The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1909-09-09

vi SpSSu III the AICllC, ACCORDING
to men who have been there. How
he could have kept up such a pace
continuously for IS days they can
not understand.
Some members of the Explor
ers' Club think there must be
some mistake in the date given in
the cablegram and believe that it
was much later when he reached
the Pole. If it took him but Is
days to get from Cape Thomas
Hubbard to the Pole. they cannot
understand why it should have
taken more than IS months for him
to get back into touch with civil
ton.
While DR.. Cooks trip TO the
Pole has been described as unpre-
meditated, and the result of a sud
den impulse prompted by the Arc
tic fever which always possessed
him, it was as a matter of fact
carefully planned. 1t was not un-
premeditated, but it was surreptiti-
Gus, as no advance information
of his purpose was given.
In consequence, the friends of
Lieutenant Peary, who is now in
the Far North in quest of the Pole,
have harshly criticised DR.. Cook
for nearly two years. They have
charged that he stole a march on
Peary when he sailed North in
August, 1907, ostensibly as a
member of hunting expedition.
The way DR.. Cook came to go
into the Arctic regions on the trip
which has seemingly eliminated
in the discovery of the North Pole
was this:
John +. Bradley, millionaire
resident Of New York, who has
hunted game in all corners of the
earth, decided to early in the
spring of 1907 to try his luck in
the frozen North. He consulted
DR.. Cook, and the latter agreed to
go with him. In consequence of
this agreement Mr.. Bradley really
became the financial hacker of an
enterprise which resulted in the
discovery of the North Pole, al
though he little dreamed ofsuch an
important eventuality at the time
of his first talk with DR.. Cook.
Mr.. Bradley bought a 1Io-ton
| Gloucester fishing schooner, fitted
her with an auxiliary gasoline en-
CINE, renamed her the John r.
Bradley and late in the spring of
1907 went North in her, with DR..
Cook in command.
When this expedition started
out 1t was announced to be moth
ing more than a hunting trip along
the Greenland coast. All the crew
OF the vessel so regarded it, and
even for nearly a year after the
vessels return from the North
without DR.. Cook, it was declared
that he had suddenly taken it into
his head to try one-man dash for
the Pole and had left the schooner
at Annortok for that purpose.
As matter Of fact the schooner
was specially fitted out with the
supplies which DR.. Cook would
need in dash to the Pole, and
was understood between him and
Mr.. Bradley from almost the out
set and that the attempt to reach
the Pole would be made. Mr..
Bradley admitted this in Tulv,
1908, when he said in statement:
II think DR.. Cook has the best
possible chance of reaching the
North Pole. He has / so dogs and
sleds, which he would have natur-
ally lightened as he got nearer the
Pole. Then the idea was for him,
after locating the Pole, to make
his way back to land as fast as he
could, killing the weaker dogs to
feed the stronger ones. IF he
reaches Greenland, he will be al
most certain to fall in with Danish
whalers.
when started to fit out nv
ship for my shooting excursion I
had no idea of making it include
a Polar excursion &C u,eN L,,+ n.