Peary Reached Pole After All, Study Says

A yearlong scientific analysis of the photographs and notes brought back by Robert E. Peary establishes that the explorer reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909, just as he claimed, the National Geographic Society said today.

The study was undertaken by the Navigators Foundation, a nonprofit organization that had asserted last February that there was room for scholarly doubt that the Navy admiral reached his destination.

The National Geographic Society sponsored Peary’s mission and has defended the explorer’s integrity.

The foundation said earlier that a page of calculations made by Peary offered no evidence one way or the other. That page had been cited by debunkers who claimed that Peary was off course and ended his quest for the pole 121 miles shy of his destination.

But in its new report, the navigators’ group said today that modern methods of analyzing at which position the sun stood when a photograph was taken helped establish the claim by Peary that he had gotten to the pole.

“Our analysis of the data Peary brought back from his journey--his celestial sights, his diary, his ocean soundings and his photographs--has convinced us that their final camp, named Camp Jesup, was no more than five miles from the pole,” the foundation said.

To conduct its investigation, the foundation compared Peary’s measurements of ocean depths, known as soundings, with modern profiles of the Arctic Ocean floor. The foundation said this analysis also supported Peary’s account.

The foundation based its report on a study of 225 cubic feet of papers on the Peary expedition as well as other documents.

One of Peary’s most vocal detractors is Dennis Rawlins, an astronomer and historian who in 1988 concluded that Peary had lied about his location.

“Suggesting Peary might not have reached the pole is one thing; declaring him a fraud is another,” said National Geographic President Gilbert M. Grosvenor, in attacking Rawlins’ conclusions.