Erik Relief Expedition (1898)
Robert E. Peary, ca. 1909.
“Peary had now been engaged in promoting Arctic expeditions for ten years. He had spent perhaps a million dollars. To himself in prospect and in retrospect, his life was now a failure. This was evident in the aging effect of his failing physique and in the icy mentality which now replaced a former youthful alertness.”8
Peary had gone north once again in 1898. The goal this time was to reach the North Pole from Greenland. Unfortunately, the timing was all wrong – the ship that he would take, Windward, would need to be fitted with new engines in order to have enough power to force its way north. Though Peary managed to find a backer to pay for the work, the necessary labor was delayed by a strike, and Peary ventured north without the needed modifications to the ship.
Additionally, Peary was forced to winter much further south than he had planned, on Cape D’Urville. Always the fierce competitor, a meeting with Otto Sverdrup, whose expedition was wintering close by, fueled Peary’s will to push north to Fort Conger. The darkness of the winter night, combined with the extreme temperatures – at times more than 50 degrees below zero – made finding Fort Conger extremely difficult. Peary’s health suffered, and he had to have seven of his toes amputated due to frostbite.9
Meanwhile, Peary had been gone more than two years, and his sponsors had become concerned about his welfare. Cook was asked to join the Erik, a steamer sent north to find Peary and his expedition. Cook describes the trip north to locate Peary as ‘uneventful’, and Peary was found on board his ship Windward in Etah Harbor, with his wife Jo and daughter Marie. Peary and his physician Dr. Dedrick had had some kind of falling out, with both claiming that the other was crazy.
Peary, left, with wife, Josephine and Professor Limond Stone, 1901.
According to Cook’s memoir, “Those of us on the Eric (sic) felt that the Arctic had done something to the mentality of both… not insanity, but the effect of long continued use of devitalized food.”10 Though urged by Dr. Cook and Josephine to end the expedition and go home to get some much needed rest and recuperation, Peary refused. Not yet ready to give up hope for reaching the North Pole, he sent the Erik back to civilization, with Dr. Cook on board.
8Hell is a Cold Place, chapter 5 page 7.
9Mills, William J. Exploring Polar Frontiers: a historical encyclopedia, 2003. Entry for Peary, Robert, pp. 512-513.
10Hell is a Cold Place, chapter 5 page 8.
