1

THE MENTOR
SERIAL NUMBER 37

THE CONQUEST OF THE POLES

BY
REAR ADMIRAL ROBERT E. PEARY
Discoverer of the North Pole

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 was2
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.

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.

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 incidents3
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.

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.

4
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.

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, has5
since been the base of operations from
which the South Pole was twice attained.

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.

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,6
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.

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.

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 Australia7
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.

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.

SHACKLETON AND HIS SON

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, the8
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.

Copyright, 1897, Harper & Bros.

NANSEN’S EXPEDITION

Digging the Fram out of the ice.

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 surface9
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.

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.

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 severest10
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.

Copr., 1913, by International News Service

IN MEMORY OF BRAVE MEN

The cross erected
on Observation
Hill to
Scott and his
courageous
companions.

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’s11
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.

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.

12

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381 Fourth Ave., New York, N. Y.

Volume 1     Number 37

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BY THE MENTOR 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
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A teacher from Pittsburgh, immediately on
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So from St. Louis we hear, “Send me
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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.

14

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.

16

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.

18

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.

20

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.

22

© 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.

24

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.”