WEBVTT - Thinking Sideways: Frederick A. Cook 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:16.079 Thinking Sideways. I don't know. You never know stories of 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:21.640 things we simply don't know the answer too. Well, Hey everybody, 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:25.639 and welcome again to another episode of Thinking Sideways the podcast. 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:29.920 I am Steve, of course, I am joined by Devin 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:34.479 and Joe, and once again we got a mystery. We 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.360 managed to fish another one out. We did, we got one. 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.440 There's still a couple left in the world, only a 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:45.160 few fish in a barrel. Well. Anyway, so today we 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:48.560 are going to talk about another historical mystery, because I'm 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:51.640 evidently on a historical mystery bank. Some of us are, Yeah, 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:57.000 like we did the room Stone, Yeah, that was mine even, Yeah, yeah, 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.160 we really have That was a scary one. We're gonna 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:03.960 we're gonna deal some killing soon. Yeah. Yeah. From my 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.160 from my most my last one that we just did, 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:09.080 I was I was like, you know, knife edge, do 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:11.640 I do it? Disappearance to a murder? I was, And 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:15.640 I was leading heavily towards towards murder knife Edge. So 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:17.399 the next one, I think it's gonna be a real bloody, 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:22.000 disgusting murder. Sweet, Well, let's talk about this non bloody, 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:25.880 non murder story. The mystery. We're going to talk about 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:30.680 today is did Frederick Cook make it to the North 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:33.840 Pole to be the first man in recorded history to 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:37.679 make it there? Um, Now, before we get into story, 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:40.640 of course, as normal, we got this from one of 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:45.440 our listeners, because you guys suggest so many great stories. Yes, yes, 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.840 thanks listeners. We got this one from Dawn. Thanks. I 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:51.000 can't remember if done was on Facebook or email, but 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:54.480 thank you, don regardless of how you sent it into us. Yeah, 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:56.559 and that the other weird thing about trying to reach 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:58.640 be the first person to reach the North Pole is 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:00.240 how do you prove it? You know, you can't plan 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:02.760 a flag there, you can't. And yeah, we're gonna go 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:05.280 into some of that. But but part of what makes 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:08.800 this mystery so weird is that Frederick Cook, when he 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:13.520 came back, he shortly thereafter discovered that he wasn't the 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.720 only one claiming to have reached the North Pole at 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:20.240 the same time. Basically, there's a guide. I know, Devan's 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:24.399 gonna laugh because she's been laughing all day. But according 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:27.360 to the history books, the man to reach the North 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:32.280 Pole first was Rear Admiral Robert Perry. I don't think 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.560 he did. Yeah, it's I've got my opinions. But I'm 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:37.280 gonna hold that till we get through all of this. 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:42.880 So let's talk about Mr Cook. Captain Cook, not Captain Cook. 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:47.800 Frederick Cook was born in New York in eighteen sixty five, 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.680 and he grew up. He became a surgeon. He almost 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:57.680 immediately started exploring. He kind of had the bug. Initially, 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.200 he wasn't really big on the idea, but his wife 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:03.799 and child they died in childbirth and he wanted to 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.160 get away and it was a great excuse, and so 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:10.640 he started going on expeditions. Initially he was serving as 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.200 the surgeon of the team that he would go with, 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:19.079 and then after several years started making his or getting 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:21.960 his own expeditions set up and then finding people to 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.480 finance it, and he'd go out in the world. And 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:27.880 his first expedition was with Robert Perry. It was with 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:32.760 Robert Perry. They were actually on better terms once upon 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:36.560 a time. Yes, they were um and and you know 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:41.920 that's the thing is it was the two Arctic expedition 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:44.200 is the one that he went on with Perry. But 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:47.440 and yeah, there was no bad blood between him. Actually, 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:51.000 I'm pretty sure that if I remember correctly, Cook saved 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.720 his life. He did because he broke because Perry broke 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.320 his legs so badly. Yeah, well there was that time, 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.760 and also the time that Perry was kind of lost 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:01.640 or around up there, and oh yeah, and he when 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.040 he went hunted him down, hutting him down and treated 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.400 him for sickness and brought him back. So he really 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:10.440 saved his bacon twice. Yeah. So, yeah, these guys got along. 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:14.000 You know, they didn't have any animosity, at least in 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.680 the beginning. Though. I will say that from everything that 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:20.839 I've read, Cook was a bit different than Perry and 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:25.800 most of the explorers who were operating at the end 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:28.400 of the nineteenth in the beginning of the twentieth century, 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:32.560 right in that nine hundred time frame. Most guys they 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:36.040 go to an area, they'd hire on a local crew, 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:38.560 and then they would tell them what to do and 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:41.520 ignore them. That was kind of the status quo. Cook 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:44.400 wasn't like that. He learned the language, he got to 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.800 know the people, and he was sometimes he's more interested 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.560 in the locals, or as much interested in the locals 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.839 as what he was there to find, which like being 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.719 a good guy or whatever. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, I think 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:01.520 I think Cook actually wasn't a decent guy despite all 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:03.560 the bad things have been said about him. I would 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:08.320 agree with that absolutely. The first record that Cook wanted 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:11.960 to set or tried to set, was in nineteen o 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.640 six when he tried to be and said that he 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:20.240 successfully was the first man to climb to the peak 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:24.520 of Mount McKinley. You might or you might not be 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.400 familiar with the name McKinley because today, officially the name 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:32.919 is not McKinley. I believe it's Denali. Isn't but the 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:38.880 traditional indigenous name for it, Yes, but most most folks 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:42.520 in the would know it as McKinley. And we're going 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:44.920 to keep using that name because anytime you do the reading, 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:46.560 it's always referred to that. So just to keep it 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.320 because it was it was at the time. Yeah, the 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:52.120 reason that he wanted to climb it is if you 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:56.160 don't know McKinley, it's in the basically the middle of Alaska. 0:05:56.480 --> 0:06:00.320 It's in the is it the Denali Range? Yeah, aston 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:03.040 it's like a national park. Yeah, but it's like and 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:08.040 it's it's a huge mountain. It's absolutely huge. It is here. 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:12.880 Let me grab the number eighteen thousand feet from base 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:17.000 to peak and The peak itself is just over twenty 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:21.080 feet above sea level, so it's really freaking high up 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.760 there mountain, and a lot of people had tried to 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:26.039 to make it to the peak, and a lot of 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:29.279 people would climb the lower reaches of it and then stop. 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:31.520 I believe I think most people would go to what's 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:33.800 called the gateway. That was the farthest they would go. 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:37.160 But what happens. Cook says I'm going to climb this. 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.080 He takes his party, they get most of the way up, 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.040 then he takes one other man with him and he 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:46.720 climbs to what he says is the top, takes pictures, 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:49.440 comes back and says I made it to the top, 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:54.560 and everybody would okay, cool, great, okay, well congrats, we'll 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:56.240 put your name in this little book we have right 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.120 here of people who did things first. Yeah, but there 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:01.839 was obviously some dispute about that later right there. That 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.000 will Yeah, we're talking about this now because it does 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:06.760 come up later. Oh and because this is going to 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.600 be important. Remember I said he took one person with 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:13.280 him to the top of McKinley. That guy's name is 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:17.000 Ed Barill, So remember that name because it will come 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.720 up in a bit so the climb on McKinley was 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.520 in nineteen o six. Did he plant a flag or 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:25.640 anything like that when he went up there? He went 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:29.640 up there. I've seen a photo that is him holding 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.400 a flag, but he's on the tippy top peaky bit, 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:35.120 you know, like there's not a whole lot at the 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:42.400 actual peak top. So I don't know that he planted 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:44.840 the flag. There's a picture of him holding it, but 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:47.800 I don't. I never saw anything that said he specifically 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:52.320 planted it, but he did that nineteen o six. Then 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:57.680 he went home and he began planning his next Arctic expedition, 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:02.920 and the nine seven he went to Greenland, and while 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:05.960 he was in Greenland he then announced that what he 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:08.600 was gonna do was try to reach the North Pole. 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:10.560 And I think he made the announcement. I want to 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:16.000 say it was in August of seven. He couldn't actually leave, 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:21.840 I believe until February because that was when, Yeah, yeah, 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:23.840 he had to, So the timing of it was very 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:27.600 very specific. The thing that you need to know about 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.400 where he left is he left from a place and 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.760 I hope I get this right. A Noah talk, I believe, 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:35.839 is how you pronounced the name of the village. It's 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:41.760 an Inuit village in Greenland. It's on the northwest tip 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:47.360 of Greenland, so it's really pretty far up there. Okay. Well, 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:53.200 the trip from that village to the actual where they 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:55.840 say the North Pole is going to be is seven 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:59.960 hundred miles. So it's a seven hundred mile overland journey 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:06.000 in ice and snow and basically terrible conditions. Is what 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:07.920 he's gonna do, Glad. I think get out For the 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:10.480 first part of it. I think there was still like 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.120 caribou or things like that were wandering around them. There 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:15.959 there were animals around and out on the so you 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.640 could actually they were actually able to hunt. Yes they were, 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:20.600 They weren't for part of the beginning, and it wasn't 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.520 as if he took for the final bit of his 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:27.840 race to the North Pole. He took two local Inuit 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.440 with him, but he didn't just start out with those 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:32.720 two guys. I think he left, if I remember correctly, 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.720 he left as part of a bigger party, and then 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:38.640 he and that party split ways. They were going to 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:41.640 do something else, and then he made his run for 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:45.360 the North Pole. The trip wasn't expected to take but 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:50.440 a month or two. Everybody figured Cook was gone. When 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:54.080 a year had gone by, they figured that everybody had died. 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.840 He and his companion showed back up at the village 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:05.400 fourteen months later, looking a little worse. Yeah, absolutely worse 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:09.160 from where. What happened is they made the run for 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:13.120 the North Pole. They got there. According to Cook, they 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.520 made it to the north Pole, and they didn't take 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:22.120 into consideration the movement of the ice flows. They didn't 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:24.840 think that, I guess that they were gonna be a problem, 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:27.360 but they totally were. They ended up hitting open water. 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:31.800 They had to make all these detours, and they ended 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:37.800 up south west of where they wanted to be by 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:41.160 two or three hundred miles. Yeah, I think they were. 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:44.040 He wasn't expecting the ice to move eastward and wind 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.040 up moving westwards. And yes, that's yeah, it was. Yeah, 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:49.720 that's exactly. It went the opposite direction. So he's like, well, 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:52.240 I'll just keep going straight south and it will always 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:55.000 be okay. But everything's moving under your feet. That doesn't work. 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:59.320 Here is the I guess the data bits that the 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.160 data points it will use here for his actual trip 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:08.480 from when they split off of that larger party, they traveled, 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:12.360 according to Cook, three hundred and sixty miles, and they 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:15.439 did that in twenty four days. That comes out to 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:19.040 an average of about fifteen miles a day, which is 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:23.160 pretty pretty good space in the Arctic when you consider 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.199 it's not smooth ice, it's gonna be ice floes that 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.840 are gonna heave, it's craggy, it's nasty. I went, you know, 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:31.800 I decided I'd go ahead and take a look and 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.520 pull a Joe. I'd go on Google Earth and Google 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:38.520 Maps and take a look at the North Pole. Well, 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:41.520 it turns out you can't because there's nothing there. There's 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:45.600 no streets. And here's the problem. Unlike the South Pole, 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.400 there is no land mass at the North Pole, so 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.600 it's not a actual fixable point. You can't, as you said, 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.880 with the top of the mountain, plant the flag. You can, 0:11:57.360 --> 0:11:59.840 but it's not gonna stay in the same thing that's 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:04.040 to move off. Very very supposedly planted a flag. He know, 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:08.560 well he did, and he didn't. He planted ceremonially a 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.760 flag and then pulled it down, left a bit of 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:14.600 it in a tube and a crevasse. But he didn't 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:17.000 actually even bother to try to leave the flag there, 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:18.920 because that just wasn't going to do any good. That 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.680 doesn't mean anything. But the point is it's constantly It's 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.480 like it's a moving target. As I said, though you know, 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.120 of course they missed the mark when they were coming home. 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.520 I found the number here. It was four hundred miles 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.280 because they ended up living in a cave on what 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:39.640 is known as Devon Island. So it's your Islandah, not 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:46.000 according to the Internet. That's true. App it's Steve and 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:50.320 Joe Islands anywhere nearby, No, there isn't. But they ended 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.560 up living in a cave. They barely survived off of 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:55.760 local animals that I mean they were killing. They were 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:57.800 hunting when they ran out of Ammo. They were hunting 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:02.040 with spears, which is pretty hardcore with used me in 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:06.760 the Arctic. Yeah, they managed to get back to the village. 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.800 They arrived in the spring of nineteen o nine, So 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:16.320 they left February of oh eight and arrived back fourteen 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:19.040 months later in oh nine. So that's a heck of 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.920 a long trip, Yeah, it is. Cook would eventually make 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:25.880 the a initial announcement that he had made it to 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:29.000 the North Pole. That would be uh, the date that 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.200 he said he got there would be the twenty second 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.160 of April nineteen o eight, which means that you know, 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:36.040 he made it there in about two months for when 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.680 he initially left, which is pretty good time. Mad I 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:41.800 think Joe was that said, they were looking a little 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:45.240 worse for wear, for living cough of just whatever animal 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:50.720 they could kill, hiking and freezing conditions. Yeah, I probably 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:53.480 at least to some degree, but they when they got 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:55.600 back to the village. Of course, Cook wasn't just going 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:57.960 to turn around and head home. He hung out for 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:01.520 a while to recuperate. While he was in the village, 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:04.800 he met a man named Harry Whitney, and they became 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:08.320 kind of buds. They were both English speakers. I'm sure 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.480 that helped in a village where you know, it's it's Inuits, 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:13.760 and he could speak the local language. Both of them could, 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:15.360 but it's always nice to be able to use your 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.480 native tongue. I'm sure that was something to bond over. 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:21.360 Whitney was there on I wouldn't call it a safari, 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:23.680 but he was on kind of a sportsman's trip. So 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.240 he had been dropped off by a ship. It was 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:31.160 set to come back for him several months later, and 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.000 he was just kind of having a good time, and 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:37.880 he told um. He told Cook, hey, you know, I 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.120 got the ship coming. If you want, you could just 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:43.600 hook a ride with me and I'll take you back 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.520 down to New York and you can go home. Should 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:49.080 have done huh? Well, I think he probably should have 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.120 yes and no because of the way things turned out. 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.120 But but Cook didn't want to wait that long, so 0:14:54.200 --> 0:15:00.000 instead he decided to book or plan out another overland journey. 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.760 Need to head down the coast of Greenland by sled 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:07.680 and go all the way to go home, or as 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:09.600 far south as he could till he could catch a 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:12.920 boat at one of the major lanes. What ended up happening, though, 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:14.640 is he had two guys set up to go with him. 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:16.960 The day before he's gonna leave, one of them got 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:20.520 sick and so it was just gonna be Cook and 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.520 one other Inuit. And that really put him in a 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:27.480 bind because he couldn't take all of his stuff with him, 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:31.320 because one sled down means one sleds worth of stuff 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.000 you can't pack, and you're gonna have to bring other 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.280 stuff like food. He's got to bring food. So Whitney, 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:39.280 being a good guy, said, hey, you know, if you 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.920 want to leave that stuff with me. When my ship 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:44.560 gets here, I'll totally bring it to you. No big deal. 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.600 So he left all the heavy stuff that he didn't need, 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:51.560 so his navigational tools, like a sex stant, all of 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.920 his records except for his own personal diary or his journal. 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:57.960 I guess it wouldn't be a diary. His journal was 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:00.680 his journal. They call it his journal. It's manly if 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:04.240 it's a journal. You know, just because he had stars 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:09.520 and it was pink doesn't count it. That dear diary 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.760 at every jury. Doesn't mean it was a diary. But 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:14.680 he left all that stuff with him because it was 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:17.960 heavy and he didn't he didn't need any navigational equipment 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:19.760 because he was just heading down the coastline. It's pretty 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:23.000 easy to follow the coastline. So he goes ahead, he 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:27.040 heads south. He eventually gets home. He makes the announcement 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:32.320 that he had done it and great. On the first September, 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:36.360 the world learns that Frederick Cook was the first man 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:38.280 to make it to the North Pole. He didn't just 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:40.920 tweet it out. He didn't tweet it out. He didn't 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:45.440 have service there. Yeah, way up there. Can't just do 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:50.880 that and t'll cover you up there. No, I've never 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:54.400 tested it. It'll cover me in my house. That's where 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:56.920 I'm going to leave cook story for the moment. But 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:00.040 we're talking about Cook, we are, But there's another, a 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:02.600 big player, and we need to switch gears. And we've 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:08.159 talked about him a little bit already, and that's Robert Perry. Perry, 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.080 as we had talked about before, he had made a 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:14.240 bunch of Arctic expeditions. You know, he'd gone with Cook, 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:16.439 or Cook had been with him a couple of times. 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:20.600 Perry had made if I remember the number, it's something 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:24.480 like eight or nine attempts to get to the North Pole. Yeah, 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:28.239 and then that eight or nine failed attempts before his 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:32.760 last attempt, which he will learn he says was successful. Yeah, 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:35.600 And that the reason Cook did stopped going along with 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:38.680 him in these expeditions. Did you hear about that? He? Uh, 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:40.840 he wanted to sign up. But then Perry put down 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:43.840 the requirement that nobody was allowed to write their memoirs 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.480 at the expedition before he published his Yes, which is 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:51.600 a financial reason, because of course everybody sold their story. 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:54.479 So that means that, oh, great, I'll pay you whatever 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.280 I pay you, but you can't make any actual bonus money. 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:00.960 Until it's you know, your story is worthless pretty much. 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:03.400 And one of the things I think Cook was writing 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.639 more about things like the locals and that kind of stuff, 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:10.560 which wasn't even gonna step on on Perry's toes, but 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.040 that you're right, that is the reason that they they 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:17.280 did part ways. On the first of March nineteen o nine, 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:23.200 Perry left for the North Pole. He he went ahead, 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.359 he was already in the Arctic. He says, I'm gonna go. 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:28.679 He gets his big party together, and he and this 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:33.560 large party that he has, they had two hundred eighty 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.240 miles north heading towards the North Pole. And they didn't 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.320 leave from Greenland. They left from a different location that 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:43.719 actually longitudely put them closer to the North Pole. But 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.520 he was still kind of in that same region because 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:51.000 that evidently is where you start from the Arctic Circle. Yes. Yes. 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.400 On the first of April of nineteen o nine, Perry 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:58.160 split off from the main big group that he had 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.040 with him. He took five other guys with him and 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:05.080 they then would make the final dash for the North Pole. 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:09.480 They did that in six days. This was a year 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.760 after Cook that he had, right, this is when Cook 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:16.239 is still presumed missing. So, yeah, I just wanted to 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:18.560 make sure you know. So this it is weird when 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.719 you read it because yeah, technically Cook found it a 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:27.160 year prior the before Perry ever got there. But yeah, 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:29.480 so he's missing. So Cook, you know, Perry's like, well, 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.040 nobody's got it yet, I'm going for it because that 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:35.320 evidently was his white whale at that point, he was 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:39.959 everybody's white whale to do it. Um. So so he 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.800 goes with these guys and they go to what Robert 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:46.960 Perry says is the North Pole. He says, we've got 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:50.120 the North Pole. He plants his ceremonial flag. He then, 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:52.040 like I said, tore a strip of it, put it 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:54.440 in a little jar and buried in gravoss and they 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:57.560 beat feet back out of the circle. And when he 0:19:57.600 --> 0:19:59.320 got back to the party, then they go back to 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:04.320 their launch point. Everything's hunky dory, um, except that at 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:08.359 that point he kind of just starts a lolligag around 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:11.600 the areas. You know, they're steaming from place to place, 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:13.800 they're going on a little hunting trips. They're just kind 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:15.960 of having a good old time. He's in no hurry 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.840 to get back to the civilized world. And announced that 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:24.360 he made it to the North Pole. I would too, 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:27.080 but maybe it was I'm basking in the fact that 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:30.359 I finally did it, I finally achieved what I'm after 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:33.400 all this time. I mean, I'm sorry, did you just 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:36.719 did you say earlier that he said they were at 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:40.119 the North Pole? Can you clarify that? Yeah, Perry is 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:43.600 was the only one of the six because he had 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:46.880 the five other men with him who had the ability 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:50.479 to navigate, that could use a sextant right right now, 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:53.680 And and you got to remember is that and this 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:55.879 is I'm Joe might have to help me out on 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:58.560 this how you would navigate. But you know, you use 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:02.360 a sextant to find to fixed points and figure out 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:05.320 the distance between them, and as they change, you use 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:08.960 that figure out your longitude. Is that correct, Joe? Um? 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:11.159 I think that's how it works. Okay, I don't. I 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:13.320 have I don't use the sex and I don't either. 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:15.679 But the point is is that you use it to 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:17.560 fix on this point. And so he would have to 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:22.800 take readings and when nothing is north of you, everything 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:25.480 is south, that means youre at the North Pole. But 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:27.400 he's the only one who could do it, so he's 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:30.560 the one doing all of the readings. So he's the 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:33.800 one that has done all of that. I'll call it 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:39.200 the hard math. Figure it out, isn't it? Recall something 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:41.679 in the story around that one of his assistants was 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:44.679 it was a black guy remember his name now, And 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:46.720 they're just at this place and one day this this 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:48.679 this assistant says, you know, this place has kind of 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:51.280 a north Pole feeling to it, don't you think admiral 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:54.200 something like? And he says, and he says, basically, yeah, 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:55.520 I think you're I think you're out of something there, 0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:58.320 and he pulls out the flag. Yeah that that is 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:01.520 that what that guy says, Yeah, you're absolutely right. Um, 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.680 that's not the version I know that you will read 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:07.919 from Perry himself. He's not gonna put it that way. Well, 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:10.840 I think in retrospect, if I were either one of 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:12.600 these guys, cook Er Perry, I would have made sure 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:14.359 I had several people in my party and that every 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:16.760 single one of them knew how to navigate. Actually, you know, 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:20.840 the funny point is what we're getting into here is 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:23.040 that if you haven't already figured it out from what 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:26.680 we're leading up to, there becomes dual claim for being 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:29.040 the first person to go to the North Pole, between 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:33.439 Perry and Cook, the guy who ended up being the 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:37.400 first man to reach the South Pole because of every 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:39.280 and I think he did it in nineteen eleven, but 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:41.840 everything that went on between these two, which it turns 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:47.040