Title: The Mentor: The Conquest of the Poles, Serial No. 37
Author: Peary, Robert E. (Robert Edwin)
Language: English
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THE MENTOR

SERIAL NUMBER 37

[Illustration]



THE CONQUEST OF THE POLES

BY

REAR ADMIRAL ROBERT E. PEARY

_Discoverer of the North Pole_

      FRIDTJOF NANSEN · SIR ERNEST H. SHACKLETON
      DUKE OF THE ABRUZZI · ROALD AMUNDSEN
      ROBERT E. PEARY · ROBERT FALCON SCOTT


Ten years ago many, perhaps the majority, of intelligent people doubted
if the Poles of the earth would ever be reached by man. From east to
west, and west to east, the world seemed small. Jules Verne’s “Round
the World in Eighty Days” dream of not so many years ago had been cut
in two; but from north to south the world still stretched in apparently
unattainable infinity.

Within the last four years the two Poles have been reached three times,
and in their attainment the globe has shrunk to commonplace dimensions.
With the attainment of the Poles the climax of polar discovery has
been reached, the last of the splendid series of great world voyages
and mighty adventures has been finished. But while the glamour, the
mystery, the speculation, as to what exists at the ends of the earth
are gone, the work of detailed exploration, of continuous scientific
observations and investigations, will continue until to the scientist
and geographer the polar regions will be as well known as the more
favored regions of the earth.


EARLY POLAR EXPLORATION

It is nearly four hundred years (1526) since the first recorded
expedition went forth to seek the North Pole under the initiative of
England.

Trade, the great prize of the commerce of the opulent East, land lust,
and the spirit of adventure in turn played their part as incentives for
the earlier expeditions. It seems to be generally accepted that nothing
had a more powerful influence on the work than England’s determination
to have a trade route of her own to the riches of the East, independent
of the southern routes controlled by Spain and Portugal. It was this
determination that made the terms Northeast Passage and Northwest
Passage historic, and brought about years of search that, though
latterly scientific, have been largely the acme of adventure and
sentiment.

[Illustration: TRAVELING IN THE FAR NORTH

_Dog sledges used by Peary on his expedition to the North Pole._]

From the misty date of Pytheas (325 B.C.) down through the succeeding
centuries, the record of polar exploration contains much of interest,
of mystery, of superstition, followed by some of the grandest epics,
most heroic efforts and sacrifices, and somberest catastrophes
and tragedies in all the wide field of exploration. Briton and
Scandinavian, Teuton and Latin, Slav and Magyar, and American, have
entered the lists and struggled for the prize.

[Illustration: THE ROOSEVELT

_Peary’s ship, in which he sailed to discover the North Pole._]

In the earlier years of this long record occurred the strange voyages
of the Zeni, and Eric the Red, Icelandic outlaw, with his discovery and
colonization of Greenland,--strange stories of hot springs in that far
country, with which the monks warmed their monastery and cooked their
food; a tribute of walrus tusks toward the expenses of the Crusades;
tales of the rich green pastures, and herds of grazing cattle, of these
colonists, and later their mysterious and complete disappearance,
leaving only a scattered ruin here and there to show that they ever
existed.


ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS

Beginning with the earliest authentic expedition (1526), it is possible
to touch only on the most important incidents of the record of this
later phase of the subject. The time from 1526 to date may be roughly
and generally divided into three periods:

The first, from 1526, the time of the first North Polar expedition by
England, to about 1853, the close of Great Britain’s Franklin search
expeditions. In this period the preponderance of British efforts over
those of all other nations combined was so great as almost to obscure
them and make this period preëminently British.

In this period British navigators essayed every route to the polar
regions, attempted the Northeast and Northwest Passages again and
again, and wrote some of the most brilliant pages of Great Britain’s
history over the names of Hudson, Davis, Baffin, Ross, Parry, Franklin,
McClintock, and others.

[Illustration: From “On the Polar Star,” by the Duke of the Abruzzi.
Copyright, Dodd, Mead & Co.

THE HUT OF THE DUKE OF THE ABRUZZI

_From a photograph taken by moonlight in the Arctic regions._]

The second period covers from about 1850 to 1895, In this period
other nations--the United States, Germany, Austria, Sweden, and
Norway--showed equal activity with Great Britain, and the names of
Kane, Hayes, Hall, Lockwood, Brainard (United States), Nares and
Markham (Great Britain), Koldewey and Weyprecht (Germany), Payer
(Austria), Nordenskjöld (Sweden), and others were written indelibly
into Arctic history. In this period the record of farthest north which
had been held by Great Britain was wrested from her in 1882 by Lockwood
and Brainard of the United States.


THE NORTH POLE ATTAINED

The third period is from 1895 to date. In this period, while other
valuable work was being done,--as Amundsen’s navigation of the
Northwest Passage, Sverdrup’s extensive discoveries in the North
American archipelago, Erichsen’s completion of the last gap in the
north Greenland coast line,--three men, Nansen, Abruzzi, and Peary,
each having for his object the attainment of the North Pole, pushed in
succession far beyond the farthest of their predecessors, penetrating
the inmost regions of the north, and the last named attaining the Pole
which had been the prize of centuries.

Briefly summarized, from 1526 to 1882 Great Britain held the palm of
nearest approach to the Pole, slowly pushing the record up till Markham
reached 83° 20´ north latitude. Then the lead came to the United States
with Lockwood and Brainard’s 83° 24´. In 1895 Norway went to the front
in a great leap in Nansen’s 86° 14´, and in 1900 Italy grasped the
blue ribbon with Abruzzi’s 86° 33´. In 1906 the United States took the
lead again with Peary’s 87° 6´, and finally closed the record with his
attainment of the Pole on April 6 and 7, 1909.


ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION

The exploration of the Antarctic regions dates back much less far
than that of the Arctic. In 1772 Captain James Cook first crossed the
Antarctic Circle and penetrated the Antarctic regions. After him came
the Russian Bellingshausen in 1819, who discovered the first land
within the Antarctic Circle. Then came Weddell the British sealer, who
in 1823 pushed his sailing ship south into the great bight southeast of
Cape Horn, named after him Weddell Sea, to 74° 15´ south latitude, 241
miles beyond Cook’s record, and not exceeded in that region until the
last year. At Weddell’s farthest _no land or field ice was to be seen_,
and only three icebergs were in sight.

[Illustration: From “On the Polar Star,” by the Duke of the Abruzzi.
Copyright, Dodd, Mead & Co.

THE POLAR STAR

_Landing the stores while the ship was nipped by the ice._]

In 1839-1841 occurred the important voyage of Sir James Ross. Ross a
few years before had located the North Magnetic Pole. He was now in
command of the Erebus and Terror, two ships that a few years later
were to bear the Franklin expedition to its fate near the same North
Magnetic Pole. Ross discovered South Victoria Land, directly south of
New Zealand, with its long stretch of southerly trending savage coast
line from Cape Adare to 78° 10´ south latitude, where he found an
active volcano, Mt. Erebus. From here Ross followed the edge of the
great ice barrier some three hundred miles to the eastward. The great
indentation in the Antarctic continent thus discovered and navigated
by Ross, and named after him Ross Sea, has since been the base of
operations from which the South Pole was twice attained.

[Illustration: AT THE NORTH POLE

_Photograph taken at the “Top of the World.”_]


“FARTHEST SOUTH”

After Ross came various minor expeditions contributing to the knowledge
of the Antarctic regions, and in the 1890’s began a renaissance of
Antarctic interest and exploration. In 1892, 1893, 1894 Scottish,
German, and Norwegian whalers reconnoitered the Antarctic seas of Ross
and Weddell in search of new whaling grounds, and in 1894 the first
landing was made upon the Antarctic continent by some members of Bull’s
Norwegian crew; in 1895 Newmayer introduced in the sixth Geographical
Congress in London a resolution upon the importance of Antarctic
exploration; and in the years following there was an international
attack upon the problem by Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Scotland,
Sweden, and France. In 1898, for the first time in the history of
Antarctic exploration, an expedition (the Belgian under Commander de
Gerlache), passed a winter within the Antarctic Circle beset in the
ice; and a year later, in 1899, a British expedition under Borchgrevink
passed a winter on the Antarctic continent itself, and made at Cape
Adare, in Ross Sea, the first attempt at land exploration.

[Illustration: REAR ADMIRAL ROBERT E. PEARY]

In 1901-1902 a German expedition under Drygalski determined a new part
of the coast of the Antarctic continent south of Africa, and three
others, under Bruce of Scotland, Nordenskjöld of Sweden, and Charcot
of France, made valuable discoveries in Weddell Sea, and the regions
southeast, south, and southwest of Cape Horn. In 1901-1903 Scott of
Great Britain, selecting the Ross Sea region discovered by Ross sixty
years before as his base, effected the first serious land exploration
of the Antarctic continent. In a magnificent sledge journey he covered
three hundred and eighty miles due south, reaching a point within four
hundred and thirty-seven miles of the South Pole. Following Scott, his
lieutenant, Shackleton, in 1908-09, using essentially the same base
and route as Scott, made an even more brilliant journey, and reached a
point within ninety-seven miles of the Pole, January 9, 1909. At that
time this was the “farthest south” record.

[Illustration: Reproduced from “The Heart of the Antarctic,” by Sir
Ernest H. Shackleton. Copyright, J. B. Lippincott Co.

SHACKLETON’S EXPEDITION

_The hut in the early winter quarters near Mt. Erebus, the Antarctic
volcano._]

[Illustration: Reproduced from “The Heart of the Antarctic,” by Sir
Ernest H. Shackleton. Copyright, J. B. Lippincott Co.

THE “FARTHEST SOUTH” CAMP AFTER A SIXTY-HOUR BLIZZARD]


THE SOUTH POLE

The successes of Scott and Shackleton still further stimulated interest
in the Antarctic problem, and in 1910 and 1911 Great Britain, Norway,
Germany, Australia, and Japan sent expeditions into the field; the
United States unfortunately, as in the past, being unrepresented.
Four of these expeditions--the Japanese, Australian, Norwegian,
and British--selected the Ross Sea region south of New Zealand and
Australia for their work; while the German expedition selected the
Weddell Sea region southeast of Cape Horn, the most promising of all
points of attack upon the Antarctic continent. All these expeditions
have now returned. The Japanese expedition explored an unknown section
of the coast of King Edward VII Land east of Ross Sea, the Australian
expedition explored a long stretch of Wilkes Land west of Ross Sea,
the German expedition made new discoveries in Weddell Sea, reaching a
point farther south than ever before attained in that region; while
Amundsen’s Norwegian expedition, from its base in the southeast angle
of Ross Sea, attained the South Pole, December 14 to 17, 1911, and
Scott’s British expedition, from its base in the southwest angle of
Ross Sea, attained it a month later, January 18, 1912, Scott and his
four companions dying of cold and starvation on the return.

[Illustration: Reproduced from “The Heart of the Antarctic,” by Sir
Ernest H. Shackleton. Copyright, J. B. Lippincott Co.

SHACKLETON’S SHIP, THE NIMROD

_Moored to a stranded iceberg about a mile from winter quarters, the
Nimrod was sheltered from blizzards._]

[Illustration: SHACKLETON AND HIS SON]

[Illustration: Reproduced from “The Heart of the Antarctic,” by Sir
Ernest H. Shackleton. Copyright, J. B. Lippincott Co.

DISCOVERERS OF THE SOUTH MAGNETIC POLE

_Part of Shackleton’s expedition reached for the first time the South
Magnetic Pole--that is, where the south part of the compass needle
points. Those in the picture, reading from left to right, are Dr.
Mackay, Professor David, and Douglas Mawson._]

The record of Antarctic exploration from 1772 to date may be divided
into two periods; the first from 1772 to 1898 and 1899, a period of
summer voyages only, the work carried on entirely by ships, with
no land or sledge work, and no attempt to winter in that region.
During this period, though other nations, notably the United States
and France, took part in the work, the work of Great Britain was
so pronouncedly preponderant as to more than equal all the others
combined. The second period is from 1899 to date, and is the period
of overland exploration with sledges. In this period, as in the last
period of Arctic exploration, three men, Scott, Shackleton, and
Amundsen, each having for his object the attainment of the South
Pole, pushed so far beyond all predecessors as to be in a class by
themselves, two of them, Amundsen and Scott, actually reaching the Pole.

[Illustration: Copyright, 1897, Harper & Bros.

NANSEN’S EXPEDITION

_Digging the Fram out of the ice._]

[Illustration: Copyright by Wilse Studio.

AMUNDSEN IN POLAR COSTUME

_Discoverer of the South Pole._]


THE POLAR REGIONS--A COMPARISON

After the foregoing condensed résumé of Arctic and Antarctic
exploration and discovery, I feel sure the reader will be interested in
noting some of the striking contrasts between the two Poles and their
surroundings. These contrasts are as great as the Poles are far apart.
The North Pole is situated in an ocean of some fifteen hundred miles’
diameter, surrounded by land. The South Pole is situated in a continent
of some twenty-five hundred miles’ diameter, surrounded by water. At
the North Pole, Peary stood upon the frozen surface of an ocean _more
than two miles in depth_. At the South Pole, Amundsen and Scott stood
upon the surface of a great elevated snow plateau _more than two miles
above sea level_. The lands that surround the North Polar Ocean have
comparatively abundant life, musk oxen, reindeer, polar bears, wolves,
foxes, arctic hares, ermines, and lemmings, together with insects and
flowers, being found less than five hundred miles from the Pole. On the
great South Polar continent no form of animal life is found.

[Illustration: From “On the Polar Star,” by the Duke of the Abruzzi.
Copyright, Dodd, Mead & Co.

ENTRANCE TO HUT

_A “home” in the polar regions._]

Permanent human life exists within some seven hundred miles of the
North Pole; none is found within twenty-three hundred miles of the
South Pole. The history of Arctic exploration goes back nearly four
hundred years. The history of Antarctic efforts covers one hundred and
forty years. The record of Arctic exploration is studded with crushed
and foundering ships, and the deaths of hundreds of brave men. The
record of Antarctic exploration shows the loss of but one ship, and the
death of a dozen men.

[Illustration: Copyright, Underwood & Underwood

AT THE SOUTH POLE--PHOTOGRAPHED BY AMUNDSEN]

For all those who aspire to the North Pole, the road lies over the
frozen surface of an ocean, the ice on which breaks up completely
every summer, drifting about under the influence of wind and tide,
and may crack into numerous fissures and lanes of open water at any
time, even in the depth of the severest winter, under the influence
of storms. For those who aspire to the South Pole, the road lies over
an eternal, immovable surface, the latter part rising ten thousand and
eleven thousand feet above sea level. And herein lies the inestimable
advantage to the South Polar explorer which enables him to make his
depots at convenient distances, and thus lighten his load and increase
his speed.

[Illustration: Copr., 1913, by International News Service

IN MEMORY OF BRAVE MEN

_The cross erected on Observation Hill to Scott and his courageous
companions._]

[Illustration: Copyright, 1913, by International News Service

PRECEDED BY AMUNDSEN

_When Captain Scott and his party reached the South Pole they found
that Amundsen had been there before them. Captain Scott is peering into
the tent left by Amundsen’s expedition._]


THE FUTURE OF POLAR EXPLORATION

The efforts and successes of the last fifteen years in the Antarctic
regions ought to, and I hope will, spur us as individuals, as
societies, and as a nation to do all in our power to enable the United
States to take its proper part and share in the great work yet to be
done in that field. There are three ways in which this country could
make up for its past lethargy in regard to Antarctic work, and take
front rank at once in this attractive field.

One is to _establish a station at the South Pole_ for a year’s
continuous observations in various fields of scientific investigation.
With the practical experience in methods of travel and transportation
now at the command of the United States as the result of our last
twenty-five years of North Polar work, this would not be so difficult
as it may seem to the layman.

[Illustration: Copyright, 1913, by William H. Rau

THE THREE POLAR STARS

_A photograph of Captain Roald Amundsen, Sir Ernest H. Shackleton, and
Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary, taken at Philadelphia, January 16, 1913._]

Another is to inaugurate and carry out, in a special ship, with a
corps of experts, through a period of several seasons, a complete
and systematic survey and study of the entire circumference of the
Antarctic continent with its adjacent oceans, with up to date equipment
and methods. This plan would probably be the most attractive to
scientists, as it would secure a large harvest of new and valuable
material to enrich our museums and keep our specialists busy for years.
It would also be the most expensive.

The third would be the thorough exploration of the Weddell Sea region
southeast of Cape Horn, which is specially within our sphere of
interest, together with a sledge traverse from the most southern part
of that sea to the South Pole. Such a traverse, with the journeys of
Amundsen, Scott, and Shackleton from the opposite side, would give a
complete transverse section across the Antarctic continent.

This last would promise the largest measure of broad results in the
shortest time, and least expense, and would probably be the most
attractive to geographers.

The successful accomplishment of any one of these ventures would put
the United States in the front rank of Antarctic achievements.


    SUPPLEMENTARY READING--“Nearest the Pole” and “The North Pole,”
    Peary; “On the Polar Star,” Duke of the Abruzzi; “The Heart of
    the Antarctic,” Shackleton; “Farthest North,” Fridtjof Nansen;
    “The Uttermost South--the Undying Story of Captain Scott,”
    _Everybody’s Magazine_, July, August, September, and October,
    1913.



THE MENTOR

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The Mentor Association, Inc.

381 Fourth Ave., New York, N. Y.

  Volume 1      Number 37

    ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, THREE DOLLARS. SINGLE COPIES FIFTEEN
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    ASSOCIATION, INC. PRESIDENT AND TREASURER, R. M. DONALDSON;
    VICE-PRESIDENT, W. M. SANFORD; SECRETARY, L. D. GARDNER.


_Editorial_

This week’s issue of The Mentor and that of last week are so
distinguished in authority that we ask special attention to them.
An interesting article on the Conquest of the Poles could have been
prepared by any good writer. The Mentor article was written by the
supreme authority on the subject, Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary. The
article on “Famous American Sculptors,” published last week, was
written by Mr. Lorado Taft, one of the best-known sculptors in America.
When Mr. Taft writes about Barnard, French, Bartlett and the other
American sculptors he is giving an account of his fellows in art. It
is fortunate that so able and so interesting a critical writer on
sculpture as Mr. Taft could be found among sculptors. He has given to
us in The Mentor just what we want--information imparted in a simple,
interesting way, and with authority.

       *       *       *       *       *

It is worth a great deal to us to read what others have to say about
The Mentor. It is a genuine satisfaction to receive from far-off
California a message of “surprise and great delight over this ‘wise
and faithful guide and friend,’ which surely fills a need in the lives
of busy people.” A friend nearer by, in Brooklyn, offers thanks for
our “wonderful weekly. The pictures are lovely,” she says. “Already I
have shown it to many of my friends, and they are just as interested
and pleased as I am. You most certainly deserve a vote of thanks from
the people for placing this beautiful educational magazine within easy
reach of everyone.”

       *       *       *       *       *

The thanks we appreciate, but what we value most is that our Brooklyn
correspondent showed The Mentor to many of her friends and that they
were just as pleased and interested as she was. A letter like that
from every reader of The Mentor would mean an aggregate membership for
The Mentor Association that would make it unique among the educational
institutions of the world. There is a prospect that we hold fondly
before us--that of every reader showing The Mentor to every friend that
might be interested.

       *       *       *       *       *

And then, when all of these friends have seen The Mentor, they will
want the numbers from the beginning. We say they “will want” them,
for that is what most of our subscribers demand. A teacher in Kansas
writes, “The Mentor is a delight, and its value is beyond expression.
I feel that I cannot miss a single issue, so please send me the
numbers from the beginning.” A teacher from Pittsburgh, immediately on
receiving the first copy of the magazine, asks for all previous issues.
An agent in insurance writes from Arkansas for the preceding numbers,
adding, “I cannot afford to lose one copy.”

       *       *       *       *       *

So from St. Louis we hear, “Send me all preceding issues,” and from
New Haven a college student writes, “I like the publication so much
that I do not wish to miss even one number.” We lack space to cite all
cases of this kind, but as we turn over the mail we find here a request
from Toronto for “all numbers, beginning with the first,” another from
Charleston, and a third from Hyannis, Massachusetts, demanding “all
preceding numbers.”

       *       *       *       *       *

It has become a regular daily incident, and it shows the unique
character of The Mentor publication. It is not simply a magazine.
Subscribers do not send for all back numbers of the ordinary magazine
from the beginning of its existence. Every number of The Mentor is
part of an interesting educational plan. The members of The Mentor
Association want _all_ parts of that plan.



[Illustration: FRIDTJOF NANSEN]

_Fridtjof Nansen_

ONE


“Death or the west coast of Greenland!” A tall, fair Norwegian made
this resolution in November, 1887, and one year later the great
ice-bound continent of Greenland, the “Sahara of the North,” was
crossed for the first time. It was Fridtjof Nansen who accomplished
this feat, in the face of almost insurmountable difficulties and
terrible dangers. When he first proposed his plan famous scientists and
seasoned explorers laughed at him. But Nansen was determined. Though
his own government would not help him, a wealthy Dane had enough faith
in the “madman,” as he was called, to advance him $1,350 for his daring
enterprise.

It was only after the greatest difficulty that Nansen and his party
reached the east coast of Greenland at all in order to begin their land
journey over the continent. They had to cross an ice stream ten miles
wide to do it. Finally, however, they reached Umivik, and started on
their hazardous journey across the desert of ice. Escapes from death
were many. One day when they were more than halfway across Nansen was
steering the first of the two sledges, which was rushing along under
full sail.

“It was already growing dusk,” writes the great explorer himself,
“when I suddenly saw in the general obscurity something dark lying
right in our path. I took it for some ordinary irregularity in the
snow, and unconcernedly steered straight ahead. The next moment, when
I was within no more than a few yards, I found it to be something very
different, and in an instant swung round sharp, and brought the sledge
up to the wind. It was high time too; for we were on the very edge of
a chasm broad enough to swallow comfortably sledges, steersmen, and
passengers. Another second, and we should have disappeared for good and
all.”

Finally the west coast of Greenland was reached, on September 29, 1888,
and the supposedly impossible had been accomplished.

Fridtjof Nansen was born near Christiania in Norway on October 10,
1861. His first Arctic voyage was made in 1882 in a sealing vessel.
After he had successfully crossed Greenland he was appointed curator of
the Museum of Comparative Anatomy in Christiania University. It was in
1893 that he made his thrilling attempt to reach the North Pole.

He had a ship built, the Fram, especially to withstand ice pressure,
and sailed to the Polar Sea in the neighborhood of the New Siberian
Islands. He figured that he would be drifted by a current over the Pole
and would come out on the east side of Greenland. But, though he found
that the current was in nearly the right direction, it would not carry
him over the Pole; so he and one companion left the Fram at latitude
83° 59´ and started for the North Pole on foot.

On April 8, 1895, when they had reached 86° 14´, “farther north” than
anyone up to that time had reached, they found that they would have to
turn back. They managed to reach Franz Josef Land, where on June 17,
1896, they met part of another Arctic expedition.

When Nansen returned to Norway he was showered with medals and other
honors. In 1905 he was appointed Norwegian minister at London.


  PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
  ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 37
  COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.



[Illustration: DUKE OF THE ABRUZZI]

_The Duke of the Abruzzi_

TWO


In olden times kings and princes were the warlike leaders of their
countrymen, the doers of heroic deeds. Nowadays they are kept so busy
thinking how to govern wisely that they don’t get a chance to be
heroes. But there is at least one prince of these modern times who has
proved himself the equal if not the superior in bravery of any of those
oldtime royal heroes. This is Prince Luigi Amadeo of Savoy-Aosta, Duke
of the Abruzzi; whose full name, by the way, is Luigi Amadeo Giuseppe
Maria Ferdinando Francesco.

Prince Luigi is an Italian, the son of Amadeo, ex-king of Spain. He
was also a nephew of King Humbert of Italy, and therefore the first
cousin of the present king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel. Luigi was born at
Madrid, January 29, 1873. He studied at the naval college at Leghorn.

It was there that he first showed his truly democratic spirit. He
preferred to be called by his first name, and never allowed himself to
be addressed as “Duke” or “Royal Highness.” From college he entered
the Italian navy, where he made a good record for obedience and
intelligence.

But to settle down as a mere prince or duke would never have satisfied
one of Luigi’s adventurous character. He wanted to do big things and
accomplish dangerous deeds. His first exploit was the ascent of Mt. St.
Elias in Alaska. Until he accomplished this in 1897 the great peak had
never been scaled.

It was in 1900 that he led an expedition to the Arctic region which
broke Nansen’s “farthest north” record. Unfortunately the duke himself
was severely frostbitten and could not leave the ship; but Captain
Umberto Cagni reached latitude 86° 33´, and came nearer the Pole by a
few miles than Nansen.

The Duke’s ship, the Polar Star, sailed from Christiania on June 12,
1899. Seriously crushed by the ice, they had a hard task to prevent its
sinking. But this was done, and Cagni with a party set out over the ice
of the Arctic Ocean for the Pole. Their sufferings were terrible, and
only heroic efforts brought them back alive. The expedition returned
home in 1900, where honors were heaped upon them all.

But even these successes did not satisfy the royal adventurer. He
looked around for other fields to conquer, and found that the loftiest
peak in the Ruwenzori range in Africa, the “Mountains of the Moon” of
Ptolemy, had never been scaled. He conquered this awe-inspiring height
in 1906.

In 1909 he tried to conquer Mt. Godwin-Austen in the Himalayas. This
peak is the second highest known in the world. It rises 28,250 feet in
the air. The duke reached a little over 19,000 feet; but was compelled
to give up the attempt. But he turned to Bride Peak, near at hand,
rising 25,100 feet, and ascended it a distance of 24,580 feet, the
world’s record for altitude.

And notwithstanding the fact that he has accomplished so many big
things and done so many brave deeds, the Duke of the Abruzzi is very
modest, and rarely wears any of his innumerable decorations and medals.



[Illustration: ROBERT E. PEARY]

_Robert E. Peary_

THREE


The North Pole! One white man, a negro, and four Eskimos treading where
never before had trodden human foot! And Old Glory flying free at the
top of the world! That was on April 6, 1909. After years of such effort
as only those can appreciate who have struggled with the frozen North,
Robert E. Peary had reached the goal of which he had dreamed for a
quarter of a century. The thought, the plan, the untiring effort, were
all his, and now the everlasting glory and honor of the achievement
were to be his also.

Robert E. Peary is a man peculiarly fitted by nature to be the
discoverer of the North Pole. He was born in Pennsylvania on May
6, 1856. He comes of an old family of Maine lumbermen, an active,
adventurous, outdoor stock of French-Anglo-Saxon origin. His father
died when he was three years old, and his mother moved to Portland,
Maine, where the boy grew up with the sea and its swimming, rowing, and
sailing on one side of him, and the woods and fields to stimulate his
love for nature on the other.

He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1877, second in a class of
fifty-one. In college, besides being a brilliant student, he was a good
athlete, being especially proficient in running, jumping, and walking.
After graduating he was first a land surveyor, and then in 1879 secured
a place in the Coast and Geodetic Survey at Washington. Then he was
appointed a member of the Navy Department of Civil Engineering, with
the rank of lieutenant. In the first year of his service (1881) he
saved the government nearly thirty thousand dollars on a pier that he
built at Key West, Florida. He was then sent to Nicaragua as sub-chief
of the Interoceanic Canal Survey. There he learned to manage men;
he gained experience in equipping expeditions, in making camp under
adverse conditions, in traversing wild and unexplored country.

It was in 1885, on his return from Nicaragua, that the idea of Arctic
exploration first came to him. He managed to secure leave of absence,
and sailed in May, 1886. On this voyage he penetrated over a hundred
miles into the interior of Greenland. Six years later he proved that
Greenland was an island by crossing it and reaching its northern end.

After that he continued his explorations, in 1906 reaching 87° 6´, the
“farthest north” anyone had yet gone, and in 1909 he reached the Pole.
Here is how Peary describes his feelings after he knew that he had
succeeded:

“But now,” he writes in his book, “The North Pole,” “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 that 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.”

By special act of Congress Peary was promoted to the rank of rear
admiral and received the thanks of Congress. He has been awarded the
premier medal of every prominent geographical society in the world.



[Illustration: SIR ERNEST H. SHACKLETON]

_Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton_

FOUR


On March 24, 1909, all the world was thrilled by the news that on the
ninth of January a point had been reached nearer the South Pole than
had ever before been attained. Shackleton and three companions had
penetrated the white waste of the Antarctic regions to within 111 miles
of the Pole. The British Union Jack was flying at “farthest south.”
Shackleton started for the South Pole from Lyttelton, New Zealand, on
New Year’s Day, 1908, in the Nimrod. A new idea was introduced into
polar exploration when the commander decided to depend on Manchurian
ponies instead of dogs for transportation. A motorcar was also used
to carry supplies. But both the ponies and the automobile were found
wanting when it came to the test, as the ponies gave out, and the car
could make no progress over the rough ice.

The first important thing that the Shackleton expedition accomplished
was the ascent for the first time of Mt. Erebus, the southernmost
volcano in the world, 13,120 feet high. The summit of this great peak
was reached on March 10, 1908. An active crater was discovered half a
mile in diameter and 8,000 feet deep. It was belching vast volumes of
steam and sulphurous gas to a height of 2,000 feet.

Part of this expedition also reached the South Magnetic Pole; that is,
where the south end of the compass needle points. This had never before
been done.

Shackleton’s dash for the South Pole is a record of hardships bravely
borne and difficulties overcome. He and three others started from Cape
Boyd on October 29, 1908. By November 30 they had been forced to shoot
three of the ponies. Two days later an enormous glacier, 120 miles
long and 40 miles wide, was discovered. Another pony was lost through
a crevasse in the ice on December 7, and from then on each man had to
haul 250 pounds.

Finally, on January 4, 1909, they decided to push on with only one
tent. Then a fierce sixty-hour blizzard swooped down upon them, and
held the party powerless for two days. They realized that they must
turn back without reaching the Pole. It was a bitter disappointment
to Shackleton to fail when they were within such a short distance of
success. But, as he says, “We had honestly and truly shot our bolt at
last,” and if they were ever to return, it must be now.

On the morning of January 9, without the sledge, they made one last
dash south, and planted at latitude 88° 23´ a flag given Shackleton by
the queen, and the Union Jack. The journey back was then begun, and the
ship reached on March 4.

Ernest Henry Shackleton was born in Ireland in 1874. His education was
never completed, as he followed a natural inclination to go to sea
before graduating from college. He sailed round the world four times,
and during the Boer War took part in the transportation of troops. In
1901 he was a member of Scott’s expedition, which reached “farthest
south” at that time. After running for Parliament in 1906 and failing
to be elected, he organized the expedition of 1908-09.

He was knighted by the British government for his services as an
explorer, and has received many medals and other high honors.



[Illustration:

  © UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD

ROALD AMUNDSEN]

_Roald Amundsen_

FIVE


To accomplish that which for three centuries had been unsuccessfully
attempted would satisfy most people. But not a man like Roald Amundsen,
descendant of Vikings. To discover the Northwest Passage, long sought
by Hudson, Cabot, Frobisher, Franklin, and other adventure-loving
explorers, and to locate the exact position of the North Magnetic Pole,
where the north end of the compass needle points, was not enough for
this intrepid Norwegian. And so he set out for the South Pole--and
reached it.

It was on March 8, 1912, that the entire world was electrified by the
cablegram from Hobart, Tasmania, announcing the fact that, sometime
between December 14 and 17, 1911, Captain Roald Amundsen had reached
the South Pole. With four men and eighteen dogs from his ship, the
Fram, Captain Amundsen crossed the great ice barrier and reached the
southernmost point of the world in fifty-five days. According to the
most accurate indication of his instruments, he was at the South Pole
at three o’clock on the afternoon of December 14. On the vast plateau,
10,500 feet above the sea level, which the explorer named King Haakon
Land, Amundsen unfurled the Norwegian flag.

Amundsen left Buenos Aires in South America late in 1910. It was
in October, 1911, that the real “dash” for the South Pole began.
Amundsen and four companions, with eighteen dogs, started southward.
Shackleton’s “farthest south,” a point 111 miles from the Pole, was
passed on December 8, six days before his goal was reached. Compared
with the sufferings that other explorers have undergone, Amundsen’s
party had a comparatively easy time.

Captain Amundsen’s whole career has been characterized by that
unconquerable courage, perseverance, and patience which the fierce sea
rovers of old had. Born at Borje, Norway, in 1872, he was educated for
the naval service of Norway-Sweden, and became a second lieutenant. He
was a born sailor. At the age of twenty-five he sailed with the Belgica
expedition to the Antarctic. He was first officer of this ship, which
in 1897-99 explored the region west of Graham Land. In 1901 he made
observations on the East Greenland Current which were considered very
valuable.

It was after this that he decided to give the rest of his life if
necessary to discovering the Northwest Passage. He sailed from
Christiania, Norway, on June 17, 1903. After three years’ wanderings
through ice, rocks, and unknown lands he finally brought his little
vessel, the Gjoa, through Bering Strait, thus being the first one to
navigate the Northwest Passage. It was during this voyage that he also
located the North Magnetic Pole.

Amundsen is considered one of the most daring and skilful of polar
explorers; but he is very modest about his own great achievements.



[Illustration: ROBERT F. SCOTT]

_Robert Falcon Scott_

SIX


Brave gentleman, gallant comrade, thoughtful of others even at the
end,--so died Captain Robert F. Scott, conqueror of the Antarctic, and
yet conquered by it. And no less credit is due his four companions, who
perished courageously in one of the greatest polar tragedies the world
has ever known. Robert Falcon Scott was born at Outlands, Davenport,
England, in 1868. He entered the navy at the age of fourteen. In
1900-1904 he commanded the Discovery, and besides making a new
“farthest south” record added greatly to scientific knowledge regarding
the Antarctic region. He was promoted to captain, and in 1910 was given
command of the ill-fated expedition on which he lost his life.

With four companions, Captain Scott on the final dash for the Pole left
his main party in camp at Cape Evans, the base of operations on McMurdo
Sound. On January 17, 1912, the South Pole was reached at last; but
they found to their great amazement that they had been preceded by over
a month by Amundsen and his party, who attained the Pole on December
14, 1911. The calculations of the two expeditions located the Pole on
nearly the same spot.

Then Scott and his comrades began the return, which ended so
tragically. Ill luck seemed to hover over them always. First Edgar
Evans died as the result of a fall in which he received concussion
of the brain. This tragedy left the remaining members of the party
terribly shaken. Then Captain R. E. G. Oates, a military officer who
had special charge of the ponies and dogs, became sick.

This slowed up the others, and fuel and food began to run low. Finally,
on March 17, Oates became too sick to go on in the face of a raging
blizzard. Although he begged them to push on and leave him, the other
three bravely refused, when they knew that to remain was death to all.
And then Oates coolly did that which will place his name high among
the heroes of all time. Deliberately he walked away from camp in the
swirling snow to death. His body was never found; but this inscription
was erected to his memory:

          Hereabout died
          A Very Gallant Gentleman
          Capt. R. E. G. Oates
          Inniskillen Dragoons,

    who on the return from the Pole in March, 1912, willingly
    walked to his death in a blizzard to try and save his comrades
    beset by hardship.

Only eleven miles from food and shelter, the blizzard held the others
imprisoned, and there they died. Their bodies and records were
recovered on November 12 by a relief expedition from Cape Evans. Dr.
Edward A. Wilson, chief of the scientific staff of the expedition,
and Lieutenant H. R. Bowers, had died with Captain Scott. The burial
service was read over the graves of the dead, and a cairn and a cross
with their names was erected.

Captain Scott’s last message, written at the door of death on March
25, 1912, shows the calm and uncomplaining heroism of the man,
especially one passage:

“For my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that
Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with
as great fortitude as ever in the past. We took risks. We knew we took
them. Things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause
for complaint; but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to
do our best to the last.”



Transcriber’s Notes


Simple typographical errors were corrected; punctuation, hyphenation,
and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was
found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.





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