Speaker 1: The Quest for the North Pole is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Mental Floss. It's April six and
Speaker 1: Robert E. Peary and his assistant Matthew Henson are settling
Speaker 1: in at yet another camp during their third attempt to
Speaker 1: reach the North Pole. It's something they've done countless times
Speaker 1: during the course of their journeys together, but on this
Speaker 1: otherwise unremarkable stretch of ice, their once elusive goal is
Speaker 1: now within reach. As they and the new Wheat guides
Speaker 1: unpacked their supplies, tend to the dogs, and begin food preparations,
Speaker 1: Peery unfurls an American flag that his wife Josephine, had
Speaker 1: sewn for him years earlier. He fastens it to the
Speaker 1: top of the camp's igloo. Henson watches as the star
Speaker 1: spangled silk springs to life on a polar breeze, a
Speaker 1: symbol of their triumph. When Peery takes the first measurements
Speaker 1: of their location, his instruments give him a position of
Speaker 1: eighty nine degrees fifty seven minutes north. They're just a
Speaker 1: hair's breadth away from true north at ninety degrees. It
Speaker 1: won't be long now. With success all but secured, Henson
Speaker 1: seeks a well earned moment with Perry. Henson later remembers
Speaker 1: feeling that the time had come, I ungloved my right
Speaker 1: hand and went forward to congratulate him on the success
Speaker 1: of our eighteen years of effort. But a gust of
Speaker 1: wind blew something into his eye or else. The burning
Speaker 1: pain caused by his prolonged look at the reflection of
Speaker 1: the limb of the sun forced him to turn aside,
Speaker 1: and with both hands covering his eyes, he gave us
Speaker 1: orders not to let him sleep for more than four hours.
Speaker 1: There's still more measurements to be taken, and Perry is
Speaker 1: seemingly in no mood to delay his work with platitudes.
Speaker 1: And as for the spurned handshake, well, this isn't the
Speaker 1: first time Perry refuses to share his victory with his
Speaker 1: most valued assistant. It's a pattern that will color their
Speaker 1: working relationship for the rest of their lives. After traveling
Speaker 1: around the area and taking more readings, Perry returns to
Speaker 1: camp on April seven and makes the official announcement, we
Speaker 1: will plant the stars and stripes at the north Pole.
Speaker 1: Pera's American flag is placed at the proper location near
Speaker 1: true North, and the group gathers for a photo to
Speaker 1: capture the moment. They are now the first men to
Speaker 1: reach the top of the world, or so they believe.
Speaker 1: For Robert Perry and Matthew Henson, it was the culmination
Speaker 1: of seven polar expeditions together nearly two decades of trying
Speaker 1: for a barely tangible spot on the icy landscape. In
Speaker 1: this episode, we'll look at how they did it. From
Speaker 1: Mental Floss and I our radio. This is the Quest
Speaker 1: for the North Pole. I'm your host Cat Long, science
Speaker 1: editor at Mental Floss and this is episode six third
Speaker 1: Times the Charm. In July, Robert E. Peary was fifty two,
Speaker 1: Matthew Henson was forty one. Both had been battling the
Speaker 1: Arctic in search of icy glory for almost twenty years.
Speaker 1: Each time they had traveled to the harsh region to
Speaker 1: attack the North Pole, they had failed, and when they
Speaker 1: had returned home it had taken them longer to regain
Speaker 1: their physical and mental strength. Still, they weren't ready to
Speaker 1: give up the quest. As Peery later wrote, I realized
Speaker 1: that the project was something too big to die. Pierry
Speaker 1: convinced his rich donors in the Perio Arctic Club that
Speaker 1: he would succeed this time. Failure was inconceivable. All of
Speaker 1: the hard won experience and knowledge from his earlier polar
Speaker 1: forays had led to this moment, pointing the way toward
Speaker 1: his achievement and for the donors a namesake island or glacier.
Speaker 1: The club's president, Morris K. Jessup, assured Perry he would
Speaker 1: be given the means for another trip north Perry recalled
Speaker 1: his promise meant that I should not have to beg
Speaker 1: all the money in small sums from a more or
Speaker 1: less reluctant world. Maybe the fact that Perry had named
Speaker 1: what was thought to be the northernmost point of land
Speaker 1: in the world, Cape Morris Jessup had something to do
Speaker 1: with it. Peery's less than successful attempts to reach the
Speaker 1: North Pole had dried up other funding streams, but Arctic
Speaker 1: fever still raged among the public. Pierry signed a deal
Speaker 1: with the New York Times to break the story of
Speaker 1: his success. When the time came, and other newspapers breathlessly
Speaker 1: reported the preparations for Perry's journey. This was the era
Speaker 1: of the penny press, when an explosion and of cheap
Speaker 1: newspapers competed for content like a gilded age Netflix or Amazon.
Speaker 1: They also created exciting stories to drive their circulations through
Speaker 1: the roof. Here's Edward J. Larson, historian and author of
Speaker 1: most recently, To the Edges of the Earth, the Race
Speaker 1: for the Three Polls, and the climax of the Age
Speaker 1: of Exploration. So one thing that would give them content
Speaker 1: that was enormously popular were tales of daring do which
Speaker 1: polar exploration stood right at the top. They were pushing
Speaker 1: these expeditions because there was such a popular interesting And
Speaker 1: then it was the cycle. People are interested in it
Speaker 1: because they're told they're interested in it, they read about it.
Speaker 1: You know, you get going in a cycle. So this
Speaker 1: was in many ways an artificial goal, but not a
Speaker 1: meaningless gold in the sense that it tested the explorer
Speaker 1: and it proved the worthiness, you'd say, of a country
Speaker 1: in a highly nationalistic period, and this was part of
Speaker 1: showing that prowess. It's like countries compete today to win
Speaker 1: the most Olympic medals on the idea that somehow that
Speaker 1: showed something. This was the same sort of thing. This
Speaker 1: was the Olympic gold of the day, and no one
Speaker 1: took more pride in their expedition than the President of
Speaker 1: the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. Pierry and Roosevelt were two
Speaker 1: of a kind. They believed in the value of rugged
Speaker 1: pursuits for building man and country. Pierry even named his
Speaker 1: custom designed expedition ship after t R. The Roosevelt departed
Speaker 1: from the pier at East twenty four Street on July six,
Speaker 1: in the middle of a deadly heat wave. Peery wrote
Speaker 1: about the weather and his journal, noting it was an
Speaker 1: interesting coincidence that the day on which we started for
Speaker 1: the coldest spot on Earth was about the hottest which
Speaker 1: New York had known in years. But New Yorkers weren't
Speaker 1: the type of people to let blistering heat slow them down.
Speaker 1: That pisens lined up to watch the Roosevelt sail up
Speaker 1: the East River, with Pierri's handpicked team waving from the deck.
Speaker 1: Matthew Henson would again serve as Pirie's senior assistant and
Speaker 1: right hand man. Robert Bartlett returned as the Roosevelt's captain.
Speaker 1: Ross Marvin signed on as Pieri's secretary for the second time,
Speaker 1: and three other members of the ship's crew rejoined. New
Speaker 1: members included Donald McMillan, a Bowden College graduate and teacher,
Speaker 1: and Yale grad George Borup as Perie's assistants. As the
Speaker 1: vessel made its way up the river, factories blew their
Speaker 1: whistles to see them off. Theodore Roosevelt's presidential yacht, the Mayflower,
Speaker 1: followed suit. Even the prisoners at Blackwell Island lined up
Speaker 1: outside the penitentiary to cheer them on. The Next day,
Speaker 1: the Roosevelt docked at Oyster Bay, on the north shore
Speaker 1: of Long Island, where tr had a summer home. Roosevelt
Speaker 1: treated Peery, his wife Josephine, and members of the Perie
Speaker 1: Arctic Club to lunch. The President was a curious adventurer
Speaker 1: and much the same mold as Peery, and it's easy
Speaker 1: to imagine t R himself tagging along on the expedition
Speaker 1: if he hadn't had a country to run. Roosevelt, a
Speaker 1: fan boy of big ships if there ever was one,
Speaker 1: took this lunch as an opportunity to inspect every inch
Speaker 1: of his namesake vessel before it departed. Decked Out in
Speaker 1: an all white suit, he spent an hour shaking every
Speaker 1: hand he came across, powering through the engine room, petting
Speaker 1: all of the sleddogs on board, and admiring Peery's cramped
Speaker 1: yellow pine cabin, complete with its library of Arctic books
Speaker 1: and equipment. At the end of the lunch, Peery all
Speaker 1: but promised Roosevelt that he would reach the North Pole.
Speaker 1: No matter what, Mr President, I shall put into this
Speaker 1: effort everything there is in me, physical, mental, and moral,
Speaker 1: he said. Roosevelt replied, I believe in you, Perry, and
Speaker 1: I believe in your success if it is within the
Speaker 1: possibility of in Peery felt no qualms about what lay ahead.
Speaker 1: He and his team had made every preparation and taken
Speaker 1: every possible obstacle into account. Everything they had to do
Speaker 1: was done, he wrote. Perhaps this feeling of surety was
Speaker 1: because every possible contingency had been discounted. Perhaps because the
Speaker 1: setbacks and knockout blows received in the past had dulled
Speaker 1: my sense of danger. Whether it was enough to get
Speaker 1: them to the North Pole this time would be up
Speaker 1: to fate. From Oyster Bay, the Roosevelt traveled the familiar
Speaker 1: route to Sydney, Nova Scotia, for its convenient proximity to
Speaker 1: coal supplies that the ship took on board. By July seventeenth,
Speaker 1: the Roosevelt had cleared North Sydney, and on August one,
Speaker 1: they made it to Cape York, Greenland, an area Peery
Speaker 1: described as the dividing line between the civilized world on
Speaker 1: one side and the Arctic world on the other. But
Speaker 1: to put it in perspective, Peery wrote that Cape York
Speaker 1: is farther from the North Pole than New York City
Speaker 1: is from Tampa, Florida. There was still a long way
Speaker 1: to go. Just a few weeks earlier, throngs of well
Speaker 1: wishers had cheered the expedition on as they cut through
Speaker 1: New York's East River, one of the world's busiest arteries
Speaker 1: of commerce. Now, as the Roosevelt approached the tree Less Cape,
Speaker 1: the explorers were greeted by a handful of the new
Speaker 1: wheat and kayaks. But these tiny communities at the edge
Speaker 1: of Greenland's ice sheet would make or break Pierri's dream.
Speaker 1: Pierri's men bartered with the inw wheat for the essential
Speaker 1: equipment they couldn't get back home. Additional dogs, bear skins,
Speaker 1: sealskin whips, and walrus blubber. From Cape York, they traveled
Speaker 1: north to Eta, a village that Henson and Pierri had
Speaker 1: visited on previous expeditions, where they greeted the inw wheat
Speaker 1: families who had helped them on so many of their
Speaker 1: Arctic efforts. Henson was delighted to see old friends who
Speaker 1: had nicknamed him Marie Paluk, the kind one. Utah, his
Speaker 1: most trusted and new wheat assistant, was the leader of
Speaker 1: the dozens of hunters in his community. The people looked
Speaker 1: up to him and followed his advice. If Utah agreed
Speaker 1: to help Pierry and Henson, others would too. As he
Speaker 1: had before, Peery hired the in New wheat men to
Speaker 1: hunt and drive sledges, and the men's wives to sew fur,
Speaker 1: clothing and prepare food. Whole families clambered onto the Roosevelt's
Speaker 1: deck for the adventure. The new wheats familiarity with the
Speaker 1: polar conditions, their survival skills, and their willingness to work
Speaker 1: hard was invaluable to Peery. In return, Peary paid them
Speaker 1: in trade goods that were otherwise hard to come by
Speaker 1: in Greenland. Their relationship was transactional. He respected them, but
Speaker 1: you know he was also using them. That's Susan Kaplan,
Speaker 1: professor of anthropology and director of the Pierry McMillan Arctic
Speaker 1: Museum and Arctic Studies Center at Bowden College. They were
Speaker 1: also using him because, first of all, he would go
Speaker 1: to northwest Greenland and ask people to join his expedition.
Speaker 1: But what he knew who he had got in return
Speaker 1: were tremendous amounts of Western goods such as rifles and
Speaker 1: ammunition that they really valued. For instance, with the rifle,
Speaker 1: here was a piece of technology that they could use
Speaker 1: very effectively, and so they went home. And Peery's payment
Speaker 1: to both the men and the women who were on
Speaker 1: the expedition made them very wealthy, well off individuals in
Speaker 1: their own community. So Peery certainly used them, but they
Speaker 1: were not without agency themselves. Despite being skilled hunters and
Speaker 1: infamiliar terror tory, the a New Wheat weren't immune to
Speaker 1: the anxieties of a mission like this. In their normal,
Speaker 1: everyday lives, A New Wheat had no reason to venture
Speaker 1: far from land over sea ice, since the sea mammals
Speaker 1: they hunted for food tended to hang out close to shore.
Speaker 1: But Peery was asking them to leave land behind and
Speaker 1: march hundreds of miles across the frozen ocean. From what
Speaker 1: we can gather, they thought it was kind of crazy,
Speaker 1: and they certainly got more and more nervous. The further
Speaker 1: out on the Polar Sea, Peery ventured and had them go.
Speaker 1: They traveled on the Polar Sea, but close to shore.
Speaker 1: The further out you get on the Polar Sea, fewer
Speaker 1: marine mammals are going to be around, and the more
Speaker 1: dangerous it is because leads will open up and you
Speaker 1: may get stuck in not be able to get back
Speaker 1: to land. So they got very, very nervous, and there
Speaker 1: are instances in the journals where you can see that
Speaker 1: people like Donald McMillan is having to distract them and
Speaker 1: cajole them to continue going north. They didn't see the
Speaker 1: point After Eta, the expedition's next stop was Cape Sheridan.
Speaker 1: To get there, the Roosevelt had to cut through miles
Speaker 1: of treacherous ice, some of which may have been eighty
Speaker 1: to one ft thick. For most ships at the time,
Speaker 1: it would have been impossible to survive the maze of ice,
Speaker 1: but the Roosevelt was designed to deal with these exact
Speaker 1: types of obstacles. The ship barreled through the unforgiving waters
Speaker 1: for weeks, finally arriving at Cape Sheridan on September five.
Speaker 1: This would be the location of their winter base camp,
Speaker 1: for the next few months. Cape Sheridan lies on the
Speaker 1: north eastern coast of Canada's Ellesmere Island, located just a
Speaker 1: few miles from modern day Alert, the northernmost permanently inhabited
Speaker 1: place in the world. Sir George Strong Naires whom we
Speaker 1: met in our third episode, wintered at Cape Sheridan, and
Speaker 1: Perry made it his jumping off point on his previous
Speaker 1: two expeditions. Now the plan was to set up a
Speaker 1: winter camp at the Cape. It wasn't a time to
Speaker 1: rest and conserve strength for the final push to the
Speaker 1: North Pole, though Perry expected everyone to prepare supplies, build equipment,
Speaker 1: and get ready for victory at the camp. Henson again
Speaker 1: proved invaluable to Parry. He joined New Wheat hunters on
Speaker 1: two ten day excursions out in the elements to provide
Speaker 1: the camp with fresh meat, and when he wasn't out
Speaker 1: on dog sleds, he was at the base camp building
Speaker 1: over two dozen sledges and handling any other tasks that
Speaker 1: came his way. But Henson was much more than just
Speaker 1: someone who could manage physical tasks. He acted as a
Speaker 1: liaison between Peery and the New Wheat on the voyage
Speaker 1: and as the New Wheat People became more important to
Speaker 1: Peri's organization, so too did Henson. Here's kaplan. Matthew Henson
Speaker 1: becomes an absolutely indispensable part of Peri's expeditions. From what
Speaker 1: we can tell, also a very charismatic individual, a lovely individual,
Speaker 1: and also linguistically talented. He learns enough to the language
Speaker 1: spoken by Inuit. From that perspective, you know, he's able
Speaker 1: to communicate more effectively. Peery knows some language, but not
Speaker 1: the way that Henson does. But also I think a
Speaker 1: combination of his charisma and also his race, the Intuit
Speaker 1: look at him and they go, Okay, he's not like
Speaker 1: these other Westerners who are white. His skin is darker.
Speaker 1: It certainly isn't like ours, but it's he's sort of
Speaker 1: more like us. And I think that he had an
Speaker 1: easier acceptance with them. But he certainly was infolded into
Speaker 1: their community. He had a wonderful relationship with the in
Speaker 1: New Weeds, and Peery counted on that relationship. The sledges
Speaker 1: that Henson and the other members of the party built
Speaker 1: were then used to move supplies and equipment miles from
Speaker 1: Cape Sheridan to Cape Columbia. The northernmost point in all
Speaker 1: of Canada. This is where the final push to the
Speaker 1: poll would begin. Let's take a break here, we'll be
Speaker 1: right back. M On their way towards the North Pole
Speaker 1: from Cape Columbia, Robert Peery and his entire team would
Speaker 1: carry all of the equipment and supplies they need on sledges.
Speaker 1: Pulling those sledges was the other vital part of the operation,
Speaker 1: the dogs themselves. There is evidence of humans using sled
Speaker 1: dogs as far back as nine thousand, five hundred years ago,
Speaker 1: and for the Inuite it was a way of life.
Speaker 1: They had taught hens in the skills years earlier. It
Speaker 1: was the only way anyone would make it to the
Speaker 1: North Pole and more importantly, back to safety. Henson described
Speaker 1: the animals as more wolf like than doglike. There were
Speaker 1: over one hundred of these dogs on the period expedition,
Speaker 1: and caring for them was a community effort. Henson in
Speaker 1: particular became intimately familiar with dogcare. He fed them, kept
Speaker 1: them stimulated, broke up fights, and observed their behavior. He
Speaker 1: wrote at length about the troubles the men had with
Speaker 1: loose dogs rummaging through the camps. Provisions on previous expeditions,
Speaker 1: and how there would be constant fights to break up
Speaker 1: among the pack if the dogs weren't tied down. But
Speaker 1: he also praised their intelligence and loyalty, later, writing without
Speaker 1: the Eskimo dog, the story of the North Pole would
Speaker 1: remain untold. Among Pieri's men. Only Henson could drive dog
Speaker 1: teams as well as the native people. Only Henson had
Speaker 1: spent the time and effort in learning the skills. For
Speaker 1: that reason, Peery probably decided early on, without revealing his
Speaker 1: thoughts to anyone, that Henson would accompany him in the
Speaker 1: Polar Party, the final group in Pierrie's relay system, the
Speaker 1: only party that would stand at the North Pole. According
Speaker 1: to the Peery system, advanced parties set out from Cape
Speaker 1: Columbia to break the trail and set up the temporary camps.
Speaker 1: Peery appointed Henson, Bartlett, Borup, McMillan, and Marvin to lead
Speaker 1: advance parties, each with two or three new wheat assistants
Speaker 1: and four dog slids. Bartlett left first to break the trail,
Speaker 1: followed by others to build igloos and carry supplies to
Speaker 1: the temporary camps. Peer's team would bring up the rear
Speaker 1: after the trail had been smoothed and the camps established.
Speaker 1: This strategy reduced the amount of gear Pierry needed to
Speaker 1: carry and allowed him to increase his pace over a
Speaker 1: prepared trail. Pierry had developed the system over his years
Speaker 1: in the Arctic. He had tried various methods of polar
Speaker 1: travel and refined his plan down to be as energy
Speaker 1: efficient as possible, but it was still dangerous and riddled
Speaker 1: with potential pitfalls. He certainly took risks, but they were
Speaker 1: calculated risks. He was not interested in risk taking forwards
Speaker 1: the thrillivance. People might say that just going to the
Speaker 1: North Pole as a risk that seems crazy to take, though,
Speaker 1: but he spent years trying and refining his equipment and
Speaker 1: his techniques to do it. He experimented with every kind
Speaker 1: of sledge design you can imagine. He just planned everything.
Speaker 1: We found when we were going through his papers in
Speaker 1: the National Archives, that drafts of letters. There were these
Speaker 1: little doodles in the margins where he's trying to design
Speaker 1: the most perfect camp stoves that will burn the least
Speaker 1: amount of fuel as fast as possible, to turn ice
Speaker 1: into boiling water so that his crews could have tea
Speaker 1: and warm up I mean, he was just so meticulous
Speaker 1: in his training and over the years just refined it
Speaker 1: and refined it. And the same with decisions as to
Speaker 1: where he was going to leave the land and venture
Speaker 1: out onto the polar seat. He was adjusting his approaches
Speaker 1: and his locations, and he realized that he was trying
Speaker 1: to get to the North Pole was too many people
Speaker 1: and too much equipment, and so he paired that down.
Speaker 1: He was a student of how to get there, and
Speaker 1: so he left as little to chance as he could.
Speaker 1: On February, while darkness still enveloped the landscape, Bartlett's team
Speaker 1: was the first to depart the Roosevelt. They went ahead
Speaker 1: to break the trail for the advanced parties that followed.
Speaker 1: Peery's party left last, abandoning the safety of the ship
Speaker 1: on February. All of the personnel rendezvous at Cape Columbia
Speaker 1: on the last day of February, where Peery arranged the
Speaker 1: dogs into nineteen teams of seven dogs apiece. From Cape Columbia,
Speaker 1: Bartlett's and Borreps teams left first. Peer he wrote, One
Speaker 1: by one, the divisions drew out from the main army
Speaker 1: of sledges and dog teams took up Bartlett's trail over
Speaker 1: the ice and disappeared to the northward in the wind haze.
Speaker 1: This departure of the procession was a noiseless one, for
Speaker 1: the freezing east wind carried all sounds away. Peary, the
Speaker 1: last man in the chain, found relatively easy traveling conditions
Speaker 1: thanks to his men's hard work. After three days of traveling,
Speaker 1: he saw that Borip was on his way back to
Speaker 1: Cape Columbia. Pierry sent Marvin's team back to join him,
Speaker 1: with instructions to fetch additional fuel at Cape Columbia and
Speaker 1: then rejoin the line of advanced parties. Everything was going
Speaker 1: according to plan until he reached the big Lead, the
Speaker 1: unpredictable stretch of black water that had blocked his way
Speaker 1: on his previous attempt at the pole. His team now
Speaker 1: caught up to the remaining advanced parties, including Bartlett's pioneer
Speaker 1: party that had also been stopped at the edge of
Speaker 1: the water. No more progress could be made until they
Speaker 1: could cross the lead. The five days of forced inaction
Speaker 1: took a psychological toll on the men. I think that
Speaker 1: more of mental wear and tear was crowded into those
Speaker 1: days then into all of the rest of the fifteen
Speaker 1: months we were absent from civilization. Perry recalled. Once they
Speaker 1: crossed the lead, the teams could travel twenty five miles
Speaker 1: on a good day. Barip and Marvin reappeared with the
Speaker 1: supplies of fuel. Again. The team spread out in a
Speaker 1: chain across miles of ice, each building eigloos or laying
Speaker 1: caches of supplies, but with temperatures as low as fifty
Speaker 1: degrees below zero and high winds and other calamities popping
Speaker 1: up without warning, progress was not guaranteed. In mid March,
Speaker 1: Pierry had to send McMillan and his dog team back
Speaker 1: to base camp due to frostbite, but the others remained
Speaker 1: in formation. At certain points, ice had built up in hummocks,
Speaker 1: forcing the men to break it up with pick axes
Speaker 1: in order to move the sledges. As they worked to
Speaker 1: clear the trail, the dogs would curl up and fall asleep.
Speaker 1: As frustrated as Henson was about chipping away at ice
Speaker 1: for hours at a time, he was even less enthusiastic
Speaker 1: about having to wake up sleeping, temperamental dogs to get
Speaker 1: back to work. He wrote, we would have to come
Speaker 1: back and start them, which was always the signal for
Speaker 1: a fight or two. On March Ninete Peery told the
Speaker 1: remaining team leaders Marvin, Bartlett, Borup, and Henson his plan
Speaker 1: for the rest of their journey. After the next day's march,
Speaker 1: Boraps team would turn back. Five marches after that, Marvin
Speaker 1: would turn around, and five marches after that, Bartlett's team
Speaker 1: would return to base camp, leaving Peary, Henson, and the
Speaker 1: four new wheat assistants Utah, a, Gingwa, Seaglu, and Uquia
Speaker 1: to actually go to the North Pole. We'll talk more
Speaker 1: about Perry's reasons for this decision in a later episode.
Speaker 1: The men who had traveled this far and had suffered
Speaker 1: such extreme conditions were surely devastated that they would not
Speaker 1: ultimately go to the pole themselves. They hid their true feelings, however,
Speaker 1: and did not try to argue their case with Perry.
Speaker 1: Laurap later remarked that I would have given my immortal
Speaker 1: soul to have gone on. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: the commander lugged some of us a good deal farther
Speaker 1: than necessary, knowing our feelings, but they stuck to the plan.
Speaker 1: Around March twenty, according to protocol, Laura turned back, followed
Speaker 1: by Marvin. On march. On April one, after reaching eighty
Speaker 1: seven degrees forty eight minutes north, Bartlett was told the
Speaker 1: head back to base camp. That meant Peery, Henson, and
Speaker 1: the four drivers were on their own for the final
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty nautical miles to the pole. Henson
Speaker 1: would often be the one at the front of the party,
Speaker 1: breaking the trail, so Peery and the new Wheat could
Speaker 1: follow from behind. Peery could barely walk at times due
Speaker 1: to the pain in its feet, where frostbite had claimed
Speaker 1: eight toes during his eight expedition. It's unclear when or
Speaker 1: how often Peery had to ride on a sledge rather
Speaker 1: than walk. Henson later wrote, the memory of those last
Speaker 1: five marches from the farthest north of Captain Bartlett to
Speaker 1: the arrival of our party of the poll is a
Speaker 1: memory of toil, fatigue, and exhaustion. But we were urged
Speaker 1: on and encouraged by our relentless commander, who was himself
Speaker 1: being scourged by the final lashings of the dominating influence
Speaker 1: that had controlled his life. Though the fulfillment of a
Speaker 1: dream may have been in sight for Perry, the team
Speaker 1: was soon reminded how little the polar world cares about
Speaker 1: the goals of men. On April third, the team was
Speaker 1: traveling through a section of moving ice, where flows could
Speaker 1: crash against each other or suddenly pull away to leave
Speaker 1: lanes of open water. As the men traveled over the
Speaker 1: shifting floes, Pierry setting the pace half an hour ahead
Speaker 1: of the five other men, Henson struggled to get his
Speaker 1: dog sled across a patch of ice. Suddenly, the ice
Speaker 1: slipped from beneath Henson's feet and he plunged through the
Speaker 1: crack into the freezing waters below. Henson knew it wouldn't
Speaker 1: take long for waters like this to become an icy
Speaker 1: tomb partially in the water. He struggled frantically to pull
Speaker 1: himself up, but his gloved hands couldn't make purchase on
Speaker 1: the ice. In just a few seconds, his heavy fur
Speaker 1: clothing would become saturated with water and drag him beneath
Speaker 1: the surface forever. Suddenly, Henson felt himself being grabbed at
Speaker 1: the nape of the neck. With one hand, Utah pulled
Speaker 1: Henson upward and back onto the solid surface, and with
Speaker 1: the other hand guided Henson's dogs and sled across the
Speaker 1: fragile ice. Utah had undoubtedly saved Henson's life and their
Speaker 1: chance of reaching the pole. That quick thinking heroism probably
Speaker 1: didn't come as much of a shock to Perry or Henson.
Speaker 1: Utah was already the expedition's most trust to guide and
Speaker 1: a personal favorite of Perry. He'd proven himself more than
Speaker 1: capable during the n six expedition, and Pierry knew that
Speaker 1: if he wanted to stake his claim at the Big Nail,
Speaker 1: he'd need Utah by his side on occasions just like this.
Speaker 1: Once out of the water, Henson acted quickly beating the
Speaker 1: eyes out of his pants and changing into dry boots.
Speaker 1: He and Utah continued on until they caught up with
Speaker 1: the rest of the party on April six nine. After
Speaker 1: traveling more than four hundred miles over the frozen Arctic Sea,
Speaker 1: the crew settled down to make camp, as they had
Speaker 1: so many times before. When Henson asked what the name
Speaker 1: of this camp would be, Pierry responded it would be
Speaker 1: called Camp Morris k Jessup, after Peri's Arctic Club President,
Speaker 1: the last and most northerly camp on Earth, Henson recalled
Speaker 1: as their leader, took his first round of observations that day.
Speaker 1: Anticipation among the men grew, could they already have reached
Speaker 1: their goal? Perious observations indicated that they were at eighty
Speaker 1: nine degrees fifty seven minutes north, just three short nautical
Speaker 1: miles from the top of the earth. The North Pole
Speaker 1: was all but theirs. After a few hours sleep in
Speaker 1: his igloo, Perry wrote the famous words in his journal,
Speaker 1: the poll at last, the prize of three centuries, my
Speaker 1: dream and ambition for twenty years mine at last. I
Speaker 1: cannot bring myself to realize it. It seems all so
Speaker 1: simple and commonplace. He also couldn't bring himself to even
Speaker 1: write the word we, or team or us once in
Speaker 1: his journal on that night. For Perry, it was his goal,
Speaker 1: his journey, his achievement. Those selfishness is one explanation for
Speaker 1: perious behavior, there could be another reason. According to the
Speaker 1: account Henson told after the expedition, he was actually the
Speaker 1: one who stepped foot on the North Pole first, not Peery.
Speaker 1: As the lead driver. Most of the way, Henson was
Speaker 1: forty five minutes ahead of period times, and when Peerry
Speaker 1: reached eighty nine degrees fifty seven minutes north, three miles
Speaker 1: from the pole, his assistant had already beaten him. To it,
Speaker 1: and then some that couldn't have made Peery happy. I
Speaker 1: didn't know it at the time, Henson said in a
Speaker 1: n interview, but I was in the lead breaking trail
Speaker 1: that final morning, as I had been through the whole
Speaker 1: last dash, and when Peery took his sights, we found
Speaker 1: out we had overshot the mark a couple of miles.
Speaker 1: We went back. Then, Yes, sir, these here feet were
Speaker 1: set down where no human being had ever put his
Speaker 1: feet before. Though we may never know for sure who
Speaker 1: actually took those first steps, we do know that on
Speaker 1: the morning of April seven, Peary took an additional measurement
Speaker 1: at the camp with a sexton and pan of mercury,
Speaker 1: lying flat on his stomach on the ice. When Perry
Speaker 1: stood up with a resolute squaring of his jaws, Henson wrote,
Speaker 1: I was sure that he was satisfied. Now. Henson moved
Speaker 1: forward to congratulate his long time commander, knowing what the
Speaker 1: achievement of his life's dream meant to him. With the
Speaker 1: temperature at minus twenty nine degrees fahrenheit, Henson removed his
Speaker 1: warm fur glove and went to shake Peery's hand. Pierry
Speaker 1: turned away. Perry spent the rest of the day, traveling
Speaker 1: beyond the pole in different directions and taking more measurements
Speaker 1: of their position. Upon returning to camp, Perry confirmed to
Speaker 1: Henson and the others that they had indeed made it
Speaker 1: to the pole. Together, the six men convened at ninety
Speaker 1: degrees north and built a mound of snow to mark
Speaker 1: the spot. The flags were raised, pictures were taken, and
Speaker 1: only after Henson and the new Wheat gave three cheers
Speaker 1: for their leader did Peery shake each man's hand. History
Speaker 1: had been made. We'll be right back. The irony of
Speaker 1: spending almost twenty years trying to reach the North Pole
Speaker 1: is that Perry didn't want to spend an extra second
Speaker 1: more than absolutely necessary there. In fact, they were only
Speaker 1: there for thirty hours. The men would soon face what
Speaker 1: Henson would describe as seventeen days of haste, toil, and
Speaker 1: misery as cannot be comprehended by the mind. Despite the
Speaker 1: sheer physical test of the return trip, it was as
Speaker 1: uneventful as a four d mile trek through thirty below
Speaker 1: temperatures could possibly be. As the team finally got off
Speaker 1: the frozen sea and back onto solid ground, Utah remarked
Speaker 1: the devil is asleep or having trouble with his life,
Speaker 1: or we should never have come back so easily. The
Speaker 1: fact that their return went as smoothly as it did
Speaker 1: is a credit to perious planning. The team was traveling
Speaker 1: over trails that the relay sledges had already established, and
Speaker 1: they reused the igloos they had built for their Polard journey.
Speaker 1: Here's James Edward Mills, freelance journalist, independent producer, an author
Speaker 1: of the book The Adventure Gap Changing the Face of
Speaker 1: the Outdoors. Well, I mean it's all really high level reconnaissance.
Speaker 1: I mean it was you know it also, you know,
Speaker 1: just building to the technology. And when I say technology,
Speaker 1: I mean like how much food, over how much time,
Speaker 1: how big of a party to eat? I mean, in frankly,
Speaker 1: it's not unlike how explorers trained for Everest or some
Speaker 1: of the other big mountains you know around the Himalaya,
Speaker 1: or even being able to make a good climb of
Speaker 1: Denali or Korak and Cagla. I mean, like there's all
Speaker 1: of these things that you need are and at the
Speaker 1: turn of the century no one really knew how to
Speaker 1: do it. That's a really good point. Yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like people kind of try and then they get to
Speaker 1: a certain point, and then the next person tries and
Speaker 1: they learn something new, and then it's kind of a
Speaker 1: cumulative effort. Oh absolutely, you know, And that's I mean,
Speaker 1: in many ways, it's kind of how it turns into
Speaker 1: a race. And I think that, you know, we're there's
Speaker 1: all this romantic pressure to be the first. But sadly,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes people get to where they're going out
Speaker 1: of sheer blind luck as opposed to thoughtful, deliberate skill
Speaker 1: and working really hard and establishing the things that they
Speaker 1: need in order to be successful. In my opinion, that's
Speaker 1: one of the main reasons why people die climbing big
Speaker 1: mountains because of exposure, you know, and often rock falls happen,
Speaker 1: but sometimes things happened simply because you're so wrapped up
Speaker 1: in the summits that you forget that the goal was
Speaker 1: to get back safely, you know, not just to make
Speaker 1: it to the top. One of the things that I
Speaker 1: really have to credit Pincidentarry for they took the time
Speaker 1: to figure out how to do it right, they were
Speaker 1: able to make it back safely. In April, at six am,
Speaker 1: Peary was back at Cape Columbia. He was alive, and
Speaker 1: he had reached his ultimate goal. He wrote in his diary,
Speaker 1: my life work is accomplished. The thing which it was
Speaker 1: intended from the beginning that I should do, the thing
Speaker 1: which I believed could be done, and that I could do.
Speaker 1: I have done. I have got the North Pole out
Speaker 1: of my system. After twenty three years of effort, hard work, disappointments, hardships, privations,
Speaker 1: more or less suffering, and some risks, I have won
Speaker 1: the last great geographical prize, the North Pole, for the
Speaker 1: credit of the United States. This work is the finish,
Speaker 1: the cap and climax of nearly four hundred years of effort,
Speaker 1: loss of life, and expenditure of fortunes by the civilized
Speaker 1: nations of the world. And it has been accomplished in
Speaker 1: a way that is thoroughly American. I am content. But
Speaker 1: their celebration was soon tempered by tragedy. When they returned
Speaker 1: to the Roosevelt, still stationed at Cape Sheridan, the crew
Speaker 1: greeted them with terrible news. Ross Marvin, Puri's secretary assistant
Speaker 1: and well liked advanced party leader, had drowned on his
Speaker 1: return trip to base camp. Marvin had apparently gone ahead
Speaker 1: of his two and new Wheek drivers during their journey.
Speaker 1: As the men traveled to catch up to him, they
Speaker 1: came across a break in some thin ice. They glimpsed
Speaker 1: the top of Marvin's fur jacket under the water, but
Speaker 1: nobody could be seen. They couldn't retrieve Marvin. With the
Speaker 1: precarious ice and the lack of visibility, any attempt could
Speaker 1: have led to them slipping through two, wrote Henson. He
Speaker 1: it alone, and he passed into the great unknown alone,
Speaker 1: bravely and honorably. He is the last of Earth's grade martyrs.
Speaker 1: He is home, His work is done. He is where
Speaker 1: he longed to be. The sailor is home in the sea.
Speaker 1: There must have also been an added bitter sweet feeling
Speaker 1: for Henson, who was celebrating his team's incredible accomplishment aboard
Speaker 1: the Roosevelt, having narrowly avoided Marvin's fate just a few
Speaker 1: weeks earlier. While Borup and McMillan conducted scientific work, Henson
Speaker 1: and Perry remained on the Roosevelt, and Perry's attitude towards
Speaker 1: his loyal assistant took a strange turn. He barely acknowledged
Speaker 1: their achievement, much less expressed as gratitude for the work
Speaker 1: Henson had helped make possible. I would catch a fleeting
Speaker 1: glimpse of Commander Perry, but not once in all that
Speaker 1: time did he speak a word to me, Henson wrote.
Speaker 1: Then he spoke to me in the most ordinary, matter
Speaker 1: of fact way, and ordered me to get to work.
Speaker 1: Not a word about the North Pole or anything connected
Speaker 1: with it. Simply there's enough wood left, and I would
Speaker 1: like to have you make a couple of sledges and men,
Speaker 1: the broken ones. I hope you're feeling all right. As
Speaker 1: the ice broke up in summer, the Roosevelt set a
Speaker 1: return course home. On Augustine, they stopped in Eta to
Speaker 1: drop off the new wheat families and pay them. Utah
Speaker 1: received a rowboat, a rifle, a knife, a sledge, tobacco,
Speaker 1: and a few other Western items for his year of work.
Speaker 1: After two decades of getting to know the native people,
Speaker 1: their customs, and their stories, Peery knew he'd probably never
Speaker 1: see them again. In Ita, Peery also found Harry Whitney,
Speaker 1: a wealthy American big game hunter who had come up
Speaker 1: the previous year on the Roosevelt supply ship. During the
Speaker 1: intervening months, he had lived with the inu wheat and
Speaker 1: tried to bag polar bears, walrus and musk ox for
Speaker 1: his trophy room. Whitney told Perry news that must have
Speaker 1: come as an utter shock. Frederick Cook, the surgeon on
Speaker 1: a couple of Perry's early expeditions, was about to announce
Speaker 1: to the world that he had reached the North Pole,
Speaker 1: and he said he had done so on April one,
Speaker 1: almost a full year before Pierry. Whitney said he had
Speaker 1: run into Cook on April eighteenth nine, struggling over the
Speaker 1: ice from Ellesmere Island. He had two young and new
Speaker 1: wheat guides. It took a shoe and appella with him.
Speaker 1: When Whitney met up with the group, Cook said he
Speaker 1: had reached the North Pole the previous year. Whitney was
Speaker 1: certainly stunned too. Unlike Peery's huge send off from New York,
Speaker 1: there had been little publicity in advance of Cook's voyage.
Speaker 1: Cook left his journals from the trip with Whitney and
Speaker 1: then raised south to catch a ship to Copenhagen, where
Speaker 1: he told the world of his triumph. But Henson and Peery,
Speaker 1: after experiencing the excruciating journey themselves and hearing Whitney's account.
Speaker 1: I thought there was just no way Cook could have
Speaker 1: done it, Hanson recalled. We knew Dr Cook and his abilities.
Speaker 1: He had been the surgeon on two of Perry's expeditions,
Speaker 1: and aside from his medical ability, we had no faith
Speaker 1: in him whatsoever. He was not even good for a
Speaker 1: day's work, and the idea of his making such an
Speaker 1: astounding claim as having reached the pole was so ludicrous
Speaker 1: that after our laugh we dropped the matter altogether. Peary
Speaker 1: said little, but when Whitney attempted to bring some of
Speaker 1: Cook's records and other possessions on board the Roosevelt for
Speaker 1: the journey home, he forbade it. On August, the Roosevelt
Speaker 1: left Cape York, and on September five they docked in
Speaker 1: Indian Harbor, Labrador. There was a telegraph station there, and
Speaker 1: this was Peary's first chance to get the word of
Speaker 1: his accomplishment out to the wider world. His first message
Speaker 1: was to his wife Josephine, simply saying half made good.
Speaker 1: At last, I have the pole, am well. The next
Speaker 1: one to hl Bridgeman of the Perie Arctic Club, which
Speaker 1: just read son. This was Peri's code word for successfully
Speaker 1: reaching the Pole. Another lengthier message was more theatrical stars
Speaker 1: and stripes snailed to the North Pole. The Roosevelt continued
Speaker 1: down to Battle Harbor, where two reporters from the Associated
Speaker 1: Press arrived for the sensational story. Twenty three newspaper correspondents followed.
Speaker 1: All there was left for Peri to do was rest
Speaker 1: on his laurels, or so he thought. The Quest for
Speaker 1: the North Pole is hosted by Me cat Long. This
Speaker 1: episode was researched by Me and written by j Sarafino,
Speaker 1: with fact checking by Austin Thompson. The executive producers are
Speaker 1: Aaron McCarthy and Tyler Klang. The supervising producer is Dylan Fagin.
Speaker 1: The show is edited by Dylan Fagin and Lowell Berlante.
Speaker 1: Thanks to our experts Edward Larson, Susan Kaplan, and James
Speaker 1: Edward Mills for transcripts, a glossary, and to learn more
Speaker 1: about this episode, visit Mental Flaws dot com slash podcast.
Speaker 1: The Quest for the North Pole is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Mental Floss. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, check out the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. For more
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