COOK AND PEARY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 498, 23 October 1909, Page 3

COOK AND PEARY.

THE POLAR RIVALS

Concerning the first of the claimants to the conquest of the North Pole, a contributor, “ L.W.C-,” wrote in the Daily Mail a few weeks ago

A big, placid, bearded man, clear-eyed, Viking-like, very straight and sturdy, a man whom I regarded for a second long ago at the Manhattan end of the Brooklyu-bridge—that was one memory. He had been pointed out to me by a member of the Arctic Club.

“See that man?” my friend said “That is Dr. Cook.”

I heard nothing more of the explorer until some months afterwards, when word came that he had gone up to Greenland on a hunting expedition with Mr Bradley, and, when the time came to return,, had calmly announced that he meant to stay and make a dash for the Pole. It seems, by the way, that this decision was not quite so sudden as his friends supposed—Dr. Cook had his eye on the Pole all the time, and took advantage of his millionaire friend’s invitation to go on a trip to Greenland with the idea (“in the back of his head,” as the Americans say) that he might find an opportunity to get to the Pole. The only person he appears to have taken into his confidence was his wifeI was in New York when Mr Bradley caine back with the news that he had left the doctor up there amid the eternal ice. The story created only a mild interest —few “displayed” headlines, no long and perfervid reports in the newspapers, only a short article here and there. But—and this is another of the things that I recalled when Wednesday’s news came—Dr. Cook’s name happened to be mentioned one evening at a bachelor party at the Royalton, and one of the party knew the i doctor.

“And I bet he will do it,” he said. “I know Cook. If there is any way of getting to the Pole he will get there.” This opinion, I believe, was shared two years ago by all who knew Dr. Cook with any intimacy. He is one of those men who command confidence, with whom one cannot associate the idea of failure.

These Iriends have been watching and waiting for news, at first confidently, then nervously, then as the months and years passed, with less and less hope. The Belgica was not the first Polar expedition which Dr. Cook accompanied, for he was surgeon with Peary in 1891-1892. Commander Peary, by*the way, was reported as being rather irritated when the news was received that Dr. Cook was attempting a dash to the North Pole. The older explorer was then preparing the latest of his expeditious, and he is said to have made a remark to the effect that his former surgeon was “ stealing a march ”on him. It is hardly necessary to say that this indicates nothing more than Commander Peary’s realisation of Dr. Cook’s ability to achieve his purpose. Commander Peary’s book, “Northward Over the ‘Great Ice,’ ” is full of references to Dr. Cook, to whom were given some of the most arduous duties connected with the expedition. The author says in volume 1: —■ “To Dr. Cook’s care may be attributed the almost complete exemption of the parly from even the mildest indispositions, and personally I owe much to his professional skill and unruffled patience and coolness in an emergency.’’ In front of me as I finish this, is a portrait of Dr. Cook as he appeared after the “long night,” during which time he had not been attended to by a barber. It is a profile—the profile of a man with a face clean-cut as a Greek statue —with hair to his shoulders, and untrimmed beard. It is a magnificent head. Those old Norse chiefs who travelled far must have looked just like that.