WEBVTT - Third Time’s the Charm 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:03.480 The Quest for the North Pole is a production of 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:14.080 I Heart Radio and Mental Floss. It's April six and 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.480 Robert E. Peary and his assistant Matthew Henson are settling 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:20.439 in at yet another camp during their third attempt to 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:24.360 reach the North Pole. It's something they've done countless times 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:27.160 during the course of their journeys together, but on this 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:31.600 otherwise unremarkable stretch of ice, their once elusive goal is 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:35.680 now within reach. As they and the new Wheat guides 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:39.560 unpacked their supplies, tend to the dogs, and begin food preparations, 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.559 Peery unfurls an American flag that his wife Josephine, had 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.920 sewn for him years earlier. He fastens it to the 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:51.040 top of the camp's igloo. Henson watches as the star 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:54.680 spangled silk springs to life on a polar breeze, a 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:59.680 symbol of their triumph. When Peery takes the first measurements 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:02.960 of their location, his instruments give him a position of 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:07.080 eighty nine degrees fifty seven minutes north. They're just a 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:11.080 hair's breadth away from true north at ninety degrees. It 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:16.480 won't be long now. With success all but secured, Henson 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:20.679 seeks a well earned moment with Perry. Henson later remembers 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:24.319 feeling that the time had come, I ungloved my right 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:27.120 hand and went forward to congratulate him on the success 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:30.039 of our eighteen years of effort. But a gust of 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:32.920 wind blew something into his eye or else. The burning 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.039 pain caused by his prolonged look at the reflection of 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:38.920 the limb of the sun forced him to turn aside, 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:41.600 and with both hands covering his eyes, he gave us 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:44.360 orders not to let him sleep for more than four hours. 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.840 There's still more measurements to be taken, and Perry is 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.080 seemingly in no mood to delay his work with platitudes. 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:56.280 And as for the spurned handshake, well, this isn't the 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:59.520 first time Perry refuses to share his victory with his 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:03.400 most valued assistant. It's a pattern that will color their 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:08.120 working relationship for the rest of their lives. After traveling 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.360 around the area and taking more readings, Perry returns to 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:15.320 camp on April seven and makes the official announcement, we 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.440 will plant the stars and stripes at the north Pole. 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.280 Pera's American flag is placed at the proper location near 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:25.960 true North, and the group gathers for a photo to 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:29.720 capture the moment. They are now the first men to 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.799 reach the top of the world, or so they believe. 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:37.200 For Robert Perry and Matthew Henson, it was the culmination 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:42.040 of seven polar expeditions together nearly two decades of trying 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.960 for a barely tangible spot on the icy landscape. In 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:58.880 this episode, we'll look at how they did it. From 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:01.680 Mental Floss and I our radio. This is the Quest 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.160 for the North Pole. I'm your host Cat Long, science 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:08.800 editor at Mental Floss and this is episode six third 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:23.200 Times the Charm. In July, Robert E. Peary was fifty two, 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:27.360 Matthew Henson was forty one. Both had been battling the 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:30.519 Arctic in search of icy glory for almost twenty years. 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:33.560 Each time they had traveled to the harsh region to 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.680 attack the North Pole, they had failed, and when they 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:39.320 had returned home it had taken them longer to regain 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:43.320 their physical and mental strength. Still, they weren't ready to 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:47.360 give up the quest. As Peery later wrote, I realized 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:53.200 that the project was something too big to die. Pierry 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:55.880 convinced his rich donors in the Perio Arctic Club that 0:03:55.920 --> 0:04:01.280 he would succeed this time. Failure was inconceivable. All of 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:04.400 the hard won experience and knowledge from his earlier polar 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.800 forays had led to this moment, pointing the way toward 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:11.800 his achievement and for the donors a namesake island or glacier. 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.360 The club's president, Morris K. Jessup, assured Perry he would 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:20.240 be given the means for another trip north Perry recalled 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.000 his promise meant that I should not have to beg 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:25.560 all the money in small sums from a more or 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:30.080 less reluctant world. Maybe the fact that Perry had named 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:32.400 what was thought to be the northernmost point of land 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.320 in the world, Cape Morris Jessup had something to do 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:39.000 with it. Peery's less than successful attempts to reach the 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.480 North Pole had dried up other funding streams, but Arctic 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:46.599 fever still raged among the public. Pierry signed a deal 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:48.640 with the New York Times to break the story of 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:52.720 his success. When the time came, and other newspapers breathlessly 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:57.480 reported the preparations for Perry's journey. This was the era 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:00.560 of the penny press, when an explosion and of cheap 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:05.440 newspapers competed for content like a gilded age Netflix or Amazon. 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:09.599 They also created exciting stories to drive their circulations through 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:14.080 the roof. Here's Edward J. Larson, historian and author of 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:18.640 most recently, To the Edges of the Earth, the Race 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.239 for the Three Polls, and the climax of the Age 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:25.080 of Exploration. So one thing that would give them content 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:30.440 that was enormously popular were tales of daring do which 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:35.400 polar exploration stood right at the top. They were pushing 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:39.400 these expeditions because there was such a popular interesting And 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:42.000 then it was the cycle. People are interested in it 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:44.560 because they're told they're interested in it, they read about it. 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:46.920 You know, you get going in a cycle. So this 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:51.800 was in many ways an artificial goal, but not a 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:55.599 meaningless gold in the sense that it tested the explorer 0:05:56.480 --> 0:06:01.320 and it proved the worthiness, you'd say, of a country 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:06.000 in a highly nationalistic period, and this was part of 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:10.040 showing that prowess. It's like countries compete today to win 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.120 the most Olympic medals on the idea that somehow that 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:15.680 showed something. This was the same sort of thing. This 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:18.880 was the Olympic gold of the day, and no one 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:21.599 took more pride in their expedition than the President of 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:26.039 the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. Pierry and Roosevelt were two 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:28.560 of a kind. They believed in the value of rugged 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.320 pursuits for building man and country. Pierry even named his 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:37.120 custom designed expedition ship after t R. The Roosevelt departed 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:39.960 from the pier at East twenty four Street on July six, 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:44.480 in the middle of a deadly heat wave. Peery wrote 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.120 about the weather and his journal, noting it was an 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.080 interesting coincidence that the day on which we started for 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:52.839 the coldest spot on Earth was about the hottest which 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.320 New York had known in years. But New Yorkers weren't 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:58.880 the type of people to let blistering heat slow them down. 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:02.320 That pisens lined up to watch the Roosevelt sail up 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:05.560 the East River, with Pierri's handpicked team waving from the deck. 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.040 Matthew Henson would again serve as Pirie's senior assistant and 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:14.160 right hand man. Robert Bartlett returned as the Roosevelt's captain. 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:18.160 Ross Marvin signed on as Pieri's secretary for the second time, 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:23.040 and three other members of the ship's crew rejoined. New 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:27.120 members included Donald McMillan, a Bowden College graduate and teacher, 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:33.280 and Yale grad George Borup as Perie's assistants. As the 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:35.880 vessel made its way up the river, factories blew their 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:40.480 whistles to see them off. Theodore Roosevelt's presidential yacht, the Mayflower, 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:44.840 followed suit. Even the prisoners at Blackwell Island lined up 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:49.080 outside the penitentiary to cheer them on. The Next day, 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:51.760 the Roosevelt docked at Oyster Bay, on the north shore 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:55.880 of Long Island, where tr had a summer home. Roosevelt 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.800 treated Peery, his wife Josephine, and members of the Perie 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.840 Arctic Club to lunch. The President was a curious adventurer 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.560 and much the same mold as Peery, and it's easy 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.600 to imagine t R himself tagging along on the expedition 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:12.960 if he hadn't had a country to run. Roosevelt, a 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.440 fan boy of big ships if there ever was one, 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.280 took this lunch as an opportunity to inspect every inch 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:22.920 of his namesake vessel before it departed. Decked Out in 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:26.040 an all white suit, he spent an hour shaking every 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.600 hand he came across, powering through the engine room, petting 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.160 all of the sleddogs on board, and admiring Peery's cramped 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:37.000 yellow pine cabin, complete with its library of Arctic books 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.520 and equipment. At the end of the lunch, Peery all 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:43.480 but promised Roosevelt that he would reach the North Pole. 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:47.640 No matter what, Mr President, I shall put into this 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.640 effort everything there is in me, physical, mental, and moral, 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:56.360 he said. Roosevelt replied, I believe in you, Perry, and 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:59.040 I believe in your success if it is within the 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:04.120 possibility of in Peery felt no qualms about what lay ahead. 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:07.720 He and his team had made every preparation and taken 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.920 every possible obstacle into account. Everything they had to do 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:16.520 was done, he wrote. Perhaps this feeling of surety was 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:20.920 because every possible contingency had been discounted. Perhaps because the 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:24.320 setbacks and knockout blows received in the past had dulled 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.960 my sense of danger. Whether it was enough to get 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:30.040 them to the North Pole this time would be up 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:34.400 to fate. From Oyster Bay, the Roosevelt traveled the familiar 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.120 route to Sydney, Nova Scotia, for its convenient proximity to 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:42.839 coal supplies that the ship took on board. By July seventeenth, 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:46.520 the Roosevelt had cleared North Sydney, and on August one, 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:49.800 they made it to Cape York, Greenland, an area Peery 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:53.360 described as the dividing line between the civilized world on 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:57.280 one side and the Arctic world on the other. But 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.920 to put it in perspective, Peery wrote that Cape York 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:02.559 is farther from the North Pole than New York City 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:06.040 is from Tampa, Florida. There was still a long way 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:09.800 to go. Just a few weeks earlier, throngs of well 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:12.520 wishers had cheered the expedition on as they cut through 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.920 New York's East River, one of the world's busiest arteries 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:20.120 of commerce. Now, as the Roosevelt approached the tree Less Cape, 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:23.000 the explorers were greeted by a handful of the new 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:26.760 wheat and kayaks. But these tiny communities at the edge 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:31.600 of Greenland's ice sheet would make or break Pierri's dream. 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:34.400 Pierri's men bartered with the inw wheat for the essential 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:38.800 equipment they couldn't get back home. Additional dogs, bear skins, 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:43.959 sealskin whips, and walrus blubber. From Cape York, they traveled 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:46.800 north to Eta, a village that Henson and Pierri had 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:50.319 visited on previous expeditions, where they greeted the inw wheat 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:52.640 families who had helped them on so many of their 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:56.600 Arctic efforts. Henson was delighted to see old friends who 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:01.320 had nicknamed him Marie Paluk, the kind one. Utah, his 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.360 most trusted and new wheat assistant, was the leader of 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:07.600 the dozens of hunters in his community. The people looked 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:11.200 up to him and followed his advice. If Utah agreed 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:15.280 to help Pierry and Henson, others would too. As he 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:17.760 had before, Peery hired the in New wheat men to 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:21.079 hunt and drive sledges, and the men's wives to sew fur, 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:25.760 clothing and prepare food. Whole families clambered onto the Roosevelt's 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:29.840 deck for the adventure. The new wheats familiarity with the 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:33.680 polar conditions, their survival skills, and their willingness to work 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:38.000 hard was invaluable to Peery. In return, Peary paid them 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.520 in trade goods that were otherwise hard to come by 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:46.880 in Greenland. Their relationship was transactional. He respected them, but 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:51.559 you know he was also using them. That's Susan Kaplan, 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.200 professor of anthropology and director of the Pierry McMillan Arctic 0:11:55.280 --> 0:12:00.440 Museum and Arctic Studies Center at Bowden College. They were 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:04.800 also using him because, first of all, he would go 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:11.080 to northwest Greenland and ask people to join his expedition. 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:16.400 But what he knew who he had got in return 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:23.760 were tremendous amounts of Western goods such as rifles and 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:29.080 ammunition that they really valued. For instance, with the rifle, 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:32.480 here was a piece of technology that they could use 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:39.720 very effectively, and so they went home. And Peery's payment 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:41.880 to both the men and the women who were on 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:48.040 the expedition made them very wealthy, well off individuals in 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:52.920 their own community. So Peery certainly used them, but they 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:58.959 were not without agency themselves. Despite being skilled hunters and 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:02.480 infamiliar terror tory, the a New Wheat weren't immune to 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.960 the anxieties of a mission like this. In their normal, 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:08.960 everyday lives, A New Wheat had no reason to venture 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.360 far from land over sea ice, since the sea mammals 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.120 they hunted for food tended to hang out close to shore. 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.360 But Peery was asking them to leave land behind and 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:23.880 march hundreds of miles across the frozen ocean. From what 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.040 we can gather, they thought it was kind of crazy, 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:33.800 and they certainly got more and more nervous. The further 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:40.120 out on the Polar Sea, Peery ventured and had them go. 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:45.920 They traveled on the Polar Sea, but close to shore. 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:50.360 The further out you get on the Polar Sea, fewer 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:54.439 marine mammals are going to be around, and the more 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:58.640 dangerous it is because leads will open up and you 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:01.120 may get stuck in not be able to get back 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:06.720 to land. So they got very, very nervous, and there 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.240 are instances in the journals where you can see that 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:15.200 people like Donald McMillan is having to distract them and 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:20.600 cajole them to continue going north. They didn't see the 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:25.600 point After Eta, the expedition's next stop was Cape Sheridan. 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.000 To get there, the Roosevelt had to cut through miles 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:32.080 of treacherous ice, some of which may have been eighty 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:36.000 to one ft thick. For most ships at the time, 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.080 it would have been impossible to survive the maze of ice, 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:42.320 but the Roosevelt was designed to deal with these exact 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:47.240 types of obstacles. The ship barreled through the unforgiving waters 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:51.480 for weeks, finally arriving at Cape Sheridan on September five. 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:55.840 This would be the location of their winter base camp, 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:59.600 for the next few months. Cape Sheridan lies on the 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:03.600 north eastern coast of Canada's Ellesmere Island, located just a 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:07.960 few miles from modern day Alert, the northernmost permanently inhabited 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:11.720 place in the world. Sir George Strong Naires whom we 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:15.160 met in our third episode, wintered at Cape Sheridan, and 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:17.840 Perry made it his jumping off point on his previous 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:21.560 two expeditions. Now the plan was to set up a 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.880 winter camp at the Cape. It wasn't a time to 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:27.320 rest and conserve strength for the final push to the 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:32.680 North Pole, though Perry expected everyone to prepare supplies, build equipment, 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:36.840 and get ready for victory at the camp. Henson again 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.840 proved invaluable to Parry. He joined New Wheat hunters on 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:44.040 two ten day excursions out in the elements to provide 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.640 the camp with fresh meat, and when he wasn't out 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:49.200 on dog sleds, he was at the base camp building 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:52.560 over two dozen sledges and handling any other tasks that 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:55.840 came his way. But Henson was much more than just 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.440 someone who could manage physical tasks. He acted as a 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.600 liaison between Peery and the New Wheat on the voyage 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:05.480 and as the New Wheat People became more important to 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:11.640 Peri's organization, so too did Henson. Here's kaplan. Matthew Henson 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:19.520 becomes an absolutely indispensable part of Peri's expeditions. From what 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:26.720 we can tell, also a very charismatic individual, a lovely individual, 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:33.680 and also linguistically talented. He learns enough to the language 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:38.600 spoken by Inuit. From that perspective, you know, he's able 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:43.840 to communicate more effectively. Peery knows some language, but not 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:47.800 the way that Henson does. But also I think a 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:52.200 combination of his charisma and also his race, the Intuit 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:55.880 look at him and they go, Okay, he's not like 0:16:56.040 --> 0:17:01.280 these other Westerners who are white. His skin is darker. 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:04.480 It certainly isn't like ours, but it's he's sort of 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:07.600 more like us. And I think that he had an 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:15.119 easier acceptance with them. But he certainly was infolded into 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.359 their community. He had a wonderful relationship with the in 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:24.880 New Weeds, and Peery counted on that relationship. The sledges 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.200 that Henson and the other members of the party built 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:30.840 were then used to move supplies and equipment miles from 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:34.520 Cape Sheridan to Cape Columbia. The northernmost point in all 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:37.919 of Canada. This is where the final push to the 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:43.280 poll would begin. Let's take a break here, we'll be 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:52.240 right back. M On their way towards the North Pole 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:56.000 from Cape Columbia, Robert Peery and his entire team would 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:59.160 carry all of the equipment and supplies they need on sledges. 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.040 Pulling those sledges was the other vital part of the operation, 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:08.200 the dogs themselves. There is evidence of humans using sled 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:11.200 dogs as far back as nine thousand, five hundred years ago, 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:13.760 and for the Inuite it was a way of life. 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:17.480 They had taught hens in the skills years earlier. It 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:19.639 was the only way anyone would make it to the 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:24.880 North Pole and more importantly, back to safety. Henson described 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:28.600 the animals as more wolf like than doglike. There were 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.320 over one hundred of these dogs on the period expedition, 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:35.080 and caring for them was a community effort. Henson in 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:39.880 particular became intimately familiar with dogcare. He fed them, kept 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:44.680 them stimulated, broke up fights, and observed their behavior. He 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:47.280 wrote at length about the troubles the men had with 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:51.080 loose dogs rummaging through the camps. Provisions on previous expeditions, 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:53.919 and how there would be constant fights to break up 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:57.119 among the pack if the dogs weren't tied down. But 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:01.600 he also praised their intelligence and loyalty, later, writing without 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:04.440 the Eskimo dog, the story of the North Pole would 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:09.320 remain untold. Among Pieri's men. Only Henson could drive dog 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.680 teams as well as the native people. Only Henson had 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:16.000 spent the time and effort in learning the skills. For 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:20.199 that reason, Peery probably decided early on, without revealing his 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.480 thoughts to anyone, that Henson would accompany him in the 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:27.920 Polar Party, the final group in Pierrie's relay system, the 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:32.080 only party that would stand at the North Pole. According 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:35.600 to the Peery system, advanced parties set out from Cape 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:38.760 Columbia to break the trail and set up the temporary camps. 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:44.760 Peery appointed Henson, Bartlett, Borup, McMillan, and Marvin to lead 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:48.560 advance parties, each with two or three new wheat assistants 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:52.760 and four dog slids. Bartlett left first to break the trail, 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.040 followed by others to build igloos and carry supplies to 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:59.560 the temporary camps. Peer's team would bring up the rear 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.800 after the trail had been smoothed and the camps established. 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:06.760 This strategy reduced the amount of gear Pierry needed to 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:09.359 carry and allowed him to increase his pace over a 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:13.480 prepared trail. Pierry had developed the system over his years 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:16.840 in the Arctic. He had tried various methods of polar 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:19.520 travel and refined his plan down to be as energy 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:23.640 efficient as possible, but it was still dangerous and riddled 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:30.320 with potential pitfalls. He certainly took risks, but they were 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:36.680 calculated risks. He was not interested in risk taking forwards 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:40.760 the thrillivance. People might say that just going to the 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.840 North Pole as a risk that seems crazy to take, though, 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:52.400 but he spent years trying and refining his equipment and 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:59.240 his techniques to do it. He experimented with every kind 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:03.960 of sledge design you can imagine. He just planned everything. 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:07.639 We found when we were going through his papers in 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:12.240 the National Archives, that drafts of letters. There were these 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:16.960 little doodles in the margins where he's trying to design 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:22.439 the most perfect camp stoves that will burn the least 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:26.760 amount of fuel as fast as possible, to turn ice 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:31.520 into boiling water so that his crews could have tea 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:36.320 and warm up I mean, he was just so meticulous 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:40.919 in his training and over the years just refined it 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:45.600 and refined it. And the same with decisions as to 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:51.200 where he was going to leave the land and venture 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:55.440 out onto the polar seat. He was adjusting his approaches 0:21:55.560 --> 0:22:00.000 and his locations, and he realized that he was trying 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:02.919 to get to the North Pole was too many people 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:07.000 and too much equipment, and so he paired that down. 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:11.440 He was a student of how to get there, and 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:15.800 so he left as little to chance as he could. 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:22.320 On February, while darkness still enveloped the landscape, Bartlett's team 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:25.560 was the first to depart the Roosevelt. They went ahead 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:28.160 to break the trail for the advanced parties that followed. 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:32.280 Peery's party left last, abandoning the safety of the ship 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:37.720 on February. All of the personnel rendezvous at Cape Columbia 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:40.720 on the last day of February, where Peery arranged the 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:47.000 dogs into nineteen teams of seven dogs apiece. From Cape Columbia, 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:52.200 Bartlett's and Borreps teams left first. Peer he wrote, One 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:54.920 by one, the divisions drew out from the main army 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:58.080 of sledges and dog teams took up Bartlett's trail over 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:01.439 the ice and disappeared to the northward in the wind haze. 0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:05.960 This departure of the procession was a noiseless one, for 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:10.720 the freezing east wind carried all sounds away. Peary, the 0:23:10.840 --> 0:23:14.400 last man in the chain, found relatively easy traveling conditions 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:18.520 thanks to his men's hard work. After three days of traveling, 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:20.480 he saw that Borip was on his way back to 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:23.880 Cape Columbia. Pierry sent Marvin's team back to join him, 0:23:23.920 --> 0:23:27.080 with instructions to fetch additional fuel at Cape Columbia and 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:30.840 then rejoin the line of advanced parties. Everything was going 0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:33.879 according to plan until he reached the big Lead, the 0:23:34.000 --> 0:23:37.240 unpredictable stretch of black water that had blocked his way 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:40.560 on his previous attempt at the pole. His team now 0:23:40.600 --> 0:23:43.880 caught up to the remaining advanced parties, including Bartlett's pioneer 0:23:43.960 --> 0:23:46.399 party that had also been stopped at the edge of 0:23:46.400 --> 0:23:50.399 the water. No more progress could be made until they 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:54.560 could cross the lead. The five days of forced inaction 0:23:54.680 --> 0:23:58.480 took a psychological toll on the men. I think that 0:23:58.560 --> 0:24:01.160 more of mental wear and tear was crowded into those 0:24:01.280 --> 0:24:03.680 days then into all of the rest of the fifteen 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:08.240 months we were absent from civilization. Perry recalled. Once they 0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:11.040 crossed the lead, the teams could travel twenty five miles 0:24:11.040 --> 0:24:14.080 on a good day. Barip and Marvin reappeared with the 0:24:14.080 --> 0:24:17.119 supplies of fuel. Again. The team spread out in a 0:24:17.280 --> 0:24:21.240 chain across miles of ice, each building eigloos or laying 0:24:21.320 --> 0:24:25.320 caches of supplies, but with temperatures as low as fifty 0:24:25.359 --> 0:24:29.080 degrees below zero and high winds and other calamities popping 0:24:29.160 --> 0:24:34.200 up without warning, progress was not guaranteed. In mid March, 0:24:34.560 --> 0:24:36.960 Pierry had to send McMillan and his dog team back 0:24:37.000 --> 0:24:40.320 to base camp due to frostbite, but the others remained 0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:44.560 in formation. At certain points, ice had built up in hummocks, 0:24:44.640 --> 0:24:46.800 forcing the men to break it up with pick axes 0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:50.199 in order to move the sledges. As they worked to 0:24:50.240 --> 0:24:53.040 clear the trail, the dogs would curl up and fall asleep. 0:24:53.880 --> 0:24:56.760 As frustrated as Henson was about chipping away at ice 0:24:56.800 --> 0:25:00.000 for hours at a time, he was even less enthusiastic 0:25:00.119 --> 0:25:03.440 about having to wake up sleeping, temperamental dogs to get 0:25:03.440 --> 0:25:06.680 back to work. He wrote, we would have to come 0:25:06.680 --> 0:25:09.040 back and start them, which was always the signal for 0:25:09.080 --> 0:25:13.399 a fight or two. On March Ninete Peery told the 0:25:13.440 --> 0:25:18.720 remaining team leaders Marvin, Bartlett, Borup, and Henson his plan 0:25:18.840 --> 0:25:22.440 for the rest of their journey. After the next day's march, 0:25:22.960 --> 0:25:27.520 Boraps team would turn back. Five marches after that, Marvin 0:25:27.520 --> 0:25:32.040 would turn around, and five marches after that, Bartlett's team 0:25:32.119 --> 0:25:36.159 would return to base camp, leaving Peary, Henson, and the 0:25:36.240 --> 0:25:41.200 four new wheat assistants Utah, a, Gingwa, Seaglu, and Uquia 0:25:41.960 --> 0:25:45.520 to actually go to the North Pole. We'll talk more 0:25:45.560 --> 0:25:49.280 about Perry's reasons for this decision in a later episode. 0:25:50.040 --> 0:25:52.640 The men who had traveled this far and had suffered 0:25:52.720 --> 0:25:57.240 such extreme conditions were surely devastated that they would not 0:25:57.440 --> 0:26:01.920 ultimately go to the pole themselves. They hid their true feelings, however, 0:26:02.480 --> 0:26:04.840 and did not try to argue their case with Perry. 0:26:06.520 --> 0:26:10.159 Laurap later remarked that I would have given my immortal 0:26:10.359 --> 0:26:13.320 soul to have gone on. As a matter of fact, 0:26:13.359 --> 0:26:15.760 the commander lugged some of us a good deal farther 0:26:15.840 --> 0:26:19.520 than necessary, knowing our feelings, but they stuck to the plan. 0:26:21.760 --> 0:26:25.760 Around March twenty, according to protocol, Laura turned back, followed 0:26:25.760 --> 0:26:31.200 by Marvin. On march. On April one, after reaching eighty 0:26:31.240 --> 0:26:34.760 seven degrees forty eight minutes north, Bartlett was told the 0:26:34.800 --> 0:26:39.240 head back to base camp. That meant Peery, Henson, and 0:26:39.280 --> 0:26:42.080