The year 1909 was particularly eventful in polar research. Not only was the North Pole actually reached by Commander Peary on 6 April, but all previous Antarctic records were eclipsed by Sir E. Shackleton when he on 9 January came up to within 111 statute miles of the South Pole.
Peary prepared for his sixth and successful attempt to discover the North Pole as early as the summer of 1908, but delay on the part of his shipbuilder prevented an earlier start than on 17 Aug. 1908. His vessel was the Roosevelt, and his scientific assistants were as Ross G. Marvin, of Cornell, George Borup, of Yale, and D. B. MacMillan, of Bowdoin. The company included besides, 66 men and 140 dogs. The entire e9uip ment Was the very best, and the plan the ripest the experienced explorer could devise. Five separate detachments, each independently equipped and fully provisioned, were to ad vance a certain distance to relieve or replenish some one of the various divisions at a point definitely prearranged and then return. In this way, one division after another having turned homeward, there remained but a single party to make for the goal.
Setting out from Etah on 17 Aug. 1908, the first objective, Cape Sheridan was reached on 5 September. There, on the shore of the Arctic Sea, the party wintered. Winter camp was broken on 15 Feb. 1909 and the first of the five detachments proceeded toward Cape Columbia. In accordance with the general plan, relieving parties were met and turned back as soon as theirpurpose was accomplished. Only five men made the final dash to the Pole— Peary, Matthew A. Henson (Peary's colored servant), and four Eskimos. Five forced marches, under unusually favorable circum stances, brought the long-sought-for goal to view on 6 April 1909. The entire distance from mainland to Pole, 475 statute miles, was covered at the unprecedented average speed of 13 miles per day—a feat which in itself would have made the expedition noteworthy.
Observations gave 89° 57' just before the party finally halted. During the 30 hours spent there, a temperature of from —12° to —30° F. prevailed at the Pole. For the most part, the sky was clear, and, save for the white ness of its ice, nothing whatever struck the expectant observers. As was anticipated, no life of any kind was found at the Pole. After making all necessary records and photographs, the party planted the American flag to mark the imaginary pole and turned homeward.
The homeward marches, greatly favored by paths and stations made in the outgoing ex pedition, were made at an average daily rate of 29.5 miles —more than double that of the out going average. The Roosevelt, which was used also on the return voyage, reached Indian Har bor on 6 Sept. 1909. From there the news of the great achievement was cabled to the world.
Apart from the momentous discovery itself, data of scientific importance were gathered along the way; of these, the most important were the soundings made at intervals, which furnished the first conclusive proof of the vast oceanic depths north of the American Arctic lands. In addition, the existence of large
land masses still unknown has become even more doubtful since this expedition.
Rear Admiral Peary submitted to the Na tional Geographical Society his data and proof and its special committee found in them con clusive evidence that he had reached the North Pole on 6 April 1909. In recog iition of his great achievement, numerous scientific societies have awarded him gold medals and otherwise honored the American polar explorer. See articles on PEARY and Coox, FREDERICK Az.. am.
America and Canada were, in 1913, rivals in the North. The American Museum-Geograph ical Society-University of Illinois expedition, whose departure had been postponed for a year through the tragic death of George Borup in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue a comrade from drowning, left New York 4July with the unknown Crocker Island which Peary be lieved he descried seven years before from Cape Thomas Hubbard, as its objective. En sign Fitzhugh Green, U.S.N., Professors Ekblaw, geologist, and Tanquary, naturalist, of the university, and Surgeon Hunt of Bow doin, made the party under the leadership of Donald B. MacMillan, leader of a Peary 1908 supporting party from Cape Columbia. The expedition, delayed en route, arrived in Smith Sound too late to reach its proposed base, Buchanan Bay, wintered at Etah, whence dur ing the next spring MacMillan and Green, crossing Ellsmere Land, advanced far out upon the sea ice to the location as nearly as could be fixed from Peary's data, not only to find no land but no indications of it. Ap pearances like those which greeted Peary were clear and positive, both before leaving the mainland and enroute, but MacMillan's conclu sion that the land which they appeared to indi cate did not exist was positive. Returning by slow marches to his headquarters at Etah, the winter of 1914-15 was spent in such field work as circumstances permitted, no relief ship having arrived. Late in the summer of 1915 Prof. Edmund 0. Hovey of the Museum on the auxiliary schooner George B. Cluctt, left to bring the MacMillan expedition home, only to report, nine months later, that, disabled, the schooner had failed to reach Etah and had wintered in Parker Snow Bay and he, himself an invalid, had turned back from Cape York to the Danish North Star Bay Station, while two others of the party had proceeded to the South Greenland settlements to report and bring re lief. Professor Tanquary • arrived in New York June 1916 by way of Copenhagen. The Museum chartered the Danish steamer Dan mark to proceed to Smith Sound, gather the scattered members of the expedition and re turn with them to civilization. Nothing, how ever, was heard from the Danmark, which, it was later learned, had been hopelessly beset in the ice of Smith Sound and in August 1917, Capt. Robert A. Bartlett, in the chartered Nep tune, brought home from the Etah base, Mac Millan, Ekblaw and Hunt. Professor Hovey arriving at New York on the same day, by way of the Danish Greenland-Copenhagen mail steamer.