actions feel like 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:52.960 they're in slow motion. Most of the bullets hit their targets, 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:55.880 and the oxen dropped to the ground in heaps. But 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:59.600 one big animal is just grazed by the shot. It 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:05.800 turned towards Peary, who has no ammunition left. The ox charges. 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.360 Robinson writes that Perry scrambles up the snow covered slope, 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:14.880 shouting at Henson to fire. His legs feel like rubber, 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.240 his boots slip on the icy ground, and he expects 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:21.040 at any moment to feel the animal's horns in his back. 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:24.760 Out of the corner of his eye, Pier sees Henson 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.280 raised his gun over the ragged sound of his breathing. 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:32.200 He hears a thud in the snow behind him. Henson 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:36.560 has saved his life. This isn't the first time that 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:39.480 Pierry has come within inches of death and his quest 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:42.160 to reach the North Pole, and it won't be the 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.720 last time that Henson's skill and quick thinking prevent disaster. 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.360 On one of their expeditions, Peary wanted to be the 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:52.080 first person at the North Pole, and he wanted to 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.600 live to tell the world. Henson would help make it happen. 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.960 In this episode, will examine the unique relationship between Robert 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:05.520 Peary and Matthew Henson, two adventurers with completely different backgrounds 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.400 and temperaments. They built one of the most enduring and 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:12.200 successful partnerships in the history of exploration, but there were 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:16.800 also disappointments, betrayals, and a lot of drama. Will tag 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.160 along as they make their first stabs at the Big Nail, 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:33.320 the North Pole itself From Mental Floss and I Heart Radio, 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.480 This is the Quest for the North Pole. I'm your host, 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.520 Cat Long, Science editor at Mental Floss and this is 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:52.360 Episode five. Meet Pierry and Henson. The Canadian historian Pierre 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:56.600 Burton rights no other explorer in Arctic history was ever 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.160 a single minded in the pursuit of his goal as 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:03.400 Robert Edwin Perry. No other as paranoid, and his suspicion 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:07.160 and even hatred of those he considered rivals and interlopers. 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:11.480 No other as ruthless, as arrogant, as insensitive, or as 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:15.600 self serving. Of all the bizarre and eccentric human creatures 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.960 who sought the Arctic grail, Perry is the least lovable. 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:24.920 Pretty strong words. Yet these unpleasant qualities might have been 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:29.280 the keys to perry success. His relentless ambition drove him 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.679 on when others might have faltered. His hunger for fame 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.359 would not let him give up, even after he lost 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:39.840 eight toes to frostbite. His todying to his superiors, as 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:43.360 Burton puts it, resulted in them funding his expensive trips 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.560 to the Arctic, even aside from his quest for the 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.080 North Pole. He must be given his due as one 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:53.000 of the greatest explorers of the period, Burton rights, but 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:57.520 it was the poll that obsessed him. Unlike earlier expeditions 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:01.240 like nonsense that hope to answer scientific quest, Jens Peary 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:05.160 was not really concerned about useful discoveries or charting the unknown. 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:09.360 He had little training in natural history, unless you count 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:13.320 his taxidermy business. After he graduated from college. He kept 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:17.600 meteorological records, as every previous explorer had done, but he 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.000 was merely collecting data, not interpreting the results to solve 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:25.400 the hypothesis. His prime purpose was to conquer the North 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:30.200 Pole before anybody else. As Burton writes, even the conquest 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:32.720 of the poll was not in Peery's view and end 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:35.880 in itself, but only a means to an end. Perry 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.840 hungered for fame and fortune. He made no bones about that. 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:44.080 The pole he knew would give him both. Very knew himself. 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:48.920 He discussed his own drives and personality, especially with his mother. 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:53.400 That's Edward J. Larson, historian and author of most recently 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:57.200 To the Edges of the Earth, The Race for the 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.920 Three Polls, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration. 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:02.720 You're basically raised by his mother in Maine, and they 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.120 were devoted to each other, and he would pour out 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:10.440 his soul to his mother in letters. You can really 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:16.960 see a man who he is totally driven by a 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:23.000 sense of a hunger for fame and acceptance. Maybe that 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.720 reflects his lack of a father growing up. He said 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:28.960 in one letter to his mother shortly after he moved 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:30.960 to Washington, and at that time he had been trained 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:33.400 as an engineer and he was working for the U. S. 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.800 Coast and Geodetic Survey. He wrote, I don't want to 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:42.760 live and die without accomplishing anything, or without being known 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:48.320 beyond a narrow circle of friends. Perry had moved to Washington, 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.520 d c. In eight seventy nine after graduating from Bowden 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:55.719 College with a degree in Civil engineering. He worked for 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:59.080 the Coast and Geodetic Survey for two years, then joined 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.000 the U. S. Navy's Civil Engineer Corps and was assigned 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:05.359 to Survey Territory in Nicaragua for a potential site to 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:09.560 build a canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.000 expedition into the tropical forests of Central America gave Peery 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:17.160 a taste of the world beyond his Yankee upbringing. He 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.640 also began to view daring adventure as his ticket to fame. 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:25.040 After reading about the little known interior of Greenland, he 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.520 formulated a plan for traversing its ice sheet, the largest 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:32.800 in the northern Hemisphere. Despite having zero experience in cold 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:37.640 weather exploration, ignorance never stopped Perry once he had a 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:40.880 goal in mind, and unlike many of the British Admiralties 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:44.760 expeditions earlier in the nineteenth century, Peery actually learned from 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:49.800 his experiences and adapted his plans as needed. In eighteen 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:52.360 eighty six, Peery embarked on his first trip to the 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:55.840 Polar regions. He hitched a ride on a whaler going north, 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.320 and once he arrived near Disco Island on Greenland's west coast, 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.360 he hired a Dane named Christian may Guard as his 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:06.160 sole companion for the trek. He tried to hire native helpers, 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.560 but they refused to go with him. Perry estimated the 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.920 provisions and equipment he would need, bundled it on sledges, 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:17.160 and then set off. He claimed he ascended to seven thousand, 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:20.520 five hundred feet in elevation and marched about one miles 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.840 into the interior before a shortage of food forced him 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:27.120 and may Guard to turn around. We have only Perry's 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:30.080 word for the distance he traveled, though we don't know 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:32.520 how many how far he didn't make it because he 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:36.720 didn't take a long proper instruments for calculating a longitude. 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:40.720 Quick refresher here if you're traveling west or east. You 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:44.520 measure the distance you travel in degrees of longitude. Calculating 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:49.160 it requires special instruments like a chronometer. Perry had brought one, 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:51.760 but claimed it had the usefulness shaken out of it. 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:55.720 After Perry had climbed a glacier, he claimed the hundred miles, 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.080 but for gold Manson, who was the greatest gusplorer at 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.280 the time, said that's ridiculous. He didn't make it that far. 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.280 Proving his achievements once he returned home was a running 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:10.840 issue with Perry. More on that later. As we mentioned 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.880 in our third episode, Nonsen had traversed the Greenland ice 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:17.959 sheet from east to west after Perry had returned to 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:21.760 the US, so he was a novice explorer. Perry was 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:27.160 already extremely competitive. Once he heard about nonsense achievement, Perry 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.440 altered his plans for his next trip to Greenland. He 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.400 decided to attempt a crossing on a longer, more northern 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:36.200 route from west to east that would be more difficult 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:41.040 than nonsense route. When he got back, he wrote to 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:45.240 his mother, my last trip has brought my name before 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:50.079 the world. Remember mother, I must have theme. He underling 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:53.880 the word must I must have theme and cannot reconcile 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:59.319 myself two years of commonplace drudgery and the name late 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:03.360 in life, and I see an opportunity to gain it now. 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.640 And then he later wrote, as he was building towards 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:09.600 his later expeditions, because he kept going back, he wrote, 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:15.719 same money and Revenge, Goldney forward until sometimes I can 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:21.319 hardly sleep lest something happened to interfere with my plans. 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:27.920 Now Here is a driven man in this case with Perry, 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.720 it was not only a personal goal, but it was 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:36.080 also a public goal that gave his life meaning and 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.560 gaining meaning for his life. And you can see this 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:42.240 in Teddy Roosevelt going down the River of down in 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:47.280 South America. By accomplishing this, it gave Perry's meaning to 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:51.480 his life, and his life was not work living to 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:56.360 him without meaning. Before Perry embarked on his next trip north, 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:58.880 he would meet the person who would go further than 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:04.440 anyone toward making Pierre's dreams of reality. Matthew Alexander Henson 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:06.760 grew up about as far away from the North Pole 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:10.360 as can be imagined. He was born in eighteen sixty 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:13.800 six in Nanjimoy, Maryland, a village in Charles County, on 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:16.880 the eastern shore of the Potomac River, about forty miles 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:20.679 south of Washington, d c. The Civil War had ended 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:24.520 just the year before, but southern Maryland remained sympathetic to 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:29.839 the Confederacy. To illustrate that fact, John Wilkes Booth had 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:33.720 fled through Charles County after assassinating Abraham Lincoln because he 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:37.040 knew he'd find like minded Marylander as to help him escape. 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:40.960 This feels like a good place to say that while 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.720 we know some things about Henson's early life, other details 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:49.240 even some pretty big events very widely. Even Henson published 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:52.320 two versions of his own childhood, Here's what we know 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:54.680 for sure and where we tried to fill the gaps. 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:58.760 According to two biographies published in nineteen fifty four and 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:03.199 nineteen sixty three, Henson's parents were free born black sharecroppers 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:07.120 on a large farm near Nanjimoy. Henson's mother died when 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:09.679 he was young, and he was raised by a cruel stepmother. 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:12.800 When he was about ten years old, he ran away 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.160 to Washington, where he worked for a woman in her 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:18.400 cafe for a year, and then walked to Baltimore, where 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:20.280 he signed up as a cabin boy on a ship 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:24.880 called the Katy Hinds, commanded by Captain Childs. He sailed 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:27.360 all around the world before coming back to Washington when 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:31.920 he was about eighteen. In Henson's own book about Reaching 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:35.000 the North Pole, published in nineteen twelve, he says he 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.880 moved with his family from Nanjimoy to Washington, d C. 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.000 His mother died when he was seven, and he went 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:43.200 to live with an uncle, who sent him to a 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.520 prestigious high school for black students for more than six years. 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:49.720 Then Henson signed up on a vessel and sailed to 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:54.120 ports around the world. In all three books, Captain Child's 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:59.000 emerges as a kindly father figure to Henson. I wanted 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:01.800 to know more about Filds, his ship, and his travels. 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.720 I dug deeper into newspaper archives, scholarly databases, and even 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:10.360 ancestry dot Com, but couldn't find any evidence of an 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:14.040 ocean going vessel called the Katie Hines. This was really 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:18.400 perplexing because US merchant ships were registered with government agencies 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:22.240 and their voyages were often reported in newspapers. So I 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:25.360 brought in our fact checker, Austin Thompson, who looked in 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:28.559 other sources, including the annual list of the merchant vessels 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:31.880 of the United States, and there was no Katie Hines. 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:37.080 But in several old articles in Maryland newspapers, I did 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.480 find that A. W. S. Child's was appointed captain of 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:44.320 a police sloop with that name in eighty eight, about 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:46.480 the same year that Henson says he signed up as 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:51.240 a cabin boy. This Katie Hines patrolled Maryland's waterways for 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:56.120 illegal oyster dreasures. Austin found an article that definitively plays 0:13:56.240 --> 0:14:00.520 Childs and the Katie Hines in Maryland in one and 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:04.320 the Baltimore Sun reported that W. S. Child captain of 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.520 one of the state's oyster police boats, died in eighteen 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:11.960 eighty three in his home near Nanjimoy, Maryland. That matches 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:15.720 the year of Childs's death in the Henson biographies. Could 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.880 this be Henson's captain Child's We think so, but we 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:24.240 may never know for sure. So it's not easy to 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:27.560 know exactly where and how Henson spent his youth. But 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:30.960 whether Henson sailed around the world or just the Chesapeake Bay, 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.280 all biographical accounts suggest that he returned to Washington at 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.480 age eighteen or nineteen. He gets a job as a 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.440 clerk at b. H Stein Meticine Sun, a well known 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:44.440 men's furrier and hat shop located three blocks east of 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:48.040 the White House. Working in retail will become a turning 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:52.680 point in his life. In eighteen eighty seven, Robert Peary 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:54.760 entered the store to buy his son helmet for his 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:59.640 second trip to Nicaragua. Here's James Edward Mills, a freelance 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:03.160 journal list, independent producer, and faculty assistant at the Nelson 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:07.680 Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin. He's 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.360 also the author of the adventure Gap Changing the Face 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:15.280 of the Outdoors. Key and Hanson struck up a conversation, 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.640 and I'm not sure exactly how it went, but the 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:23.680 upshot of it was that Hanson joined Perry ostensibly as 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:27.440 his assistant. And um, It's difficult to know exactly what 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:32.440 the nature of their overall relationship was, but Hanson basically 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:37.680 was his right hand man from that point on. Henson 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:41.160 joined Perry on all of his expeditions, which, after their 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:44.880 trip to Nicaragua, would abandon warm climates for the farthest 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.920 reaches of the Arctic. You know, I think that he 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:50.440 might have taken a polar exploration to escape the Jim 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.760 Crow South. This is the one place in the world 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.080 where he could be judged by the continent of his character, 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.040 not the color of his skin. And I think that 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:02.680 there's a lot to be sent for that. Between eighteen 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:07.080 eighty one and Pierry and Henson embarked on four expeditions 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.680 to Greenland and northeastern Canada to explore the territory and 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:15.040 scout out a possible route even further north. On these arduous, 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:19.760 lengthy journeys, they developed a unique working relationship. Peary was 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:24.920 the expedition leader, navigator, financier, and planner, while Henson was 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:30.080 the project manager, carpenter, mechanic and translator. Peary was the 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:35.520 visionary and Henson made the vision a reality. Before any expedition, 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:39.000 Peery first had to obtain funding for the enormous expenses 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:42.560 they would incur, which included borrowing or buying a ship, 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:47.320 strengthening the vessel for Arctic conditions, hiring the crew, buying 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.600 provisions and equipment, buying items to trade with the new 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:54.320 wheat for their services, and a ridiculous number of miscellaneous 0:16:54.360 --> 0:17:00.400 costs like books, tents, clothing, maps, tools, guns and edition, 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:06.119 scientific instruments, spare parts and much more. The disaster of 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.240 the Greely Expedition, a U. S. Army foray to the 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:13.200 Arctic that resulted in death by starvation, was still fresh 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:16.880 in people's minds, so Perry's early expeditions to Greenland were 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:20.840 mostly self funded. He had secured book deals, lecture tours, 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:24.280 and newspaper exclusives to offset the huge costs of the journeys. 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.360 But when Perry made the North Pole his soul focus, 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:30.679 he was able to gather a group of donors to 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:35.800 pay for his adventures, the Peri Arctic Club. The group 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:40.080 comprised the wealthy industrialists and philanthropists of New York's Gilded Age. 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:44.840 They enjoyed big game, hunting and other manly pursuits championed 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.200 by Theodore Roosevelt and his doctrine of the strenuous Life. 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.800 Roosevelt said it was the highest form of success, which 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.919 comes not to the man who desires mere easy peace, 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:58.879 but to the man who does not shrink from danger, 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.639 from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who, out of 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:08.400 these wins the splendid ultimate triumph. Many of them are 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:14.359 major business people in New York, but there is also 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:21.080 a whole set of them who are worrying that, um, 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:28.880 all these technological advances are weakening white males and they're 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:35.600 losing their manliness, and so Peery becomes this example of 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:44.160 you know, this outdoor, strong, successful man. That's Susan Kaplan, 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.720 director of the Pierry McMillan Arctic Museum at Boden College, 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:52.080 an author of Pery's Arctic Quest, untold stories from Robert E. 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:58.480 Peery's North Pole expeditions that sort of feeds into the 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:04.240 whole North Pole narrator to as well, and so Peery's backers, 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:07.760 many of them are very focused on him as the 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:16.160 symbol of you know, strong, tough masculinity. That is so interesting. 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:20.640 That's probably why he and Peeddy Roosevelt were such good friends. Yep. 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:25.560 It's not simply that he's the strong masculine man, but 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:30.919 he's a white Western strong masculine man. Becomes very important. 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:35.840 The club members had money to spare and a desire 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:39.440 to have their names enshrined on the Arctic map. Perry's 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.800 biggest supporter was banker Morris K. Jessup, one of the 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:46.320 founders of the American Museum of Natural History. He formed 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:50.199 the club in with the Chase National Bank, president Henry W. 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:55.600 Cannon and journalist Herbert L. Bridgeman. The Period Arctic Club 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.800 convinced Perry's employer, the U. S. Navy, to give him 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:00.800 a five year leave of a since so he could 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:05.040 pursue his Arctic ambitions. The club also raised funds to 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.600 send a supply ship to Perier's party for each year 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.919 he pursued the poll. Bridgeman organized the relief missions and 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.200 was the only one of the club's leaders who took 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:19.080 part in one of Perry's adventures. Finally, club members committed 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:22.520 to contributing a set sum each year to support Peri's goals. 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:27.480 For their sustained generosity, Perry told them, the names of 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.080 those who made the work possible will be kept through 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:34.200 the coming centuries, floating forever above the forgotten and submerged 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:37.719 debris of our time and day. In other words, they 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:41.200 could bank on an Arctic cape, mountain bay, or glacier 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:44.320 being named after them, much like donors today get their 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:48.320 names on a museum gallery or a library building. The 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:51.840 Peri Arctic Club helped Perry borrow a ship from Alfred Harmsworth, 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:56.000 the British publisher of the Daily Mail. The Windward was 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.280 the same vessel on which Frederick Jackson brought Fritcheff Nonsen 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:02.560 and Hilmar Johansson back to Norway after their attempt at 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:07.040 the North Pole in The ship would be their main 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:09.959 transport for only the first leg of their journeys. However, 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:13.359 once they anchored the ship in a safe location to 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.320 act as a base camp, Pierry and Henson traveled by 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:20.760 dogsled and that's where Henson's talents came into play. Here's 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:25.200 James Edward Mills again. I think what's really remarkable about 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:27.600 Henson is that he doesn't get a lot of credit 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:29.760 and certainly hadn't got a lot of credit for his 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:34.560 contributions to that expedition, mainly because of his rights as 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:38.040 an African American. He was, I guess, by design, made 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:41.719 a play second fiddle to the white explorers in this party, 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:45.960 despite the fact that Henson was the master craftsman and 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:50.080 built all the sleds and helped to design the polar 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:57.560 suits working with the Native Inuits. On their first expeditions together, 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:00.800 Pierry and Henson visited the new Wheaek commune at Eta 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:03.679 and hired many of the people to drive the dog sleds. 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:07.440 Henson intimated that he was interested in learning the skill, 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:10.200 and he must have seen what he would be in for. 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:16.399 The Greenland sled dogs were powerful, furry, and ferocious. They 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:20.360 retained their wolf like instincts and seemed only barely domesticated, 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:25.120 more wild animal than family pet. The dominant dog, called 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:28.240 the King Dog, led the team of eight animals, each 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:31.880 with its own trace connected to the sled. The traces 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:34.520 spread into a fan shape as the dogs ran at 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:37.680 top speed, egged on by the new wheat driver's whip 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:41.760 and verbal commands. It took weeks for Henson to learn 0:22:41.840 --> 0:22:44.320 the right way of shouting commands that the dogs would 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:47.240 respect and to crack the whip at the King Dog's ear. 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:50.760 He had to get comfortable with the sled itself, which 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:54.240 was often loaded with heavy gear. Many times he wiped 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:56.240 out and ended up in a snow bank as his 0:22:56.400 --> 0:23:00.720 new wheat teachers laughed hysterically, But after more eks of practice, 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:04.119 Henson finally got the hang of it. By their nineteen 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:07.720 o eight nineteen o nine North Pole expedition, Perry said 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:11.000 Henson can handle a sledge better and is probably a 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:14.480 better dog driver than any other man living except some 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:18.600 of the best of the Eskimo hunters themselves. A quick 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:21.280 note about the term Eskimo, since this isn't the last 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:24.560 time we'll hear it. It's a complicated word. It was 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:28.359 used by colonizers to describe Native people, not one that 0:23:28.520 --> 0:23:32.920 Native people used to describe themselves. Many consider it offensive, 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:36.440 while some Native people still choose to use it. The 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:40.800 Inuit Circumpolar Council Charter of nineteen eighty defines the indigenous 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:45.360 peoples of the Inuite Homeland, which includes Alaska, Canada, Greenland, 0:23:45.400 --> 0:23:49.760 and Russia as Inuit in inuktitute word, meaning the people. 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:54.320 Groups within the Inuit Homeland have more specific names for themselves, 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:59.240 such as the Inuite of northwestern Greenland. Henson showed that 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:02.320 he was eager to adopt other inw wheat waves. The 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:05.040 in New Wheat taught him how to hunt walrus, build 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:07.720 igloos and stone huts, and stay warm by sleeping in 0:24:07.800 --> 0:24:10.320 furs and packing the soles of his sealskin boots with 0:24:10.480 --> 0:24:15.960 moss for installation. Henson also achieved fluency in Innuctitut, or 0:24:16.040 --> 0:24:19.440 possibly the related and New Wheat language Inuktun, which went 0:24:19.560 --> 0:24:24.560 far toward establishing trust and a respectful relationship with them. Peery, 0:24:24.840 --> 0:24:28.040 like other explorers, learned a few important words and left 0:24:28.119 --> 0:24:33.560 it at that. Henson also performed a million other miscellaneous 0:24:33.600 --> 0:24:37.200 tasks for the expedition team, from building and repairing sledges, 0:24:37.320 --> 0:24:40.720 to butchering meat, to patching clothes, to negotiating with the 0:24:40.760 --> 0:24:46.640 in New Wheat families. Here's James Edward Mills. You obviously 0:24:47.119 --> 0:24:52.000 you have the ability to communicate across cultural boundaries. At 0:24:52.040 --> 0:24:55.040 the same time, I think that he had the humility 0:24:55.160 --> 0:24:58.879 to learn their language, He had the vulnerability to be 0:24:59.040 --> 0:25:03.840 taught how to do these critical and important things, you know. 0:25:04.080 --> 0:25:06.840 And I think that that there's probably a certain amount 0:25:06.960 --> 0:25:11.600 of camaraderie that comes with this, because I can imagine 0:25:11.720 --> 0:25:14.560 that especially at the time, you know, when you have 0:25:14.920 --> 0:25:23.000 this still incredibly colonial attitude towards relationships with people of 0:25:23.119 --> 0:25:25.680 color and other parts of the world, as you know, 0:25:25.760 --> 0:25:30.200 the dominant white culture of Europe and North America. Instead 0:25:30.240 --> 0:25:33.080 of telling the in New way to make clothes and sledges, 0:25:33.520 --> 0:25:36.200 Henson was more likely to have said, can you teach 0:25:36.240 --> 0:25:39.000 me how to do it? And I think that it 0:25:39.320 --> 0:25:43.600 is indeed that relationship between people of color and native 0:25:43.720 --> 0:25:47.399 people around the world you know, there's a certain sense 0:25:47.640 --> 0:25:51.800 of a fellowship, and I think that that probably translated 0:25:51.840 --> 0:25:58.919 itself in Henson's relationships with the Inuit from until nineteen 0:25:58.920 --> 0:26:02.680 o nine, periods Old Focused became the North Pole. He'll 0:26:02.720 --> 0:26:04.720 forge a sea root as far as the ice will 0:26:04.760 --> 0:26:07.240 let him sail. He'll rely on the in New Week 0:26:07.280 --> 0:26:11.600 communities in northwestern Greenland for supplies, dogs, and manpower, and 0:26:11.760 --> 0:26:15.080 most of all will depend on Henson's expertise and Arctic 0:26:15.160 --> 0:26:38.160 survival to reach his goal. We'll be right back. In December. 0:26:39.320 --> 0:26:42.040 After leaving their ship windward on the western edge of 0:26:42.119 --> 0:26:45.400 Kane Basin in the Canadian Arctic, Peery and a small 0:26:45.520 --> 0:26:48.480