THE NORTH POLE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2597, 3 September 1909, Page 5

THE NORTH POLE.

STARTLING STATEMENT.

AMERICAN GLAUMS TO HAVE REACHED THE: POLE.

Unitrd Press ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. / (Received September 2, 10.30 p.m!) LONDON, Sept. 2. Dr. Frederick Albert Cook, of Brooklyn, Arctic explorer, has telegraphed to his wife from Lerwick (Shetland Islands) as follows: ''“Successful and well, address Copenhagen.” No tidings of Dr. Cook since tihe cablegram of sth October last were received until the arrival of the Danish steamer Honsogede at Lerwick yes>terday. She anchored for tiwo hours and then proceeded td Copenhagen,. Absolute secrecy regarding Dr Cook’s journey was maintained. The Danish Consul himself was bound over to secrecy by the explorer before receiving any information, but the Inspector of Greenland was a passenger, and telegraphed to the administration of the Greenland colony at Copenhagen a s follows: “We have aboard Dr. Cook, who reached the North Pole on 21st April, 1908. Dr. Cook arrived at Upernaviok from Cap© York in May, 1909. The Eskimos of Cape York confirm the truth of Dr. Cook’s journey.” Dr. Cook’s companion, Randolph Francke, find ip g the climate too severe, returned to Newfoundland in 1908. Dr Cook proceeded with two Eskimos and eight dog teams laden with supplies. Reuter’s Brussels correspondent telegraphed on Wednesday that M. LocOinte, director of the Uccle Observatory, received a telegram from Dr. Cook, who announced that he had. reached the Pole, and had, discovered land in the extreme north.

ELATION AT NEW YORK. The “Times” New York correspondent says that the news was received there with elation. So little publicity was given to Dr. Cook’s expedition and so much to Commander Peary’s attempt to reach the Pole, that almost everybody was taken completely by surprise. Even the officers of the National Geographic Society at Washington confessed that they! knew little about the expedition. There is great excitement and ‘enthusiasm at Copenhagen, where Dr. Cook is expected on Saturday.

THE EVIDENCE INCOMPLETE

(Received September 2, 11.15 p.m.) Lieutenant Shaekleton, in London, and King Edward, at Marienbad, are highly interested in the message of the Inspector of Greenland. >- The news startled London. The “Times” remarks that the evidence is yet very incomplete, but has the appearance of bona fides, and Dr. Cook’s previous record must be taken seriously. A later iwssage says that after the Hansegedes’s departure yesterday it was stated at Lerwick that Dr. Cook has merely reached the north magnetic pole. If this is so, the exploit is not ■remarkable,, as Sir James Ross attained * the magnetic pole in 1836. Lieutenant Shaekleton calculates that if the North Pol© itself was reached, Dr. Cook covered 483 miles in 35 days.

THE PREVIOUS BEST RECORD

[Commander Peary sailed from Sydney, Ca-pe Breton, on July 17 last year, in the Roosevelt, in an attempt to reach the North Pole. He intended to take up winter quarters north of Grant Land, where he wintered in 1905-6, and to be away two years. The explorer who had penetrated nearest to the Pole before Dr. Cook was the Duke of Abruzzi, an Italian prince, third son of the Duke of Aosta, a member of the Royal House of Savoy, who in 1900 reached latitude 86.33 north, beating Nansen’s record of 86.14 north.]