Frederick Cook

Frederick Albert Cook (June 10, 1865 – August 5 1940) was an American explorer and physician, noted for his weakly-documented claim of having reached the North Pole in April, 1908, a year before Robert Peary.

Life
Cook was born in Hortonville, New York. His parents were Dr. Theodore A. Koch and Magdalena Koch (nee Long), recent German immigrants to the USA.

Cook attended Columbia University and subsequently New York University, from which he received his M.D. in 1890. In 1889 he married Libby Forbes, who died in childbirth in 1890. On his 37th birthday he married Marie Fidele Hunt; they had one daughter, Helen. In 1923 they were divorced.

Early expeditions
Cook was the surgeon on Robert Peary's 1891-92 Arctic expedition, and on the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897-99 led by Adrien de Gerlache. He contributed greatly to saving the lives of the crew when their ship was ice-bound during the winter. He also met Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, with whom he established a friendship and life-long relationship of mutual respect.

In 1903 Cook led an expedition to Mount McKinley, and claimed to have made the first ascent in 1906 on his second attempt.

The Arctic Club and The Explorers Club
Dr. Cook was a founding member of two New York-based clubs: the Arctic Club (1894-1913) and The Explorers Club (1904-present). In 1907-1908 Cook served as the second President of The Explorers Club.

North Pole
After the Mount McKinley expedition, Cook returned to the Arctic in 1907 for what he said was intended to be only a hunting expedition. But then Cook decided to make an attempt to reach the North Pole in the spring of 1908, taking with him only two Inuit men, Ahwelah and Etukishook. Cook claimed to have reached the pole on April 21, 1908 after travelling north from Axel Heiberg Island. Living off local game, his party pushed south to winter on Devon Island; from there they traveled north, crossing the Nares Strait to the village of Anoatok on the Greenland side in the spring of 1909, almost dying of starvation during the journey.

In the view of polar historians such as Pierre Berton (Berton, 1988), Cook's story of his trek around the Arctic islands is probably legitimate, but it is doubtful that he actually reached the pole. It has been suggested that Cook’s account actually describes his attainment of Jules Verne’s "Pole du Froid" (Pole of Cold), not the geographic North Pole. For details, see Osczevski, 2003. Cook's claim was initially widely believed because reporters were convinced of his honesty and sincerity. But it was disputed by Cook's now-rival polar explorer Robert Peary, who claimed to have reached the North Pole himself in April 1909. Cook initially congratulated Peary for his achievement, but Peary and his supporters launched a campaign to discredit Cook, even enlisting the aid of socially-prominent persons outside the field of science such as football coach Fielding Yost (as related in Fred Russell's 1943 book, I'll Go Quietly).

Cook could never produce instruments or detailed original records to substantiate his claim to have reached the North Pole. He had left these behind in Greenland with American hunter Harry Whitney, rather than risk transporting them further by sledge. When Whitney tried to bring them with him on his return to the USA on Peary's ship, Peary refused to allow them on board. Whitney abandoned them in Greenland and they were never recovered. Cook's Inuit companions also gave conflicting stories about where they had gone with him. For more detail see Bryce, 1997 and Henderson, 2005. The conflicting, and possibly dual fraudulent claims, of Cook and Peary prompted Roald Amundsen to take particularly extensive precautions in navigation during his South Pole expedition to leave no room for doubt concerning attainment of the pole. See Polheim.

Failed Reputation
It was in this atmosphere that it was first alleged that Cook's ascent of Mt McKinley was fraudulent. Ed Barrill, his companion on the ascent, signed an affadavit denying that they had reached the top, but there is some evidence that he was paid by Peary supporters to do so (Henderson, 2005). A photograph purporting to show the summit was found to have been taken on a smaller mountain 19 miles away. One expedition by the Mazama Club in 1910 reported that Cook's map departed abruptly from reality while the summit was still 10 miles distant, but another 1910 expedition verified much of Cook's account (Henderson, 2005). Modern climber Bradford Washburn made the discrediting of Cook a personal mission, and was able to identify the location of every photograph Cook took of his McKinley climb, including his "summit" photograph, and reproduce them. None were taken anywhere near the summit (and, as the thousands who have climbed McKinley subsequently can verify, his descriptions of the summit ridge bear no resemblance to the actual mountain).

Cook's reputation never recovered, and Peary's claim was widely accepted. Cook spent much of the rest of his life continuing to write defenses of his trip to the pole and attempting to sue writers who claimed that he had faked the trip. In 1923 he was convicted of stock fraud, and was imprisoned until 1930. He was pardoned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940, shortly before his death on August 5 of that year.

Cook is a major character in a fiction book, The Navigator of New York, by Wayne Johnston, published in 2003. In recent years Peary's account has encountered renewed criticism and skepticism (Henderson, 2005). Which man, if either, was first to reach the North Pole continues to be a matter of considerable controversy. At the end of his 1911 book, 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.''

Frederick Cook’s remains are at the Chapel of Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York.