Peary, Robert Edwin 1856-1920

PEARY, ROBERT EDWIN 1856-1920

Admiral and arctic explorer

Background

Born in Cresson, Pennsylvania, Robert Edwin Peary studied civil engineering at Bowdoin College in Maine, graduating in 1876. In 1879 he joined the U.S. Coast and Geodetic service as a draftsman, and he signed up with the navy as a civil engineer in 1881. In 1884 and 1885 he was sent with a navy expedition to survey prospects for an interoceanic canal in Nicaragua, where he devised locks of a great height for the proposed channel. He returned to Nicaragua in 1887 in charge of new canal surveys. When Congress finally opted for a Panama site in 1902, Peary's surveys were forgotten.

Greenland

Peary's first northern expeditions were to Greenland. In 1886 he set out to cross the island from the western coast on a one-man sled of his own design, achieving greater penetration of the inland ice cap than ever before and greater elevation (2,125 feet). The area he explored around Mount Wistar has ever since been called Peary Land. He realized that a party equipped with snowshoes and skis could use the ice cap as an "imperial highway" to reach the eastern coast. On a second expedition in 1892 he crossed the island northeastward from Whale Sound. This sled trip made him a world figure. Another land crossing in 1895 confirmed that Greenland was an island. On summer trips in 1896 and 1897 he excavated meteorites at Cape York and studied the peculiar wind system of the island.

Still Heading North

Peary was granted a leave from the navy to explore the Arctic from 1898 to 1902. By 1900 he had lost all but two of his toes to frostbite, making all exploration physically difficult for him. In 1900 and 1902 he made two great sledding expeditions northward, reaching Lockwood's Island, thought to have been the northernmost site in Greenland, on 8 May 1900. Realizing there was still more land to the north, he pressed on to Cape Jesup, confirming the glacial origin of so-called floeberg ice, chunks that are too small to be icebergs. In 1902 he tried unsuccessfully for the pole and established a new "farthest north" at 84°17' on 14 April. He was turned back by impossible conditions and returned to naval duty.

The North Pole

Peary had all but given up his dream of reaching the pole, but Robert F. Scott's Antarctic expedition of 1905 encouraged him to try again. He designed a new polar steamship, named the Roosevelt after the exploration-minded American president, to provide a winter base and left on his seventh Arctic expedition on 16 July 1905. The route to the North Pole followed the north coast of Grant Land to Cape Moss and thence across sea ice directly to the pole, some 450 miles further on. On 21 April 1906 a new farthest north was established at 87°6', but the entire party was forced to head south to hunt game to provision the ship. The seventh expedition ended in late autumn 1906 when the Roosevelt was crippled in an ice pack and was forced to head south for repairs. The eighth and last expedition sailed from New York on 6 July 1908. Under Peary's plan there were five cooperating but independent teams, four of which were supporting parties that went back and forth with supplies. The objective was to place the main team on an advanced base at 87°47', 150 miles from the pole. Peary reached the pole on 6 April 1909, and took a comprehensive set of astronomical readings to establish his position. He was made rear admiral by an act of Congress in 1911, but only after submitting to cross-examination by a congressional committee, some of whose members were skeptical of his claims.

Last Years

Peary became an active member of the Aero Club of America and when World War I began in 1914 campaigned tirelessly for the creation of an American air force. He died of pernicious anemia on 20 February 1920.

Sources:

J. Gordon Hayes, Robert Edwin Peary: A Record of his Explorations, 1886-1909 (London: Grant Richards, 1929);

William Herbert Hobbs, Peary (New York: Macmillan, 1936).