Polar Pathways: Robert E. Peary's Arctic Expeditions
The North Pole - Departure
Peary and Bartlett stand onboard the Roosevelt
"The work of the expedition... began with Bartlett's
departure from the Roosevelt on the 15th of February for the final
sledge journey toward the Pole. The preceding summer we had driven the
ship through the almost solid ice of the channels lying between Etah and
Cape Sheridan; we had hunted through the long twilight of the autumn to
supply ourselves with meat; we had lived through the black and melancholy
months-long arctic night, sustaining our spirits with the hope of final
success when the returning light should enable us to attack the problem
of our passage across the ice of the polar sea. Now these things were all
behind us, and the final work was to begin.
"It was ten o'clock on the morning of February 22d—Washington's
Birthday—when
I finally got away from the ship and started on the journey toward the Pole.
This was one day earlier than I had left the ship three years before on the
same errand. I had with me two of the younger Eskimos, Arco and Kudlooktoo,
two sledges and sixteen dogs. The weather was thick, the air was filled with
a light snow, and the temperature was 31° below zero." - Robert E.
Peary in The
North Pole, published in 1910
Food
Rations for
Peary and His Team
Loading
Rations and Equipment onto the Sledges
Exploration
Supporting Parties
A Series of Delays
"Peary and Bob Bartlett on deck" by Donald B. MacMillan, 1908, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum Collections
