Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-02-20
ADMIRAL PEARY DEAD
Continued from pagv 1

actua! first discovery. There can be M
ono who has forgotten the dispute
Pearys assertions were not seriously q,Ies
toned, but among newspaper readers
there cam G to be two great camps fol
and against Cook
Peary, with his record Of seven sue
cessful trips to the Arctic, his officia
standing in the United States Navy and
in scientific circles, easily held The com.
manding position in the controversy
| But ii was only after the scientific bodies
one by one had sifted the evidence and
pronounced Cooks claims unfounded
that Peary's title as discoveer of the
pole was really won.
The bitterness of this episode is only
one item IN the price which Peary paid for
the immortal fame that is now nc
knowledged to be his. He spent practical
| ly all he had IN money, gave all that was in
him for hard work, and suffered all that
the human frame could endure from hun
ger, cold and disappointment He made
| eight journeys into the Arctic, spent up
wards of half a million dollars and several
| times he barely escaped the d,ath which
| in various forms had been the fate Of
more ttan 700 explorers before him.
The first step that led Peary toward
the pole was taken in Washington one
| day when he walked into book store to
browse and picked up fugitive account
of Greenland He became an Unsuitable
reader ON the subject of the Arctic
He was then 80 years old. He was born
In Crcsson, Pa, in 1856. His father died
| when he was thyce years old, and his
mother took him To Portland. Me, where
he spent his boyhood, roaming about
Casco Bay. He went to Bowdoin College
won fame there as a runner and Jumper
and stood In the honor column of scholar
ship. Ii was little later that he had
gone TO Washington 20 work rs a draughts-
man in the Coast and Gcodetic Survey
offices. He spent his spare time studying
civil engineering and passed in that
branch into the naval service He be-
came Lieutenant Peary, u s. \.
His first assignment was to the tropics.
He was q leader of the surveying for the
Nicaraguan canal route. IL was when he
returned to Washington that he fell upon
the book about Greenland, and thereafter
virtually consecreatcd himself 10 polar
exploration.
Obtaining leave from the naval service,
he led an expedition into Greenland, To
determine the extent Of this mysterious
land He determined its insuarity, dis
covered and named many Arctic points
WHICH, NpidN are ltABiiiif flbIIlSc--sutn bS
Independence Bay, Melville Land, and
Heiprln Land, and in one of his later voy-
ages he discovered the famous meteorites
which be brought back To civilization.
One of them. weighing so tons, is the
wonder Of visitors TO the Museum of Nat
ural History in New York.
Between voyages Peary resorted to the
lecture platform TO raise funds for further
exploration In ono instance he de-
hvcred los lectures in 96 days, raising
$4,000
On his sixth voyage. with the pole in
view, he had to give up bcca use both Of
his feet became frozen. Although he had
vachcd the most northerly land in the
world naming II Cape Morris h. Jessup
al the tip of Greenland and had also at
tained Lat Si.l7, the northermost record
in the western world. he was stall IA great
despair He wrote in his diary:
'"Thc game is off, My dream of sixteen
years is ended | have made thc best
fight | knew. believe it was good one
But cannot accomplish the impossible "
BY the time Peary reached civilizs-
tIon. however, he had decided upon still
smother trip. With the specially designed
ship Roosevelt Peary drove furt her into
the frozen ocean than navigator had ever
h.s record for this seventh trip stood at
S6.6, where starvation and cold again
checked the party.
The explorer was 81 years old when in
July, 1908. be set out on bis eighth and
successful invasion Of the polar region.
Captain Bsrtlett, the veteran navigator
for Peary, shouted to Colonel Roosevelt
ss the ship was leaving its wharf at New
York: Its the pole or bust this time,
Mr. President"
The method Of attacking the pole was
IN five detaehments, pushing north IN the
manner of telescope At the SSth parallel
Peary parted with Capt3in Bartlett IN
charge of the fourth detachment, and he
with one member of his crew and four esQui-
mos made the final dash They covered
the 135 miles In five DAYS.
TIL irty hours from April to z were
spent at and around the Pole-a great
tract of frozen sea-none of the land
which DR.. Cook reported The weather
was cloudless and aawless. The tenn
perature ranged from 80 below to II
below. Where open places permitted
5000 feet Of wire. which was
al that Peary had, failed 10 touch the
bottom
When he got back to civilization Peary
troversy raging over him and his rival,
DR.. Cook, but he easily established his
claim before scientific bodies throughout
the world. lie was raised to the rank of
rear admiral of the United States Navy
and retired on pay; Congress voted him its |
thanks in a special act, and gold medals, /
declarations and honors of many kinds |
were showered upon him.
A scientific and popular narrative of his /
success he wove into a book called "The |
North Pole" while his other expeditions
are described in detail in his "Northward !
Over the Great lee" and Nearest the |
Pole"
Peary's closing years were spent in we'll !
earned rest, living for large part of the /
time with his family of three-wife, daugh- /
ter and soy--on Eagle Island, off the coast
from Portland, Me. Mrs Peary was
formerly Josephine Dieb;tseh, of Washing /
ton. d. C., marrying the explorer in 1888 |
She frequently accompanied her husband /
On his northward journeys, and on one
1f these trips Marie Ahnighito Peary was
born and bears the distinction Of having |
ocen born farther north than any other |
white child in the world. She is popu- |
arIy known as '"The Snow Babv.n