WE REACH THE POLE
The last march northward ended at ten o'clock on the forenoon of April
6. I had now made the five marches planned from the point at which
Bartlett turned back, and my reckoning showed that we were in the
immediate neighborhood of the goal of all our striving. After the usual
arrangements for going into camp, at approximate local noon, of the
Columbia meridian, I made the first observation at our polar camp. It
indicated our position as 89° 57´.
[Illustration: CAMP MORRIS K. JESUP, 89° 57´, APRIL 6 AND 7, 1909]
We were now at the end of the last long march of the upward journey. Yet
with the Pole actually in sight I was too weary to take the last few
steps. The accumulated weariness of all those days and nights of forced
marches and insufficient sleep, constant peril and anxiety, seemed to
roll across me all at once. I was actually too exhausted to realize at
the moment that my life's purpose had been achieved. As soon as our
igloos had been completed and we had eaten our dinner and
double-rationed the dogs, I turned in for a few hours of absolutely
necessary sleep, Henson and the Eskimos having unloaded the sledges and
got them in readiness for such repairs as were necessary. But, weary
though I was, I could not sleep long. It was, therefore, only a few
hours later when I woke. The first thing I did after awaking was to
write these words in my diary: "The Pole at last. The prize of three
centuries. My dream and goal for twenty years. Mine at last! I cannot
bring myself to realize it. It seems all so simple and commonplace."
Everything was in readiness for an observation[1] at 6 P.M., Columbia
meridian time, in case the sky should be clear, but at that hour it was,
unfortunately, still overcast. But as there were indications that it
would clear before long, two of the Eskimos and myself made ready a
light sledge carrying only the instruments, a tin of pemmican, and one
or two skins; and drawn by a double team of dogs, we pushed on an
estimated distance of ten miles. While we traveled, the sky cleared, and
at the end of the journey, I was able to get a satisfactory series of
observations at Columbia meridian midnight. These observations indicated
that our position was then beyond the Pole.
[Illustration: THE DOUBLE TEAM OF DOGS USED WITH THE RECONNOITERING
SLEDGE AT THE POLE, SHOWING THEIR ALERTNESS AND GOOD CONDITION
(Each Dog had Received Nearly Double the Standard Ration of One Pound of
Pemmican Per Day)]
Nearly everything in the circumstances which then surrounded us seemed
too strange to be thoroughly realized; but one of the strangest of those
circumstances seemed to me to be the fact that, in a march of only a few
hours, I had passed from the western to the eastern hemisphere and had
verified my position at the summit of the world. It was hard to realize
that, in the first miles of this brief march, we had been traveling due
north, while, on the last few miles of the same march, we had been
traveling south, although we had all the time been traveling precisely
in the same direction. It would be difficult to imagine a better
illustration of the fact that most things are relative. Again, please
consider the uncommon circumstance that, in order to return to our camp,
it now became necessary to turn and go north again for a few miles and
then to go directly south, all the time traveling in the same direction.
As we passed back along that trail which none had ever seen before or
would ever see again, certain reflections intruded themselves which, I
think, may fairly be called unique. East, west, and north had
disappeared for us. Only one direction remained and that was south.
Every breeze which could possibly blow upon us, no matter from what
point of the horizon, must be a south wind. Where we were, one day and
one night constituted a year, a hundred such days and nights constituted
a century. Had we stood in that spot during the six months of the arctic
winter night, we should have seen every star of the northern hemisphere
circling the sky at the same distance from the horizon, with Polaris
(the North Star) practically in the zenith.
[Illustration: THE RECONNOITERING PARTY AT THE POLE
(On the Sledge are Merely the Instruments, a Tin of Pemmican and a Skin
or Two.) (Note the Firm Character of the Surface Ice. Snow Shoes Were
not Required Here)]
All during our march back to camp the sun was swinging around in its
ever-moving circle. At six o'clock on the morning of April 7, having
again arrived at Camp Jesup, I took another series of observations.
These indicated our position as being four or five miles from the Pole,
towards Bering Strait. Therefore, with a double team of dogs and a light
sledge, I traveled directly towards the sun an estimated distance of
eight miles. Again I returned to the camp in time for a final and
completely satisfactory series of observations on April 7 at noon,
Columbia meridian time. These observations gave results essentially the
same as those made at the same spot twenty-four hours before.
I had now taken in all thirteen single, or six and one-half double,
altitudes of the sun, at two different stations, in three different
directions, at four different times. All were under satisfactory
conditions, except for the first single altitude on the sixth. The
temperature during these observations had been from minus 11° Fahrenheit
to minus 30° Fahrenheit, with clear sky and calm weather (except as
already noted for the single observation on the sixth). I give here a
facsimile of a typical set of these observations. (See the two following
pages.)
In traversing the ice in these various directions as I had done, I had
allowed approximately ten miles for possible errors in my observations,
and at some moment during these marches and countermarches, I had passed
over or very near the point[2] where north and south and east and west
blend into one.
[Illustration: PEARY WITH CHRONOMETER, SEXTANT AND ARTIFICIAL HORIZON AT
THE POLE]
[Illustration: PEARY TAKING AN OBSERVATION AT THE POLE, WITH ARTIFICIAL
HORIZON, IN A SNOW SHELTER]
Photos by Henson, April 7
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF OBSERVATIONS AT CAMP MORRIS JESUP, APRIL 7,
1909]
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF OBSERVATIONS AT CAMP MORRIS JESUP, APRIL 7,
1909]
[Illustration: THE FOUR NORTH POLE ESKIMOS:
From Left to Right: Ootah, Ooqueah, Seegloo, Egingwah]
Of course there were some more or less informal ceremonies connected
with our arrival at our difficult destination, but they were not of a
very elaborate character. We planted five flags at the top of the world.
The first one was a silk American flag which Mrs. Peary gave me fifteen
years ago. That flag has done more traveling in high latitudes than any
other ever made. I carried it wrapped about my body on every one of
my expeditions northward after it came into my possession, and I left a
fragment of it at each of my successive "farthest norths": Cape Morris
K. Jesup, the northernmost point of land in the known world; Cape Thomas
Hubbard, the northernmost known point of Jesup Land, west of Grant Land;
Cape Columbia, the northernmost point of North American lands; and my
farthest north in 1906, latitude 87° 6´ in the ice of the polar sea. By
the time it actually reached the Pole, therefore, it was somewhat worn
and discolored.
A broad diagonal section of this ensign would now mark the farthest goal
of earth--the place where I and my dusky companions stood.
It was also considered appropriate to raise the colors of the Delta
Kappa Epsilon fraternity, in which I was initiated a member while an
undergraduate student at Bowdoin College, the "World's Ensign of
Liberty and Peace," with its red, white, and blue in a field of white,
the Navy League flag, and the Red Cross flag.
[Illustration: PEARY'S IGLOO AT CAMP MORRIS K. JESUP, APRIL 6, 1909;
The Most Northerly Human Habitation in the World. In the Background
Flies Peary's North Polar Flag Which He Had Carried for Fifteen Years]
After I had planted the American flag in the ice, I told Henson to time
the Eskimos for three rousing cheers, which they gave with the greatest
enthusiasm. Thereupon, I shook hands with each member of the
party--surely a sufficiently unceremonious affair to meet with the
approval of the most democratic. The Eskimos were childishly delighted
with our success. While, of course, they did not realize its importance
fully, or its world-wide significance, they did understand that it meant
the final achievement of a task upon which they had seen me engaged for
many years.
Then, in a space between the ice blocks of a pressure ridge, I deposited
a glass bottle containing a diagonal strip of my flag and records of
which the following is a copy:
90 N. LAT., NORTH POLE,
April 6, 1909.
Arrived here to-day, 27 marches from C. Columbia.
I have with me 5 men, Matthew Henson, colored, Ootah, Egingwah, Seegloo,
and Ooqueah, Eskimos; 5 sledges and 38 dogs. My ship, the S. S.
_Roosevelt_, is in winter quarters at C. Sheridan, 90 miles east of
Columbia.
The expedition under my command which has succeeded in reaching the Pole
is under the auspices of the Peary Arctic Club of New York City, and has
been fitted out and sent north by the members and friends of the club
for the purpose of securing this geographical prize, if possible, for
the honor and prestige of the United States of America.
The officers of the club are Thomas H. Hubbard, of New York, President;
Zenas Crane, of Mass., Vice-president; Herbert L. Bridgman, of New York,
Secretary and Treasurer.
I start back for Cape Columbia to-morrow.
ROBERT E. PEARY,
_United States Navy_.
90 N. LAT., NORTH POLE,
April 6, 1909.
I have to-day hoisted the national ensign of the United States of
America at this place, which my observations indicate to be the North
Polar axis of the earth, and have formally taken possession of the
entire region, and adjacent, for and in the name of the President of the
United States of America.
I leave this record and United States flag in possession.
ROBERT E. PEARY,
_United States Navy_.
If it were possible for a man to arrive at 90° north latitude without
being utterly exhausted, body and brain, he would doubtless enjoy a
series of unique sensations and reflections. But the attainment of the
Pole was the culmination of days and weeks of forced marches, physical
discomfort, insufficient sleep, and racking anxiety. It is a wise
provision of nature that the human consciousness can grasp only such
degree of intense feeling as the brain can endure, and the grim
guardians of earth's remotest spot will accept no man as guest until he
has been tried and tested by the severest ordeal.
[Illustration: MEMBERS OF THE PARTY CHEERING THE STARS AND STRIPES AT
THE POLE, APRIL 7, 1909
From Left to Right; Ooqueah, Ootah, Henson, Egingwah and Seegloo]
Perhaps it ought not to have been so, but when I knew for a certainty
that we had reached the goal, there was not a thing in the world I
wanted but sleep. But after I had a few hours of it, there succeeded a
condition of mental exaltation which made further rest impossible. For
more than a score of years that point on the earth's surface had been
the object of my every effort. To its attainment my whole being,
physical, mental, and moral, had been dedicated. Many times my own life
and the lives of those with me had been risked. My own material and
forces and those of my friends had been devoted to this object. This
journey was my eighth into the arctic wilderness. In that wilderness I
had spent nearly twelve years out of the twenty-three between my
thirtieth and my fifty-third year, and the intervening time spent in
civilized communities during that period had been mainly occupied with
preparations for returning to the wilderness. The determination to reach
the Pole had become so much a part of my being that, strange as it may
seem, I long ago ceased to think of myself save as an instrument for the
attainment of that end. To the layman this may seem strange, but an
inventor can understand it, or an artist, or anyone who has devoted
himself for years upon years to the service of an idea.
[Illustration: EGINGWAH SEARCHING THE HORIZON FOR LAND]
[Illustration: PEARY SEARCHING THE HORIZON FOR LAND]
From Top of Pressure Ridge Back of Igloos at Camp Jesup
But though my mind was busy at intervals during those thirty hours spent
at the Pole with the exhilarating thought that my dream had come
true, there was one recollection of other times that, now and then,
intruded itself with startling distinctness. It was the recollection of
a day three years before, April 21, 1906, when after making a fight with
ice, open water, and storms, the expedition which I commanded had been
forced to turn back from 87° 6´ north latitude because our supply of
food would carry us no further. And the contrast between the terrible
depression of that day and the exaltation of the present moment was not
the least pleasant feature of our brief stay at the Pole. During the
dark moments of that return journey in 1906, I had told myself that I
was only one in a long list of arctic explorers, dating back through the
centuries, all the way from Henry Hudson to the Duke of the Abruzzi, and
including Franklin, Kane, and Melville--a long list of valiant men who
had striven and failed. I told myself that I had only succeeded, at the
price of the best years of my life, in adding a few links to the chain
that led from the parallels of civilization towards the polar center,
but that, after all, at the end the only word I had to write was
failure.
[Illustration: LOOKING TOWARD CAPE CHELYUSKIN]
[Illustration: LOOKING TOWARD SPITZBERGEN]
[Illustration: LOOKING TOWARD CAPE COLUMBIA]
[Illustration: LOOKING TOWARD BERING STRAIT]
(The Four Directions from the Pole)
But now, while quartering the ice in various directions from our camp, I
tried to realize that, after twenty-three years of struggles and
discouragement, I had at last succeeded in placing the flag of my
country at the goal of the world's desire. It is not easy to write about
such a thing, but I knew that we were going back to civilization with
the last of the great adventure stories--a story the world had been
waiting to hear for nearly four hundred years, a story which was to be
told at last under the folds of the Stars and Stripes, the flag that
during a lonely and isolated life had come to be for me the symbol of
home and everything I loved--and might never see again.
[Illustration: RETURNING TO CAMP WITH THE FLAGS, APRIL 7, 1909]
The thirty hours at the Pole, what with my marchings and
countermarchings, together with the observations and records, were
pretty well crowded. I found time, however, to write to Mrs. Peary on a
United States postal card which I had found on the ship during the
winter. It had been my custom at various important stages of the journey
northward to write such a note in order that, if anything serious
happened to me, these brief communications might ultimately reach her at
the hands of survivors. This was the card, which later reached Mrs.
Peary at Sydney:--
"90 NORTH LATITUDE, April 7th.
"_My dear Jo_,
"I have won out at last. Have been here a day. I
start for home and you in an hour. Love to the
"kidsies."
"BERT."
In the afternoon of the 7th, after flying our flags and taking our
photographs, we went into our igloos and tried to sleep a little, before
starting south again.
I could not sleep and my two Eskimos, Seegloo and Egingwah, who occupied
the igloo with me, seemed equally restless. They turned from side to
side, and when they were quiet I could tell from their uneven breathing
that they were not asleep. Though they had not been specially excited
the day before when I told them that we had reached the goal, yet they
also seemed to be under the same exhilarating influence which made sleep
impossible for me.
Finally I rose, and telling my men and the three men in the other igloo,
who were equally wakeful, that we would try to make our last camp, some
thirty miles to the south, before we slept, I gave orders to hitch up
the dogs and be off. It seemed unwise to waste such perfect traveling
weather in tossing about on the sleeping platforms of our igloos.
Neither Henson nor the Eskimos required any urging to take to the trail
again. They were naturally anxious to get back to the land as soon as
possible--now that our work was done. And about four o'clock on the
afternoon of the 7th of April we turned our backs upon the camp at the
North Pole.
Though intensely conscious of what I was leaving, I did not wait for any
lingering farewell of my life's goal. The event of human beings standing
at the hitherto inaccessible summit of the earth was accomplished, and
my work now lay to the south, where four hundred and thirteen nautical
miles of ice-floes and possibly open leads still lay between us and the
north coast of Grant Land. One backward glance I gave--then turned my
face toward the south and toward the future.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The instruments used in taking observations for latitude may be
either a sextant and an artificial horizon, or a small theodolite. Both
these instruments were taken on the sledge journey; but the theodolite
was not used, owing to the low altitude of the sun. Had the expedition
been delayed on the return until May or June, the theodolite would then
have been of value in determining position and variation of the compass.
The method of taking meridian observations with a sextant and an
artificial horizon on a polar sledge journey is as follows: if there is
any wind, a semi-circular wind-guard of snow blocks, two tiers high, is
put up, opening to the south. If there is no wind, this is not
necessary.
The instrument box is firmly bedded in the snow, which is packed down to
a firm bearing and snow is packed around the box. Then something,
usually a skin, is thrown over the snow, partly to prevent any possible
warmth from the sun melting the snow and shifting the bearing of the
box; partly to protect the eyes of the observer from the intense
reflected glare of light from the snow.
The mercury trough of the artificial horizon is placed on top of the
level box, and the mercury, which has been thoroughly warmed in the
igloo, is poured into the trough until it is full. In the case of the
special wooden trough devised and used on the last expedition, it was
possible to bring the surface of the mercury level with the edges of the
trough, thus enabling us to read angles very close to the horizon.
The mercury trough is covered with what is called the roof--a metal
framework carrying two pieces of very accurately ground glass, set
inclined, like the opposite sides of the roof of a house. The object of
this roof is to prevent any slightest breath of wind disturbing the
surface of the mercury and so distorting the sun's image in it, and also
to keep out any fine snow or frost crystals that may be in the
atmosphere. In placing the trough and the roof on the top of the
instrument box, the trough is placed so that its longer diameter will be
directed toward the sun.
A skin is then thrown down on the snow close to the box and north of it,
and the observer lies down flat on his stomach on this, with his head to
the south, and head and sextant close to the artificial horizon. He
rests both elbows on the snow, holding the sextant firmly in both hands,
and moving his head and the instrument until the image or part of the
image of the sun is seen reflected on the surface of the mercury.
The principle on which the latitude of the observer is obtained from the
altitude of the sun at noon is very simple. It is this: that the
latitude of the observer is equal to the distance of the center of the
sun from the zenith, plus the declination of the sun for that day and
hour.
The declination of the sun for any place at any hour may be obtained
from tables prepared for that purpose, which give the declination for
noon of every day on the Greenwich meridian, and the hourly change in
the declination.
Such tables for the months of February, March, April, May, June, and
July, together with the ordinary tables for refraction to minus 10°
Fahrenheit, I had with me on pages torn from the "Nautical Almanac and
Navigator."
[2] Ignorance and misconception of all polar matters seem so widespread
and comprehensive that it appears advisable to introduce here a few a b
c paragraphs. Anyone interested can supplement these by reading the
introductory parts of any good elementary school geography or astronomy.
The North Pole (that is, the geographical pole as distinguished from the
magnetic pole, and this appears to be the first and most general
stumbling block of the ignorant) is simply the point where that
imaginary line known as the earth's axis--that is, the line on which the
earth revolves in its daily motion--intersects the earth's surface.
Some of the recent sober discussions as to the size of the North Pole,
whether it was as big as a quarter, or a hat, or a township, have been
intensely ludicrous.
Precisely speaking, the North Pole is simply a mathematical point, and
therefore, in accordance with the mathematical definition of a point, it
has neither length, breadth, nor thickness.
If the question is asked, how closely can the Pole be determined (this
is the point which has muddled some of the ignorant wiseacres), the
answer will be: That depends upon the character of the instruments used,
the ability of the observer using them, and the number of observations
taken.
If there were land at the Pole, and powerful instruments of great
precision, such as are used in the world's great observatories, were
mounted there on suitable foundations and used by practised observers
for repeated observations extending over years, then it would be
possible to determine the position of the Pole with great precision.
With ordinary field instruments, transit, theodolite, or sextant, an
extended series of observations by an expert observer should permit the
determination of the Pole within entirely satisfactory limits, but not
with the same precision as by the first method.
A single observation at sea with sextant and the natural horizon, as
usually taken by the master of a ship, is assumed under ordinary
satisfactory conditions to give the observer's position within about a
mile.
In regard to the difficulties of taking observations in the arctic
regions, I have found a tendency on the part of experts who, however,
have not had practical experience in the arctic regions themselves, to
overestimate and exaggerate the difficulties and drawbacks of making
these observations due to the cold.
My personal experience has been that, to an experienced observer,
dressed in furs and taking observations in calm weather, in temperatures
not exceeding say 40° below zero Fahrenheit, the difficulties of the
work resulting from cold alone are not serious. The amount and character
of errors due to the effect of cold upon the instrument might perhaps be
a subject for discussion, and for distinct differences of opinion.
My personal experience has been that my most serious trouble was with
the eyes.
To eyes which have been subjected to brilliant and unremitting daylight
for days and weeks, and to the strain of continually setting a course
with the compass, and traveling towards a fixed point in such light, the
taking of a series of observations is usually a nightmare; and the
strain of focusing, of getting precise contact of the sun's images, and
of reading the vernier, all in the blinding light of which only those
who have taken observations in bright sunlight on an unbroken snow
expanse in the arctic regions can form any conception, usually leaves
the eyes bloodshot and smarting for hours afterwards.
The continued series of observations in the vicinity of the Pole, noted
above, left me with eyes that were, for two or three days, useless for
anything requiring careful vision, and had it been necessary for me to
set a course during the first two or three days of our return I should
have found it extremely trying.
Snow goggles, as worn by us continually during the march, while helping,
do not entirely relieve the eyes from strain, and during a series of
observations the eyes become extremely tired and at times uncertain.
Various authorities will give different estimates of the probable error
in observations taken at the Pole. I am personally inclined to think
that an allowance of five miles is an equitable one.
No one, except those entirely ignorant of such matters, has imagined for
a moment that I was able to determine with my instruments the precise
position of the Pole, but after having determined its position
approximately, then setting an arbitrary allowance of about ten miles
for possible errors of the instruments and myself as observer, and then
crossing and recrossing that ten mile area in various directions, no one
except the most ignorant will have any doubt but what, at some time, I
had passed close to the precise point, and had, perhaps, actually passed
over it.