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Peary was a brilliant engineer who designed the ship he is standing upon in this photo. In the last 40 years many men who thought themselves to be in "good physical condition" have been unable to reach the North Pole—thus forcing many men to appreciate that Peary knew exactly how to travel over the Arctic ocean and his books are a wealth of highly experienced information. Those who have ignored Peary such as Ranulph Fiennes have failed, Wally Herbert needed an entire air force to help him, Plaisted could not do it the first time with motorized snowmobiles(!), and other teams have had men half Peary's age air-lifted out due to frozen body parts.

Only today can we appreciate how mentally and physically tough Peary was. Much younger men, such as Wally Herbert, have been photographed riding on their dog sledges like passengers.

In 2005 a Canadian woman guide, Matty McNair, became the first person to reach the Pole in the same number of days that it took Matt & Peary--37 days. But still no one has dashed back to land (round trip) by dog sledge.
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Peary had lost his toes to frostbite, 10 years before reaching the Pole, but had adopted a sort of "shuffling gait" on his snowshoes. Even after his toe amputations he marched 1,000 miles to the unexplored northern tip of Greenland, mapping it as he went. He and Henson nearly starved on that expedition; they returned looking like skeletons. When Peary and Henson explored the upper most (northern) terminus of Greenland, they were the first human to do so They left rock pile cairns (markers) that were later verified to contain extremely accurate longitude & latitude readings.

The point? That Peary was the toughest Arctic explorer on record. His accuracy & skill as a surveyor is unsurpassed. As an engineer he was the most innovative with his developments and improvements of native fur clothing, dog sledges, fueled stoves, and lightweight essentials for traveling. His designs, advice, ship building criteria, and much more are contained in his remarkable 1917 work "Secrets of Polar Travel."

Copyright© 1999, Bradley Robinson