THE REAL DISCOVERER OF THE NORTH POLE

Robert Peary Was The First Man To Reach The North Pole
Robert_Edwin_PearyThe Truth: Not even in his own account was Peary the first man to the pole. That was actually the other member of his expedition, Matthew Henson. However, Henson was black, so while Peary was widely celebrated, Henson sank into obscurity and had to get a job in customs to get by. Peary refused to answer Henson’s letters, help him get a job, or return the photos of the expedition that Henson had taken and paid for. Henson would later conclude that Peary was jealous he reached the pole first.However, even Henson probably wasn’t the first. Just before Peary and Henson returned, an explorer named Frederick Cook announced he had reached the pole. Unfortunately, Cook had left the instruments that would prove his claim with another member of his party while he rushed back with the news. The ship that was supposed to retrieve them vanished, and Cook’s assistant had to be rescued . . . by Peary, who demanded that Cook’s instruments be abandoned. Then he browbeat Cook’s Inuit employees—who could not speak English—into signing documents saying they hadn’t reached the pole. When he returned to America, Peary’s powerful backers launched a smear campaign against Cook. Without the instruments it’s impossible to be sure, but subsequent explorers have found that Cook’s description of his route matches the landscape perfectly, including things he would have no way of knowing had he been a fraud