WEBVTT - A Gold Brick 0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:04.040 The Quest for the North Pole is a production of 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:12.920 I Heart Radio and Mental Floss. On most days of 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:16.319 the year. In the early nineteen hundreds, Battle Harbor on 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:20.840 Labrador's Rugged Coast is pretty quiet. The busiest this cod 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:23.680 fishing station gets is when a big catch of fish 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:26.960 comes in and the air buzzes with excitement and activity. 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:30.920 Is the hall as broad Ashore. But in September nine, 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:34.360 a buzz of a different kind fills the salty air. 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:39.880 The tiny village population three hundred finds itself at the 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:43.600 center of a media frenzy it hasn't seen before or since. 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:49.519 Against a backdrop of fishing boats bobbing expectantly in the harbor, 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:53.640 dozens of reporters wearing hats and long thick coats to 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:56.920 guard against the chill, have descended on the wooden dock 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:01.240 waiting for a press conference with Robert E. Peary. These 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.560 men have one goal to get the scoop from Perry 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:09.280 on the historic first conquest of the North Pole, and 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:13.520 they want to know if Perry believes another explorer, Frederick A. Cook, 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:18.680 has beaten him to it. Perry's assistant, Donald Baxter McMillan 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:23.480 later sums up what so many are thinking geographers, scientists, 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.360 students of Arctic literature. All had questioned the possibility of 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:31.320 ever reaching the pole, And two men within five days 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.520 of each other, we're claiming to have done that very thing. 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:40.039 Was this a practical joke? For Peary, the situation is 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:44.360 deadly serious, though he tries not to show it. A 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:47.600 few weeks earlier, while still in Greenland, he had learned 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.280 that Cook was claiming he'd reached the North Pole on 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:56.120 April twe almost a full year before Peery himself reached it. 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.840 By coincidence, Cook had arrived in the Shetland Islands and 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:04.160 sent word of his conquest to newspapers only about a 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:09.680 week earlier, on September one, five days before Perry made 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:13.520 his announcement from the telegraph office in Indian Harbor, Labrador. 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.919 As Peri's controversial news bounces from one tiny telegraph office 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:22.880 to another before finally reaching newspapers, it begins to seem 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:26.960 like Cook has stolen not just Peri's thunder. His claim 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.240 of being first to the poll threatens to nullify Perry's 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:35.560 entire Arctic career and his shot at fame. But in 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:39.000 front of the media, Peery appears confident in his success. 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.000 A reporter asks how he felt upon reaching the top 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:48.080 of the world. Pierry stands up, shoulders back, and in 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:52.600 a steady voice, answers, can't you imagine how a man 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.200 feels after spending twenty three years of the best years 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:59.080 of his life, who had given parts of his body 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:03.040 the body God gave him, and accomplishing his ambition when 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:09.400 he attains it. The room falls silent. Meanwhile, Battle Harbor's 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:14.040 telegraph operator is overwhelmed with messages from news organizations, all 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:19.040 demanding Peri's comment on Cook. Perry is determined to fight 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:22.040 for his honor. To the New York Times, which paid 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:26.320 four thousand dollars for his story, Peery writes, do not 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.200 trouble about cook story or attempt to explain any discrepancies 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.079 in his statements. The affair will settle itself. He has 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.920 not been at the poll on April one, or at 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:41.400 any other time. He has simply handed the public a 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:45.880 gold brick. The next day, the New York Times publishes 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:50.040 a front page article presenting both explorers stories and Peri, 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:52.720 accusing Cook of giving the public a bait and switch. 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.120 By the time the Roosevelt reaches Sydney, Nova Scotia. The 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:00.240 Cook Pery controversy is the leading topic of the day, 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:05.040 McMillan wrote. Later, newspaper readers received thousands of postcards in 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.480 the mail asking them are you for Cook or Perry. 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:13.000 Reporters found each of the explorers for proof of his claim, 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:17.719 while newspapers fanned the controversy. Though they couldn't have foreseen 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.280 this turn of events, Peery and Cook are now locked 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.279 in a fierce battle for the title of first man 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.800 at the North Pole. When they returned to the United 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:31.159 States after their Arctic adventures, they trade insults in the 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:34.839 press and muster their influential supporters to argue their cases. 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:39.919 Other explorers and scientists scrutinize their records and choose sides. 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:44.039 In this episode, we'll see why everyone was asking not 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.599 just who reached the pole first, but whether either of 0:04:47.640 --> 0:05:02.880 them had reached it at all. From Mental Floss and 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:05.799 I Heart Radio, this is the Quest for the North Pole. 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:10.040 I'm your host, Cat Long, Science editor at Mental Loss 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:25.000 and this is episode seven. A gold brick. September nine 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.360 wasn't the first time Frederick A. Cook and Robert E. 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:33.039 Peary had cross paths. Born in tiny Hortonville, New York. 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:36.680 In eighteen sixty five, Cook moved from his hometown near 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.839 the Delaware River to New York City to attend medical school. 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.479 He supported his studies with a milk delivery business he 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:47.800 ran with his brother Theodore. Around eighteen ninety, he opened 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:50.880 his own medical practice, but he didn't have many patients. 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:54.480 When he read in the New York Herald the Robert 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.520 Peery was planning an expedition to northern Greenland for the 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:03.520 summer of eight he to offer his services. Peery hired 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:08.120 him as a surgeon on the trip. Cook was charismatic, amiable, 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:12.240 and a good doctor, but neither Peery nor his senior assistant, 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:16.279 Matthew Henson, were impressed with his wilderness skills. He was, 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:21.160 to put it bluntly, a hot mess, according to Henson's 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:24.839 biographer Bradley Robinson. On a hunt, Cook scared away the 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:28.960 reindeer by complaining too loudly. On a different hunt, he 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.120 missed his target and shot a hole through the side 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:35.480 of a whale boat. When Cook asked to accompany Henson 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:38.440 on one of his walrus hunts, in which one wrong 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:42.080 move could mean being stabbed by a tusk, Henson turned 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:45.400 him down. If dr Cook was to have a gun 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:48.640 in his hand, Matt preferred not to be nearby, his 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:53.880 biographer wrote, Following his expedition with Peery, Cook headed all 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:57.120 the way south, he signed up as a surgeon on 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:02.719 the Belgian and Arctic Expedition, lasting from eight the first 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:06.840 of what historians later dubbed the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration. 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.960 Among his crewmates was the Norwegian explorer Roald Amondson, who 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:15.520 later became the first European to sail the entire Northwest 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.840 Passage and the first person to stand at the South Pole. 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.960 Though he failed to win over Pierry in Henson, Cook's 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:28.960 reputation as a bold adventurer was growing. In three he 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:33.320 attempted to climb Mount McKinley, now called the Nali, which, 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.320 at twenty thousand, three hundred and ten feet in elevation, 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:40.760 is North America's highest mountain. While he had to settle 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:45.040 for circumnavigating its base, Cook gave lectures to mountaineering clubs 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.720 upon his return to New York and impressed the right 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:52.200 people like Robert Pierry. Cook soon gathered around him a 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:56.520 coterie of well connected comrades to support his adventures. The 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:00.120 Cook's group was more democratic and focused on research then 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:05.200 the Periarctic Club, which existed to fundraise. Cook's group, called 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:10.080 the Explorers Club, included fellow explorer and author Henry Collins Walsh, 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:14.320 Adolphus Greeley and David Brainerd of the notorious eighty one 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:18.880 Greeley Expedition, and Frank Chapman, then the Associate Curator of 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:22.400 Birds and Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History. 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:26.160 In nineteen o six, accompanied by members of the Explorers Club, 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:30.200 Cooke returned to Alaska. This time he claimed to have 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:33.600 made the first ascent of Denali, but this may have 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.400 been a case of Cook's daring ambition overshadowing his skills. 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.440 Members of his own climbing team later said that they 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:45.000 didn't get anywhere near the top, and the photographic evidence 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.680 Cook revealed from the expedition wasn't sufficient to decide the case. 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:53.000 But it didn't matter. Cooke had earned the public's recognition. 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:57.199 With his new status as an audacious outdoor hero, he 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:03.560 set his sights on the North Pole. A Florida casino 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:07.080 magnate named John R. Bradley agreed to give Cook ten 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:10.360 thousand dollars, which would be roughly two dred and eighty 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:14.160 one thousand today to organize a big game hunting trip 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:16.880 to Greenland, which Cook would use as a starting point 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:21.360 for a push to the Pole. The expedition just Cook 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:24.760 at eleven crew members aboard a former fishing schooner named 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:29.599 for Bradley, who would join them in Newfoundland, departed from Gloucester, Massachusetts, 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:35.840 on July three. Unlike Robert Pierry's departure, complete with boat 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:40.400 parades and thousands of cheering fans, hardly anyone noticed Cook leaving. 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.720 An Arctic expedition had been born without the usual clamor. 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:49.760 Cook wrote in My Attainment of the Poll is account 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.880 that argues his case and takes numerous swipes at Perry. 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.800 Prepared in one month and financed by a sportsman whose 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:01.280 only mission was to hunt game animals in North No 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:05.800 press campaign heralded our project. No government aid had been asked, 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:09.600 nor had large contributions been sought from private individuals to 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:13.120 purchase luxuries for a pullman jaunt of a large party. 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:17.880 Pollward here was nonsense, and Perry's idea of a pare 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:22.560 down expedition taken to the extreme. Cook wrote that he 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.120 wasn't even sure he'd actually try for the pole until 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:28.480 he got to Greenland, but just in case, he brought 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:32.440 a long wood for sledges, appropriate clothing, and one thousand 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:37.800 pounds of pemmican manufactured by Armoring Company of Chicago. One 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:41.360 resource he didn't bring was a trusted companion like Matthew 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:46.360 Henson who could accompany him to the poll. Basically, he 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:50.640 was just gonna wing it. They initially followed the American 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:55.040 route to Cape York in northwest Greenland. They paused at 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:58.640 inuite villages along the Greenland coast to hunt Walrus's seals 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:02.480 and ducks. But while Bradley was mainly interested in the game, 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.160 Cook's dreams of making history took shape as the little 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:10.360 schooner pulled into a harbor at Anoatok, the northernmost village 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:14.000 in Greenland. Normally there were hardly more than a couple 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:17.559 of tents constituting the village, but now a large group 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:20.520 of families had gathered to initiate the winter bear hunt. 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:24.440 It came strongly to me that this was the spot 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.559 to make the base for a polar dash. Here were 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:31.480 Eskimo helpers, strong, hefty natives from whom I could select 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:34.680 the best to accompany me, Cook wrote, with a definite 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:38.680 air of entitlement. Here, by a fortunate chance, were the 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:42.640 best dog teams. Here were plenty of furs for clothing, 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:47.560 and here was unlimited food. These supplies, combined with supplies 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:50.200 on the schooner, would give all that was needed for 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:56.080 the campaign. Nothing could have been more ideal. When Cook 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.120 informed Bradley of his plans, the two men parted ways. 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.679 Bradley left Cook with supplies from the ship and one 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:05.920 of the ship's crew, a German assistant named Rudolph Franca. 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.120 Cook obtained the rest of his equipment with the help 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:12.920 of the Innuit. He instructed them in making sledges out 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:16.040 of the tough hickory planks he brought on the Bradley, 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:19.440 and they hunted an astounding number of animals for winter 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:23.679 provisions and for the pole journey in spring. From August 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:28.640 seven to May nine. According to Cook, they captured two thousand, 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:32.200 four hundred and twenty two birds, three hundred and eleven 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:37.120 Arctic hares, three hundred and twenty foxes, thirty six reindeer, 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:42.600 twenty two polar bears, fifty two seals, seventy three walruses, 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:47.080 twenty one nar Walls, three Belugas, and two hundred and 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:54.000 six Muskoks. Cook, Franca and nine Inuit assistants departed a 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:59.760 Noah Talk on February. They drove a convoy of eleven 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:03.400 dog sleds, weighed down with six thousand pounds of equipment 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:07.760 and provisions. Instead of heading north through Kane Basin and 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.760 up Kennedy Channel towards Cape Sheridan, as naires and period 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:16.960 had done, Cook traveled west, crossing Smith's Sound to Ellesmere Island. 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:20.720 His rationale was that he could replenish the food supply 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:23.400 for his party and dogs by hunting game in the 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:27.240 valleys west of Ellesmere, which Auto spare Drop had mapped 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:31.160 in his extensive explorations at the end of the nineteenth century. 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:35.560 They could also lay caches of supplies for Cooke's return journey. 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:40.240 The party continued across the island towards Greeley Fiord, which 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:44.000 connected with the head of Nonsen Sound. The sounds other 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:47.360 end met the Arctic Ocean at Cape Thomas Hubbard, a 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:50.280 few hundred miles west from Cape Sheridan along the coast 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:54.200 of Ellesmere Island. There, Cook decided to split up the 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:57.600 party and make a break for the pole. He chose 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.280 two young Inuit, it took a shoe and a ella, 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:03.840 and paired down his gear to only the barest minimum 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:08.720 of food, shelter, clothing, and navigational equipment to sustain them 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:14.080 for eighty days. They left land on March eighteenth, with 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:18.800 a journey of five hundred miles ahead of them. Unlike Peery, 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:21.840 Cook didn't send advance parties ahead of his own sledge 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:25.600 to build igloos and lay down supplies at the end 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:28.080 of each march. The three men had to build shelter 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:31.560 and tend to their gear and dogs. Yet they clocked 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:35.360 one hundred miles and crossed the Big Lead, the treacherous 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.000 expanse of water and shifting ice that had held Perry 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:43.280 up for nearly a week, in just five days. Cook 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:47.560 spurred on his Inuit companions by fudging their position. Both 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:50.040 a wella and ittook a shoe were sure of a 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:54.840 constant nearness to land. Cook wrote, because of the native 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:59.280 panic out of its reassuring site, I encouraged this daily 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.040 chance of s being new Land, as I did concerning 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:06.760 every other possible sign of land further northward. I knew 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:10.080 that only by encouraging a delusion of nearness to land 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:12.520 could I urge them ever farther in the face of 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:17.800 the hardships that must inevitably come. Cook may have thought 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:21.000 he was fooling them, But the new Weeks surely new land. 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:24.040 When they saw it. They could tell the difference between 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.880 land and some clouds or an expanse of ice. This was, 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:32.200 after all, their neck of the woods. And what's more, 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.320 Cook believed he did spot a new land mass he 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:40.080 named Bradley Land between eight four eight five parallels, which 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:46.240 it turns out didn't exist. Cook's ploy to deceive his 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:50.080 companions and his apparent willingness to lie about their position, 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:54.920 would come back to haunt him. The trio pushed on 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:58.880 as days stretched into the polar spring. In mid April. 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:04.000 Cook's navigational readings suggested that the pole was near. He wrote, 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:07.600 climbing the long ladder of latitudes, there was always the 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:11.200 feeling that each hour's work was bringing us nearer the pole, 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:15.080 the poll which men had sought for three centuries, and 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:20.960 which fortune favoring should be mine. On April one, Cook 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:26.000 believed he had reached his destination. My relief was indescribable. 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:30.520 He wrote, the prize of an international marathon was ours. 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:34.480 Pinning the stars and stripes to a tent pole. I 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.520 asserted the achievement in the name of the ninety millions 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:42.200 of countrymen who swear fealty to that flag. Before he 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:44.640 could share the news of his feet, Cook and his 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:48.520 team had to survive the trip home. This proved to 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.440 be more difficult than anything they had encountered so far. 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.960 Drifting ice slowed their progress and diverted them from their 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.080 planned route of return, and they were forced to spend 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:02.440 the dark pole Older winter of nineteen o eight nineteen 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:06.439 o nine in a cave on Canada's Devon Island, just 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:13.280 north of Lancaster Sound. Polar bears stalked them closely. They 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:17.080 endured storms and ran out of food several times, only 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.240 to be rescued from starvation by the fortunate capture of 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:24.560 a hare or bird. When Cook it took a shoe 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.199 and Alulla did manage to sledge their way back to 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:30.640 a Noah Talk. In April nineteen o nine, he ran 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:34.120 into Harry Whitney, the American big game hunter who had 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:37.960 come up with perious supply ship the previous year. He 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:42.919 told Whitney of his claim and desperate journey. After several 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:46.760 days of rest, Cook and an Inuit companion, departed by dogs, 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:50.879 led to the Danish outpost of Upernibuk, about seven miles 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.000 to the south, the fastest way of getting back to 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:58.080 his own civilization and to spread the word of his conquest. 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:01.560 But an explicable lee, he left the proof of that 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:07.080 conquest behind. The journey, Cook wrote, involved difficulties and risk, 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:10.920 the climbing of mountains and glaciers, the crossing of open 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.560 leads of water late in the season when the ice 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.240 is in motion and the snow is falling, and the 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:20.639 dragging of sledges through slush and water. Mr Whitney, in 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.040 view of these dangers, offered to take care of my instruments, 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.240 notebooks and flag, and to take them south on his ship. 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:32.120 Cook arrived a new Parentavook on May and remained there 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:35.480 until he could board a steamer to Copenhagen in late August. 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.080 On the way, he sent a telegram from the Shetland Islands. 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:45.680 On September one, reached North Pole April one, discovered land 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:50.680 far north, returned to Copenhagen by steamer Hans Agel. Frederick Cook, 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:55.960 the new York Tribune splashed Cook's triumph across its front 0:18:55.960 --> 0:19:00.520 page the following morning. For several days, Frederick was the 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:05.480 uncontested discoverer of the holy Grail of the Arctic. As 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:09.200 they neared Copenhagen, Cook was mobbed by reporters in Danish 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:14.879 dignitaries congratulating him on his success. Telegrams and letters poured in. 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:20.439 European Royalty, British journalists, and US officials met Cook as 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:24.680 he debarked from the steamer. I became a helpless leaf 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:30.639 on a whirlwind of excitement, Cook wrote. Then Pieris telegram 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:36.720 came through. Let's take a break here. We'll be right back. 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:53.560 On September, the New York Times ran with the headline 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:57.880 Peery discovers the North Pole after eight trials in twenty 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:02.680 three years. A week earlier, though the competing New York 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:06.000 Herald had gone with the North Pole as discovered by 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:10.760 doctor Frederick A. Cook. The closer Perry's ship, the Roosevelt 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.000 got to New York, the more Peery realized that Cook's 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:18.280 story wasn't going away. He and Matthew Henson may have 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:22.000 found Cook's claim ludicrous, but the world at large didn't 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:26.720 Parry was greeted by crowds at the ports the Roosevelt 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:30.760 pulled into, but Cook had his own fans. Thousands of 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:32.879 New York City came out to catch a glimpse of 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:36.000 the charismatic doctor they believed was the first man to 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:40.159 set foot at the North Pole. The press couldn't get 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:43.840 enough of him. He spent hours with reporters, regaling them 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:49.080 with stories of his polar plate. Newspapers in Pennsylvania, New York, 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.560 and Ohio ran a pole about which explorer people believed 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:56.480 actually reached the North Pole first. The majority of readers 0:20:56.480 --> 0:21:02.560 had sided with Cook initial. Cook was unfazed by Perry's announcement. 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:06.240 He was apparently happy to hear that another American had 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:10.240 reached the North Pole, or perhaps discovered some unknown land 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.840 for the benefit of the United States. There is glory 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:18.520 enough for all, he told reporters. Peery and his wealthy 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:23.800 backers felt exactly the opposite way. With his rival's account 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:28.639 gaining momentum, Peery realized his future, his fame, and his 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:33.719 legacy were now in jeopardy. He is under assault because 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:37.080 Frederick Cook has claimed to have reached the Pole a 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:43.640 year earlier, so Peery is desperate and furious because he 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:48.360 believes that Frederick Cook, you know, has stolen the glory. 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:52.080 That's Susan Kaplan, a professor of anthropology and the director 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:55.800 of the Pierry McMillan Arctic Museum at Bowden College. I 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:59.800 mean Frederick Cook had been celebrated in Denmark, where he 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:02.320 had announced that he had gotten to the poll in 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:08.080 Peery claimed to get there in nine and so you 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:10.959 know where Peery was ready to come back and just 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:16.760 be showered with celebration. He came back to this country 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:21.440 into controversy. So I think that there was a lot 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:27.439 of anger and turning inwards that he did. As the 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:32.000 controversy boiled, the Peri Arctic Club challenged Cook's claims and 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:36.919 hinted that Perry had proof of his life. Late in September, 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:40.280 Thomas Hubbard, one of the club's officers, sent a letter 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:44.480 to the press concerning Dr Cook. He said, let him 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:47.639 submit his records and data to some competent authority, and 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:50.480 let that authority draw its own conclusions from the notes 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:54.280 and records. What proof Commander Peery has that Dr Cook 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:59.040 was not at the poll may be submitted later. The 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:02.280 New York Times would had paid handsomely for Peri's scoop 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:07.040 painted him as a trustworthy and accomplished explorer. The Times 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:12.439 article from September seven contrasted Peri's highly publicized quest for 0:23:12.480 --> 0:23:16.960 the poll with Cook's under the radar expedition and abrupt announcement. 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:21.119 The next day, the paper fully shifted to team Perry. 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:25.879 An article revealed that Cook had given a lecture in 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:28.720 front of the King of Denmark and the Danish Geographical 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:32.520 Society about killing bears with slingshots and a boat that 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:36.600 hadn't appeared in previous versions of the story. The Times 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:40.159 wrote that Cook's lecture proves conclusively that his claim to 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:42.719 have reached the North Pole belongs to the realm of 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:47.359 fairy tales. Meanwhile, The New York Herald went all in 0:23:47.560 --> 0:23:51.119 for Cook. It had reportedly paid the enormous sum of 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:55.960 twenty four thousand dollars for his exclusive that's almost seven 0:23:56.040 --> 0:24:00.760 hundred thousand dollars today. The Herald serialized cook story on 0:24:00.840 --> 0:24:04.199 its front page for two weeks straight and illustrated it 0:24:04.240 --> 0:24:08.000 with his photographs, maps, and flattering portraits of the explorer. 0:24:09.960 --> 0:24:13.640 The National Geographic Society, one of Perry's sources of funding, 0:24:14.160 --> 0:24:18.760 employed a subcommittee to examine the evidence. With so much 0:24:18.880 --> 0:24:23.000 time and money invested in the expedition, they demanded answers. 0:24:24.680 --> 0:24:28.320 Cook's lack of evidence didn't help his case. He had 0:24:28.400 --> 0:24:31.119 left all of the instruments and notebooks he had in 0:24:31.160 --> 0:24:36.160 Greenland with the wealthy hunter Harry Whitney. When Perry's ship, 0:24:36.240 --> 0:24:39.680 the S. S. Roosevelt, returned to Greenland in August nine, 0:24:40.119 --> 0:24:43.320 Whitney asked for a ride home, and, as Henson wrote 0:24:43.320 --> 0:24:48.000 in a diary entry dated August nine, the Commander will 0:24:48.040 --> 0:24:50.720 not permit Mr Whitney to bring any of the doctor 0:24:50.720 --> 0:24:53.280 cook effects aboard the Roosevelt, and they have been left 0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:57.800 in a cash on shore. Cook's case was further weakened 0:24:57.840 --> 0:25:00.240 by it took a shoe and owela that two a 0:25:00.320 --> 0:25:03.120 New Week guides who had traveled with him the previous year. 0:25:04.600 --> 0:25:07.920 When Henson and Donald Baxter McMillan heard about Cook's claim 0:25:07.920 --> 0:25:10.720 of the poll they tracked them down to ask them 0:25:10.760 --> 0:25:15.000 about the expedition. Henson spoke to the guides and innuctitude. 0:25:15.760 --> 0:25:20.800 According to the men, Cook never reached his destination. Henson 0:25:20.880 --> 0:25:24.840 recounted the conversation in his diary. Professor McMillan and I 0:25:24.920 --> 0:25:27.080 have talked to his two boys and have learned there 0:25:27.160 --> 0:25:30.560 is no foundation in fact for such a statement. And 0:25:30.600 --> 0:25:33.240 the captain and others of the expedition have questioned them, 0:25:33.280 --> 0:25:35.000 and if they were out on the ice of the 0:25:35.080 --> 0:25:38.520 Arctic Ocean, it was only for a very short distance, 0:25:39.000 --> 0:25:42.160 not more than twenty or twenty five miles. The boys 0:25:42.200 --> 0:25:45.240 are positive in this statement, and my own boys, utah 0:25:45.240 --> 0:25:48.040 and Quia, have talked to them also and get the 0:25:48.080 --> 0:25:51.680 same replies. It's a fact they had a very hard 0:25:51.760 --> 0:25:54.919 time and were reduced to low limits, but they have 0:25:55.080 --> 0:26:00.560 not been any distance north. Let's paw u to note 0:26:00.600 --> 0:26:04.040 that Utah Uquia and the other Inu Wheat were adults, 0:26:04.280 --> 0:26:09.119 not boys. Henson, despite his interest in a new white culture, 0:26:09.760 --> 0:26:13.600 sometimes referred to the new Wheat as uncivilized. He viewed 0:26:13.640 --> 0:26:17.520 them as less evolved than Americans, though perhaps not as 0:26:17.560 --> 0:26:23.840 condescendingly as Perry did. One difference between the two explorers 0:26:23.920 --> 0:26:27.080 is that Henson believed the Innu Wheat were honest, while 0:26:27.160 --> 0:26:31.800 Perry trusted their honesty mostly when it benefited him. Later, 0:26:31.880 --> 0:26:35.040 Henson told reporters that the two guides never lost sight 0:26:35.119 --> 0:26:38.040 of land, which meant they couldn't have traveled as far 0:26:38.119 --> 0:26:41.639 north as Cook claimed in his account of the expedition, 0:26:41.640 --> 0:26:47.440 published in four McMillan says the same thing. Perhaps surprisingly, 0:26:47.680 --> 0:26:51.040 people accepted Henson's account and the testimony of a touk 0:26:51.040 --> 0:26:54.199 Ashu and a Willa. It was a time when the 0:26:54.240 --> 0:26:57.240 word of a white man always superseded that of a 0:26:57.320 --> 0:27:02.000 black or indigenous man. But Nson's reputation as Perry's loyal 0:27:02.119 --> 0:27:06.240 and honest assistant may have swayed public opinion, and his 0:27:06.240 --> 0:27:09.399 history with the New Wheae people also made his story convincing. 0:27:10.320 --> 0:27:13.439 His good relations with the community were well known, and 0:27:13.520 --> 0:27:16.160 he confirmed with The New York Times that he personally 0:27:16.240 --> 0:27:18.880 knew the two young men Cook took with him up north. 0:27:20.119 --> 0:27:23.000 And maybe Henson's account was taken at face value because 0:27:23.000 --> 0:27:27.160 a white man's reputation rested on it. Plus Cook didn't 0:27:27.200 --> 0:27:30.879 have anyone else to back him up. While discrediting Cook, 0:27:31.160 --> 0:27:33.520 Perry may have thought that his own records and journal 0:27:33.600 --> 0:27:37.920 entries would support his claim of the poll. Unfortunately for him, 0:27:37.960 --> 0:27:42.920