The question then becomes, could Peary have covered the distance to the Pole and back in the time he had to do it? His critics have scoffed at the distances he claims to have traveled on the final let to the Pole with Henson and the Eskimos as his sole companions. It follows inexorably that they also label as “faked” the series of celestial observations that undeniably show him to be in the immediate vicinity of the Pole. 

We minutely examined those sights for mistakes that a faker would be likely to make, and we would find no reason to believe that they are not genuine, as determined by the National Geographic Society’s experts in 1909. Among other things, the pattern of “random scatter,” the fingerprint of the field observer is completely consistent with other sights Peary made on previous expeditions. 

As to the distances in controversy, we specify them, as Peary did, as nautical miles “made good.” The polar party covered about 270 miles (excluding the excursions at the Pole) round-trip from 5 a.m. April 2, when they departed from Camp Bartlett (where the captain turned back), to 30 minutes after midnight on April 10, when they returned to the same camp after spending 30 hours in the vicinity of the Pole. 

Peary covered the distance to the Pole in five marches averaging about 27 miles per march, at an average speed of about 2.5 miles an hour. In 1986 Will Steger covered virtually the same distance at the same speed and expressed the opinion that Peary’s claims were not unreasonable. Peary’s return trip, from 4 p.m. on April 7 to 12:30 a.m. on April 10, is more frequently the basis of skepticism. This trek was made in three forced marches of about 45 miles per march, following the party’s old trail and using previously built igloos, totaling about 48 hours of sledging at an average speed of about 2.8 miles an hour, with nine hours of stops for good and rest. Peary’s rapid progress on the return trip was attributable more to the duration of his extended marches than to the small increase in speed. Both factors are understandable when one considers that every hour of delay increased the party’s chance that their southward travel would be hindered by winds that would obliterate the trail or open leads that could be slow to freeze over with the onset of warmer weather, leaving them to face starvation on the ice. Few explorers have been so motivated to drive themselves and their teams to the bounds of their endurance.

We examined the distances and speed of a number of sled travelers in the Arctic, including Peary himself on his earlier expeditions, and found that his 1909 figures are entirely credible. Dogs and sleds with far less skillful drivers than Matthew Henson and Peary’s Eskimos have often maintained or exceeded these claimed speeds over much longer distances. For example, Gunnar Isachsen, captain of the Fram under the Norwegian explorer Otto Sverdrup--who concedes the superiority of the Smith Sound Eskimos and their dogs, which he did not have--wrote in the Geographical Review in January 1929: “On our sledging trips we were not content with marches under 15 miles. We often made 20 to 30 miles, and marches of over 30 miles were not rare. Several times we even made marches of over 70 miles. If we could make such long marches over ice which may be supposed to have been about the same kind as the ice on the most difficult part of Peary’s journey, then even longer ones may be made on better ice such as that which Peary met on his journey to the Pole in 1909 to the north of the ‘Big Lead.’ It is my opinion that marches of the length of Peary’s on his North Pole expedition of 1909 are possible not only for parts of his trip but for the entire journey.” 

Continued...