Editing Frederick Cook (section)

=== North Pole ===
[[File:Frederick Cook's 1909 arctic expedition.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Photo allegedly taken at, or near, the [[North Pole]]]]
Cook returned to the [[Arctic]] in 1907. He planned to attempt to reach the [[North Pole]], although he did not announce his intention until August 1907, when he was already in the Arctic. He left [[Annoatok]], a small settlement in the north of [[Greenland]], in February 1908. Cook claimed that he reached the pole on April 21, 1908, after traveling north from [[Axel Heiberg Island]], taking with him only two Inuit men, Ahpellah and Etukishook. On the journey south, he claimed to have been cut off from his intended route to Annoatok by open water. Living off local game, his party was forced to push south to [[Jones Sound]], spending the open water season and part of the winter on [[Devon Island]]. From there they traveled north, eventually crossing [[Nares Strait]] to Annoatok on the Greenland side in the spring of 1909. They said they almost died of starvation during the journey.

Cook and his two companions were gone from Annoatok for 14 months, and their whereabouts in that period is a matter of intense controversy. In the view of Canadian historian [[Pierre Berton]] (Berton, 2001), Cook's story of his trek around the Arctic islands is probably legitimate. Other writers have relied on later accounts told by Cook's companions to investigators, who seemed to present another view.

There are similarities between Ahpellah and Etukishook's sketched route of their journey south, and the route taken by the fictional shipwrecked explorers in [[Jules Verne]]'s novel ''[[The Adventures of Captain Hatteras]]''. For example, the route the two Inuit traced on a map goes over both the Pole of Cold and the wintering site of the fictional expedition. Both expeditions went to the same area of [[Jones Sound]] in hopes of finding a whaling ship to take them to civilization.<ref>Osczevski (2003).</ref>

Cook's claim was initially widely believed, but it was disputed by Cook's rival polar explorer [[Robert Peary]], who claimed to have reached the North Pole in April 1909. Cook initially congratulated Peary for his achievement, but Peary and his supporters launched a campaign to discredit Cook. They enlisted the aid of socially prominent people outside the field of science, such as [[American football|football]] [[Coach (sport)|coach]] [[Fielding H. Yost]] (as related in [[Fred Russell]]'s 1943 book, ''I'll Go Quietly'').

[[File:Picture of Frederick Cook.jpg|thumb|Cook in Arctic gear]]
Cook never produced detailed original navigational records to substantiate his claim to have reached the North Pole. He said that his detailed records were part of his belongings, contained in three boxes, which he left at Annoatok in April 1909. He had left them with [[Harry Whitney]], an American hunter who had traveled to Greenland with Peary the previous year due to the lack of manpower for a second sledge-journey {{Convert|700|mi|km|abbr=}} south to [[Upernavik]]. When Whitney tried to bring Cook's boxes with him on his return to the US on Peary's ship ''Roosevelt'' in 1909, Peary refused to allow them on board. As a result, Whitney left Cook's boxes in a cache in Greenland. They were never found.

On December 21, 1909, a commission at the [[University of Copenhagen]], after having examined evidence submitted by Cook, ruled that his records did not contain proof that the explorer reached the Pole.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/12/22/101752152.pdf | title=University Finds That Cook's Papers Contain no Proof That He Reached the North Pole | newspaper=The New York Times | date=December 22, 1909 | access-date=2011-12-20}}</ref> (Peary refused to submit his records for review by such a third party, and for decades the [[National Geographic Society]], which held his papers, refused researchers access to them.)

Cook intermittently claimed he had kept copies of his sextant navigational data, and in 1911 published some.<ref>Cook, F. (1911). ''My Attainment of the Pole''. pp. 258, 274. Cook's first account of what he left with Whitney did not mention data, and Whitney knew of no data in what was left with him. See Rawlins, 1973, pp. 87, 166, 301–302.</ref> These have an incorrect solar diameter.<ref>Rawlins (1972). ''[[Norwegian Journal of Geography]]''. Oslo University. '''26'''. pp. 135–140.</ref> Ahwelah and Etukishook, Cook's Inuit companions, gave seemingly conflicting details about where they had gone with him. The major conflicts have been resolved in the light of improved geographical knowledge.<ref>Osczevski, R. J. (2003). ''Arctic''. '''56''' (4).</ref> Whitney was convinced that they had reached the North Pole with Cook, but was reluctant to be drawn into the controversy.

The Peary expedition's people (primarily [[Matthew Henson]], who had a working knowledge of Inuit, and George Borup, who did not) claimed that Ahwelah and Etukishook told them they had traveled only a few days from land. A map allegedly was drawn by Ahwelaw and Etukishook that correctly located and accurately depicted then-unknown [[Meighen Island]], which strongly suggests that they visited it as they claimed.<ref>Osczevski, R. J. (2003). "Frederick Cook and the Forgotten Pole". ''Arctic''. '''56''' (2). pp. 207–217.</ref><ref>Rawlins, 1973, Chapter 6.</ref> Canadian [[Vilhjalmur Stefansson]]'s [[Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913–1916|expedition in 1916]] later landed on Meighen Island; Stefansson later read Cook's papers and agreed that Meighen Island was a Cook discovery. It is known as the only island to be discovered by a United States expedition in the North American arctic.<ref>[http://www.dioi.org/cot.htm#mvmn Discoveries: "Meighen Island"], DIOI.</ref> For more detail see Bryce (1997) and Henderson (2005).

The conflicting claims of Cook and Peary prompted [[Roald Amundsen]] to take extensive precautions in navigation during his [[South Pole]] expedition so there could be no doubt concerning attainment of the pole if successful. Amundsen also had the advantage of traveling over a continent. He left unmistakable evidence of his presence at the South Pole, whereas any ice on which Cook might or might not have camped would have drifted many miles in the year between the competing claims.

At the end of his 1911 memoir, Cook wrote: "I have stated my case, presented my proofs. As to the relative merits of my claim, and Mr. Peary's, place the two records side by side. Compare them. I shall be satisfied with your decision."