The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-12-09
MADE FRAUDULENT
OBSERVATIONS
FOR DR.. COOK
Remarkable Charges Brought
Out by New York Times
WAS TO HAVE PAID $4,000
Men Engaged to do the Work Were
Not Paid and Revealed the
Transactions
WAS TO HAVE PAID $4,000

New York, Dec 9.-The New York
Times this morning publishes the
narratives of two men, made under
oath, declaring that they were en-
ployed by DR.. Frederick A. Cook to
fabricate astronomical and other OBJ
servations for submission to the Uni
versity of Copenhagen, which is
about to pass upon DR.. Cooks asser-
ton that he discovered the north
pole on April n, 1908. These men
are George H. Dunkle, an insurance
broker, of 81 Nassau Street. New
York. and Capt August Wedel Loose,
sea captain, of 437 Thirteenth
Street, Brooklyn. For their labors
they were to have received jointly
from DR.. Cook $4,000, with the addlt-
ional bonus of $500 TO Capt. Loose
upon the acceptance of the records
by the University OF Copenhagen.
They say that DR.. Cook had paid
them only $3.50 when he disappeared
on the eve of the dispatch OF his
records to Copenhagen two weeks
ago. and his failure to pay the sum
remaining due them they freely ac-
knowledged to be their motive for
coming forward with the story.
The main facts of Capt. Loose s
story and Mr.. Dunkle's have been
communicated to the University OF
Copenhagen. and the university, If It
wishes. can have the corroborative
documents received from these two
men. One of these purports to be
DR.. Cooks memorandum directing
the preparation Of observations from
Svartevang all the way to the pole.
The others comprise a mass of dia-
grams and calculations prepared by
Capt. Loose.
The full narratives OF Capt. Loose
and MIR Dunkle constitute one of the
-cet fascinating chapters IN all the
l.ler .ture Of i2pcstpre Cart. Loose,
frankly expresses mis- scorn OF Dr..
Cooks claims, laughs at his ignor-
ance of the simplest essentials for
accurate observations in the arctic
regions, and describes at length how,
working backward from the pole, ne
calculated observations that would
fit in with Cooks narrative, and
coached him on the necessary modi-
fications of the latter--as, for eX-
ample, that he must be sure to rec
ord that he rose before Ais o'clock
on a certain morning, because 1t was
at that hour that a certain star, men
toned in one of Loose's calculations,
would be visible. Mr. Dunkle des-
cribes the inception of the enter
prise: how from the newspapers they
gathered that Dr. Cook was in deep
water, and inferred that he would be
glad to pay for help; how Dunke got
John r. Bradley Cooks hacker, to
introduce him; how the subject was
led up to delicately and the bargain
finally struck and carried out, and
how, at last, DR.. Cook disappeared,
after accepting their work and pay
ing only $500 for it.
Both Capt. Loose and Mr.. Dunkle
tell of a visit to the shop of John
Bliss & Co at 12S Front Street few
DAYS after the Captains first talk
with the explorer at the Waldorf-As-
toria, and of purchasing for DR..
Cook various nautical and astronomi-
cal works, besides three charts of
Smith Sound and the polar regions.
Capt. Loose, in his statement says
he stayed at the Gramatan Hotel
from Nov. 16 to Nov 10 working out
for Or. Cook, and that
he and the doctor had frequent con
ferences. Mr.. Dunkle went with
him on Nov. l6, leaving the next day,
and he and Capt Loose having con
Meeting rooms