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To the Edges of the Earth

Page 35

by Edward J. Larson


  35.Wild, “Memoirs,” 91.

  36.Jameson Adams, interview with James Fisher, October 5, 1955, MS 1537/3/6 D, SPRI.

  37.Wild, Diary, January 10, 1909, 100.

  38.Shackleton, Heart of the Antarctic, 1:344, 346–47.

  39.Marshall, Diary, January 10, 1909.

  40.Wild, Diary, January 12, 1909, 100.

  41.Ibid., January 19, 1909, 103.

  42.Adams, interview, October 5, 1955.

  43.Wild, Diary, January 19, 1909, 103. Marshall noted that the men broke through crevasses on this dash but “were carried on by the sheer weight of the sledge to which they clung.” [E. S. Marshall, “An Antarctic Experience,” Medical Press and Circular, December 6, 1943, 161.]

  44.Shackleton, Heart of the Antarctic, 1:347.

  45.Marshall, Diary, January 20, 1909.

  46.Ibid., January 22, 26, 1909.

  47.Wild, “Memoirs,” 90.

  48.Shackleton, Heart of the Antarctic, 1:348.

  49.Eric S. Marshall to John Kendall, January 26, 1951, MS 656/1/11 D, SPRI; Marshall, Diary, January 26–27, 1909.

  50.Marshall to Kendall, November 28, 1950, MS 656/19/9 D, SPRI.

  51.Marshall, Diary, January 26–27, 1909.

  52.Marshall to Kendall, November 28, 1950, SPRI.

  53.Shackleton, Heart of the Antarctic, 1:349.

  54.Wild, Diary, January 25, 1909, 105.

  55.Marshall, “Antarctic Episode,” 361.

  56.Wild, Diary, February 3, 1909, 109.

  57.Marshall, “Antarctic Episode,” 361.

  58.Ernest Shackleton, Diary of the Southern Journey, February 4, 1909, MS1456/10 D, SPRI.

  59.Ibid., February 5, 1909, 109; Marshall, Diary, February 5, 1909.

  60.Shackleton, Heart of the Antarctic, 1:354–55.

  61.Wild, Diary, February 6, 10, 1909, 109, 112.

  62.Ibid., February 7, 1909, 110; Marshall, Diary, February 6, 1909 (“The Lord is standing by us & sent us this breeze to assist”).

  63.Wild, “Memoirs,” 90.

  64.Wild, Diary, February 13, 1909, 112; Marshall, Diary, February 13, 1909.

  65.Shackleton, Heart of the Antarctic, 1:354–55; Shackleton, Diary, February 13, 1909.

  66.Wild, Diary, February 19, 1909, 113.

  67.Shackleton, Heart of the Antarctic, 1:356.

  68.Ibid., 1:358.

  69.Ibid., 1:360–61.

  70.Ibid., 1:362.

  71.Wild, “Memoirs,” 97.

  72.Shackleton, Heart of the Antarctic, 1:364.

  73.A. Forbes Mackay, Diary of the British Antarctic Expedition, March 5, 1909, MS 1537/3/1 D, SPRI.

  74.Wild, “Memoirs,” 98.

  75.Shackleton, Heart of the Antarctic, 1:365.

  76.Marshall, “Antarctic Episode,” 136.

  77.Wally Herbert, The Noose of Laurels: Robert E. Peary and the Race to the North Pole (New York: Atheneum, 1989), 262. In 2005, a sledging party led by British adventurer Tom Avery completed Peary’s overall trek in roughly the same time as Peary’s party, but never at anything like the rate of travel that Peary claimed on his last day north and first three days south. The overall rate claimed by Cook in 1908 also exceeded Peary’s outbound rate, but, as his supporters noted, he never claimed single-day distances like those claimed by Peary.

  78.Robert E. Peary, Diary, April 9, 1909, North Pole Diaries 1909, Ai/V-1/box1, Robert E. Peary Papers, National Archives.

  79.Robert E. Peary, “The Discovery of the North Pole,” Hampton’s Magazine, September 1910, 284.

  80.Ibid.

  81.Matthew A. Henson, A Negro Explorer at the North Pole (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1912), 140.

  82.Bradley Robinson with Matthew Henson, Dark Companion: The Story of Matthew Henson, rev. ed. (1947; repr. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett, 1969), 206–7.

  83.Lowell Thomas, “First at the Pole: Lowell Thomas Interviews Matthew Henson,” Lowell Thomas Interviews (New York: NBC Radio, 1939), 3.

  84.Robert E. Peary, The North Pole (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1910), 304, 309.

  85.Peary, Diary, April 11, 1909.

  86.Henson, A Negro Explorer, 141.

  87.Peary, “Discovery,” September, 1910, 290.

  88.Peary, Diary, April 22–23, 1909. In his final published account, Peary revised these words to read, “I have won the last great geographical prize, the North Pole, for the credit of the United States. . . . It has been accomplished in a way that is thoroughly American. I am content.” Peary, North Pole, 316.

  89.George Borup, A Tenderfoot with Peary (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1911), 185, 187.

  90.Harry Whitney, Hunting with the Eskimos: The Unique Record of a Sportsman’s Year among the Northernmost Tribe (New York: Century, 1910), 269.

  91.Henson, A Negro Explorer, 176.

  92.Robert A. Bartlett, The Log of Bob Bartlett: The True Story of Forty Years of Seafaring and Exploration (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928), 204.

  93.“Abruzzi to Peary: Glad You Succeeded,” New York Times, September 25, 1909.

  94.Filippo De Filippi, Karakoram and Western Himalaya, 1909 (New York: Dutton, 1912), 327.

  95.Ibid., 332.

  96.Ibid., 340–41.

  97.Ibid., 350.

  98.“Peary Lands; Refuses Honors,” New York Times, September 22, 1909.

  99.“The King and the Explorer,” Daily Mail (London), March 27, 1909.

  Epilogue: The Last Biscuit

  1.“Tributes to the Explorer and his Message,” Daily Mail (London), March 25, 1909 (reprinting editorial comment from around the world).

  2.Filippo De Filippi, Karakoram and Western Himalaya, 1909: An Account of the Expedition of H.R.H. Prince Luigi Amedeo of Savoy, Duke of the Abruzzi (London: Constable, 1912). There was also a second volume of photographs and maps.

  3.Lieutenant Shackleton, “Full Narrative,” Daily Mail (London), March 24, 1909. At 72 degrees of frost, the temperature would be minus 40°F.

  4.“The Queen’s Message,” Daily Mail (London), March 24, 1909.

  5.“Views of Famous Men,” Daily Mail (London), March 25, 1909.

  6.E. H. Shackleton to Emily Shackleton, February 12, 1907, Scott Polar Research Institute, MS 1537/2/12/15, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK (hereafter cited as SPRI).

  7.“Lieut. Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition,” Geographical Journal 33 (1909), 485.

  8.Lecture Agency, “Extracts from the reports of the London daily papers” (agency flier), 91(08)(*7), SPRI.

  9.“The Conquest of the South Pole,” Spectator (London), March 27, 1909.

  10.[News of the Week], Nation (London), March 27, 1909.

  11.E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909), 2:232.

  12.“University Welcome,” Sydney Morning Herald, March 31, 1909.

  13.“Professor David’s Welcome,” Clarence and Richmond Examiner, April 1, 1909.

  14.“Professor David Town Hall Welcome,” Sydney Morning Herald, April 2, 1909.

  15.“University Welcome,” Sydney Morning Herald, March 31, 1909.

  16.“The Antarctic Expedition Tributes to Mr. Douglas Mawson,” Register (Adelaide), April 21, 1909.

  17.Douglas Mawson, The Home of the Blizzard: Being the Story of the Australasia Antarctic Expedition, 1911–1914 (London: William Heinemann, 1915), 1:265.

  18.Douglas Mawson, The Home of the Blizzard: Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911–1914, 2 vols. (London: Ballantyne Press, 1915).

  19.“‘Good News,’ Says Cook,” New York Tribune, September 7, 1909.

  20.Daily Mail, The Wonderful Year 1909: An Illustrated Record of Notable Achievements and Events (London: Headley Brothers, 1910), 82.

  21.“New York Mad Over Dr. Cook,” New York Herald, September 22, 1909.

  22.“Peary Discovers the North Pole after Eight Trials in 23 Years,” New York Times, September 7, 1909. The Times reprinted both telegraph messages.
r />   23.“Says Dr. Cook Is in Error,” New York Herald, September 9, 1909 (reprinting the Associated Press telegram).

  24.“Peary Denounces Cook,” New York Times, September 11, 1909.

  25.“American Editorial Comment on Commander Peary’s So-Called ‘Proof’ Against Dr. Cook,” New York Herald, September 30, 1909. Turning Peary’s statement against him in a racist manner, the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune added, “Every American with a drop of sporting blood in his veins feels like dropping into the vernacular with the exclamation, ‘He ain’t so blamed white at that!’”

  26.“Commander Peary Repeats Challenge,” New York Herald, September 14, 1909; “The Jeanie, with Peary Party Aboard, Arrives at Cape Ray,” New York Herald, September 12, 1909 (includes quoted comment).

  27.“Cook’s Bewildered Story of Retreat,” New York Times, September 8, 1909.

  28.“Honor Is America’s, Says Shackleton,” New York Times, September 8, 1909.

  29.“Nares Congratulates Peary,” New York Times, September 8, 1909; “Melville Accepts Report,” New York Times, September 7, 1909.

  30.“Amundsen Stands by Cook,” New York Times, December 22, 1909.

  31.“American Editorial Opinion on the Cook-Peary Controversy,” New York Herald, September 13, 1909.

  32.“Press Readers Award Credit of Pole Discovery to Dr. Cook by Large Majority,” Pittsburgh Press, September 26, 1909.

  33.Benjamin B. Hampton to Robert E. Peary, November 17, 1909, Letters and Telegrams Received 1909 (F-H), Box 35, Robert E. Peary Papers, National Archives.

  34.Samuel G. Blythe, “Alone at the Pole: A Typical American Drama of the Present Day in Several Acts,” Saturday Evening Post, October 16, 1909, 21.

  35.G. K. Chesterton, “The Hope of the Year,” in Daily Mail, Wonderful Year, ix.

  36.“American Editorial Comment on Commander Peary’s So-Called ‘Proof’ Against Dr. Cook,” New York Herald, September 30, 1909.

  37.[Shailer Mathews], “Cheapening Heroism,” World Today, November 1909, 1117–18.

  38.“Duca Degli Abruzzi Arrives in Marseilles, Returning from His Expedition of Exploration in the Himalayas,” New York Herald, September 13, 1909.

  39.Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910–1913 (London: Constable, 1922), 1:vii. The full passage reads, “For a joint scientific and geographical piece of organization, give me Scott; for a Winter Journey, Wilson; for a dash to the Pole and nothing else, Amundsen: and if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time.”

  40.Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, lines 59–60, 69–70.

  41.A. Conan Doyle, quoted in Kathryn Schulz, “Literature’s Arctic Obsession,” The New Yorker, April 24, 2017, 88; A. Conan Doyle, The Captain of the Pole-Star and Other Tales (London: Longman, Green, 1890), 32.

  42.R. E. Peary, Nearest the Pole: A Narrative of the Polar Expedition of the Peary Arctic Club in the S. S. Roosevelt, 1905–1906 (New York: Doubleday, 1907), x.

  43.Ibid., 45.

  Index

  The pagination of this digital edition does not match the print edition from which the index was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your ebook reader’s search tools.

  Abruzzi, Duke of the. See Duke of the Abruzzi

  Abruzzi Spur (or Ridge), 228–29

  Adams, Ansel, 232

  Adams, Jameson, 133, 141–43, 175, 179, 181, 190, 247–54

  Adelaide, South Australia, 47–49, 53, 270

  Adélie penguins, 130, 172

  adventure-seeking, xv–xvi, 70, 296n6; Antarctic exploration and, 50, 60, 73, 127, 164, 175, 190, 267–69; Arctic exploration and, 4, 14, 24–25, 115–16, 286n4; mountaineering and, 74–87, 132–33, 217–20, 227

  Africa, 56, 65, 75, 88–92, 193, 272

  Ahngmalokto, 39, 41

  Ahweleh, 151, 259–60

  Alaska, 3, 88, 95, 117–18

  Albert, Prince, 80

  Alexandra, Queen, 189, 267

  Allakasingwah (alternative spellings include Akatingwa, Alakahsingwah, Allikasingwah, and Aleqasina), 29, 34, 42, 149, 287nn15–16

  Alpine Club (British), 81, 235

  Alpine Journal, 236

  alpinists, 78, 81, 88, 90, 226

  Alps, xvii, 65, 75–88, 96, 228, 235, 279

  altitude sickness, 186–88, 219, 229, 236

  Amedeo of Savoy, Prince Luigi. See Duke of the Abruzzi

  American Alpine Club, 94–95

  American Geographical Society, 32–33, 98

  American Museum of Natural History, 29–33, 100, 115, 154–55, 274

  Amundsen, Roald, 42, 55, 131, 141, 267–68, 273–77, 280, 282

  Anaukak (alternative spellings include Anaukaq), 42, 149

  Andes Mountains, 66, 88

  Andrée, S. A., 30

  Antarctic (ship), 53–54

  Antarctic Ocean. See Southern Ocean

  Antarctic Peninsula, 51, 54–55, 65

  Antarctica, attraction of, 47, 50, 54, 128–29; early exploration of, 9, 51–58, 103; incomplete knowledge of, 53–56, 102

  Arctic: early exploration of, xv–xvii, 4–21, 279

  Arctic Club, 94, 153, 263

  Arctic Ocean, 6–21, 42–43, 56, 105, 156, 162

  Armytage, Bertram, 138–39

  Arrol-Johnston automobile, 48, 123, 168

  Askoley, 223–25, 261

  Associated Press, 274

  Astrup, Eivind, 25–26, 28

  Aurora Australis (book), 32

  Austin, Jane, xi

  Australia: Antarctica compared to, 64–65, 73; Antarctic expeditions stopping at, 57, 58, 122; Antarctic explorers from, 56–59, 64–73, 124–28, 269–72; support for Antarctic exploration in, 47–59, 267, 271

  Australian Antarctic Exploring Committee, 48, 53

  Australian Antarctic Territory, 271

  automobile, xiv, 21, 48, 130–31, 136, 139, 168–69

  Avatak, 149

  Avery, Tom, 213

  Axel Heiberg Island, 259

  Backstairs Passage, 183, 241

  Baffin, William, 4

  Baines, A. C., 221–22, 225

  Balti porters, 224–37, 261–62

  Baltistan, 221–26

  Baltoro Glacier, 218–19, 224–26, 232–33, 236–37, 261

  Bareux, Ernest, 216

  Barker, Elisa, 299n11

  Bartlett, Robert, 104–5, 114–19, 146, 151, 157, 161–62, 191–208, 213, 255–56

  Bay of Whales, 58, 124, 130, 268

  Beardmore Glacier, 180–82, 186, 247–49, 268

  Beardmore, William, 121, 123

  Beaufoy, Mark, 79

  Belgian Antarctic Expedition (1897–99), 103, 130

  Belgica (ship). See Belgian Antarctic Expedition

  Bennett, James Gordon, 272, 274

  Berji Pass, 262

  Bernacchi, Louis, 58–59

  Biafo Glacier, 224

  Big Lead, 44, 107–9, 112, 194–97, 258

  Boaz, Franz, 31

  Boer War, 56, 60, 267

  Borchgrevink, Carson, 53–60, 124, 130–32, 280

  Borup, George, 147, 159, 161–62, 192–205, 258

  Botta, Erminio, 216

  Bowdoin College, 147, 198

  Bradley, John R., 117, 153, 295n59

  Brainard, David, 9–10, 39

  Braldoh River, 223

  Bride Peak, 232–33. See also Chogolisa

  Bridgman, Herbert, 34

  Britain, 70; conception of manhood in, 63, 78–81, 85–87; exploration and, 6–9, 59, 64, 236, 268; government support for exploration in, 4, 55–57, 67, 165–66, 308n6; imperialistic reach of, 47, 50, 96, 185, 189; rivalry with other nations of, 99, 121, 267, 278

  British Antarctic Expedition (1898–1900). See Southern Cross Expedition

  British Antarctic Expedition (1907–09). See Nimrod Expedition

  British Antarctic Expedition (1910–13). See Terra Nova Expedition

  British Arctic Expedition (1875–76), 6–9, 26, 43, 105


  British Empire, 47–50, 52, 86, 126, 185, 189, 217–23, 267, 282

  British National Antarctic Expedition (1901–03). See Discovery Expedition

  Broad Peak, 228

  Brocherel, Alexis, 216, 228

  Brocherel, Emil, 216, 235–36

  Brocherel, Henri, 216, 235–36

  Brocklehurst, Philip, 133–35, 138, 141, 246

  Brontë, Charlotte, xvii

  Brooklyn, New York, 22, 103, 273

  Browning, Robert, 269

  Brun, Frederike, 76

  Buckley, Maclean, 127–28

  Bull, Henryk, 53–54

  Burton, Richard Francis, 89

  Bury, J. B., 100

  Byrd, Richard, 280–81

  Byron, Lord, 5, 77–78

  Cagni, Umberto, 13–21, 91, 273

  Canada, 3, 88, 95

  Canepa, Simone, 15, 20

  cannibalism, practice of, 10, 71

  Cannon, Henry, 34

  Cape Adare, 54–59, 131

  Cape Columbia, 158, 160–63, 191–96, 206, 214, 257–58

  Cape D’Urville, 36, 42

  Cape Evans, xix

  Cape Hecla, 43, 105–6

  Cape Hubbard, 151, 259–60

  Cape Morris K. Jesup, 40, 99

  Cape Royds, xix, 134, 142, 150, 247, 253–54; trek back to, 143, 175, 182–83, 244, 250; winter quarters at, 137, 139–40, 163–65, 239

  Cape Town, South Africa, 122

  Cape Union, 92–95, 105, 113–14

  Cape York, 149–50

  Carnegie, Andrew, 100

  Carrel, Jean-Antoine, 83–84, 87–88

  Carrel, Louis, 88

  celebrity, appeal of, 23, 27, 60, 144; cult of, 2–3, 21, 265–72, 285–86nn48–50

  Chamonix, France, 75–81, 85

  Chesterton, G. K., 276

  Chimborazo (mountain), 81, 88

  China, 218

  Chinaman (pony), 177–78, 251

  Chogolisa (mountain), 232–36

  Christchurch, New Zealand, 127

  Christiania, Norway, 12, 20. See also Oslo, Norway

  Christmas, 14, 62, 114, 182–84, 186

  chronometer, 24

  Churchill, Winston, 86–87

  Clements Markham Inlet, 158

  climate change, xviii, 54, 69, 137, 281–82

  Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 76–78, 279

  Columbia University, 117

  Columbus, Christopher, xvi, 20, 45

  compasses, use of, 51–52, 107, 166, 207

  Concordia Basin, 225–27, 232

  Congo, 25, 90

  Conway, Martin, 218–20, 225, 232–33, 267

 

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