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Vladislav
S. Koryakin, the Polar
historian of the
Russian Academy of
Sciences and a
glaciologist-scholar
who has researched the
pioneer efforts of
western explorers to
reach the North Pole
for more than 30
years, has published
the first
foreign-language
biography of Frederick
A. Cook.
Prof.
Koryakin, who
delivered a paper at
the Symposium on
“Cook
Reconsidered” at the
Byrd Polar Research
Center in 1993, has
edited the Russian
editions of Cook’s
My Attainment of the
Pole and Peary’s The
North Pole. He has
also assisted in the
translation and
editing of the works
of Amundson and
Freuchen in Russia. He
has published several
papers on scientific
and historical themes
involving the changing
currents of the North
Polar regions.
The
book has been
translated in
part by Dr.
Valery
Gataulin of
the Byrd Polar
Research
Center.
Following are
summary
descriptions
of part of the
Koryakin
thesis, which
concludes that
“Cook’s
descriptions
of natural
conditions in
the Central
Arctic do not
contradict
modern
scientific
views:”
I pay special
attention to
the skills and
abilities
demonstrated
by Dr. F.A.
Cook – his
knowledge in
the fields of
navigation and
geology,
knowledge and
understanding
of these
subjects which
he obtained
from his
association
with Amundsen
and
Dobrowolsky
during the
voyage of the
Belgica. With
regard to the
question of
geology, for
example, his
descriptions
of the geology
of Ellesmere
Island noted
during his
crossing in
1908 during
his expedition
to the North
Pole
correspond in
whole with
modern data
(Geological
Map of the
Arctic, 1960).
Cook’s
reinstatement
into
legitimacy was
not caused by
humanity, but
by scientific
necessity. In
this way,
history
restored
everything
into its
place, and it
is possible to
speak about
historical
justice. The
historians of
the Arctic
simply had to
continue
investigations
by their own
methods,
mainly relying
on the
accumulated
data. |
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However,
neither my colleagues
nor I had any strong
intention to force
these issues due to
several reasons.
First, we were totally
engaged in our
exploration of the
Arctic, which involved
much of time and
effort. Secondly, we
believed that the
debate about attaining
the pole is an
American issue, and we
wanted to let them
solve it themselves.
Thirdly, we did not
have any wish to
provide propaganda
material to our own
speculators who
profited through
“the cold war”.
But the main reason
was that we did not
have Cook’s
materials; in our
country, his books
were not published.
Without
this firsthand
information, we were
unable to judge where
he was correct and
where mistaken or
deceived. Peary’s
“North Pole” was
published several
times, but it’s
difficult to imagine a
more boring and
uninformative book
about the Arctic. We
had one more of
Peary’s works, “To
the North on the Big
Ice”, published in
1906, and that was
all!
However,
the attitude towards
Cook began to change
throughout the course
of time. It is
important to note that
this revision of views
was undertaken not by
historians, but by
polar researchers on
the basis of the
comparison of the
Arctic reality to the
descriptions of both
challengers. It was a
paradox that all the
information about
natural conditions
given by Cook, who was
accused of being a
liar and charlatan
during the 50’s,
started to fit
logically the system
of natural
interrelations that
was established quite
recently by the Soviet
and American polar
researchers.
The
author first felt the
changes in the
attitude towards Cook
from the character of
the articles in the
“Arctic” (The
journal of the Arctic
Institute of North
America). These
articles were devoted
to the discovery by
Cook of drifting
islands of glacier at
88th degree of
Latitude North. Then
arose the first doubts
about the fairness of
the charges against
him. Shortly after
that, A.F. Laktionov
in his book “The
North Pole” (Moscow,
1960) quoted a
statement of Joseph
Fletcher, the chief of
the first American
drifting station T-3,
who claimed that
Cook’s descriptions
could not be written
without actually
witnessing the natural
phenomena represented.
Later on, new
important details
appeared in D.M.
Pinkenson’s work
“Problems of the
Northern Sea Route at
the Time of
Capitalism”, and
“ice was
broken…”
Cook
was one of the last of
the traditional school
of Polar exploration
whose main task was
the filling-in of
blank spots in the map
of the Arctic. He
possessed the gift of
sharp visual
perception of natural
processes, a gift
recorded by his friend
Amundsen in 1898-1899
(1927). Cook’s
methods of exploration
were a necessary link
in his understanding
of the interaction
among different
components of the
Arctic environment
(oceanic streams,
atmospheric winds, ice
drift, etc.).
After
studying Cook’s
account of the
physical conditions in
the high Arctic and at
the North Pole which
he encountered during
his Polar journey and
comparing the elements
of this account with
modern data from this
region, the
correlation between
the two is clear.
I
would like to
emphasize that Cook
was a specially sharp,
visually observant
explorer and the
results of his visual
observations with
instrumental
connections made him
one of the most
interesting,
outstanding and useful
Polar explorers of his
time.
In
spite of the
limitations imposed by
the need to travel by
dog sledge, Cook in
his Polar journey
approached a new,
higher scientific
level in Polar
geography. He
discussed new horizons
of Polar science with
his adherent Amundsen
in 1927, in particular
the opportunity to
make visual
observations in the
high Arctic from the
air, using aircraft
for Arctic
exploration. This idea
came to Amundsen after
his discovery of the
South Pole in 1911 and
he received the first
pilot’s certificate
in Norway.
Amundsen
invited Cook to take
part in his air
programme of Arctic
exploration but the
disappearance of the
great Norwegian during
his last “Latam”
flight brought an end
to this promising
prospective
collaboration of the
most famous Polar
explorers of the first
decades of the
Twentieth Century.
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I
have concluded
that there is
a high degree
of correlation
of all of
Cook’s
observations
of physical
conditions in
the North
Polar area
with modern
information
concerning the
North Pole and
the Central
Arctic Basin
and the system
of the
interrelations
of the
different
components of
the Polar
environment. A
similar
conclusion was
expressed by
the
distinguished
Polar
authority
Joseph
Fletcher, but
this author
has studied
only certain
aspects of
Cook’s real
merits in his
high latitudes
research. The
long list of
confirmations
of Cook’s
first
descriptions
of physical
conditions and
natural
features at
the North Pole
and in the
Central Arctic
Basin which
substantiates
this.
All
the components
of his Polar
experience
from
1891-1899,
described
here, were
used during
the main
enterprise of
the
explorer’s
life - his
journey the
the North Pole
in 1908. But
what was the
degree of Dr.
Cook’s
ability in
using dog
sledges? The
answer
contended for
here is that
this depended
largely upon
his Eskimo
friends and
their
experience, it
cannot be
doubted and
the final
determination
and
accomplishment
of the journey
to the North
Pole so far as
sledging
experience is
concerned,
depended for
the most part
upon the
aborigines of
the Arctic. |
Obviously,
our answer to the
question: Was the
Polar experience of
Dr. F.A. Cook in
1907-1908 adequate for
the accomplishment of
his journey to the
North Pole in 1908?
Affirmative!
The
correlation of
Cook’s information
concerning physical
conditions at the
North Pole and in the
Central Arctic Basin,
the Polar environment,
with modern data
substantiates this.
The
discussion about this
correlation became
more heated after the
famous statement by
Joseph Fletcher,
published in Russia by
A.F. Laktionov (1960),
and by Moira Dunbar
(1952) which
acknowledged Cook’s
having reached 88° N
on the basis of his
description of an ice
island at that
latitude, having the
typical wavy surface.
The
list of special
features in the Arctic
Basin first described
by Cook is enumerated
in a number of
historical works but
the correspondence of
Cook’s first account
of the physical
features of the North
Polar Region with
modern data can best
be discussed on the
basis of recent
summaries of his
descriptions of Polar
conditions and their
confirmation by modern
data. Sheldon Cook-Dorough
(1984) recorded the
next enumeration of
the natural features
along Cook’s route
to the Pole, from Cape
Svartevoeg (Cape
Stallworthy) to the
North Pole, confirmed
by later exploration:
-
The
ice island on 87°
– 88° N.,
-
The
absence of land in
the North Pole
area.,
-
The
signs of the
Trans-Polar drift
across the North
Pole towards
Greenland, SW ice
drift just south
of 84° N.,
-
“Bradley
Land” may be
identified with a
drifting ice
island.,
-
The
position of the
Big Lead 114 miles
north of Cape
Svartevoeg in the
Arctic Ocean on
approx. 83° N.,
-
A
complex pattern of
prevailing
currents in the
Arctic Ocean from
Cape Svartevoeg
north to the North
Pole.,
-
The
location in the
Arctic Ocean of
the different
forms of the
drifting sea ice
between Cape
Svartevoeg and the
North Pole.
This
undoubted evidence of
Dr. F.A. Cook’s
visit to the North
Pole area, in 1908 a
blank spot on the maps
of the high Arctic are
so obvious that they
cannot be refuted.
Moreover, all these
natural features are
interrelated – this
also cannot be
refuted: this
situation was first
recorded by Joseph
Fletcher in 1952.
Sheldon Cook-Dorough
may be supplemented
with the additional
confirmations, as
follows:
The
signs of the ice shelf
glacier near Cape
Svartevoeg (Stallworthy)
on the basis of data
in Cook’s book, My
Attainment of the
Pole, 1913, pp. 212,
569.
The
location of the main
stream of the southern
segment of the
clockwise-moving
system of ice drift in
the Arctic Ocean on 84°
N where Cook’s igloo
was crushed 25 and 28
March 1908.
Cook’s
attainment of the
North Pole in 1908 was
the culmination of the
centuries-long efforts
of Arctic explorers
from different
countries to reach the
Pole after Hudson’s
famous voyage of 1607.
We can appreciate F.A.
Cook’s achievement
from different points
of view.
In
the first place, the
results of Cook’s
Polar journey showed
the limits of the
traditional methods of
describing the
geography of the
Arctic and
demonstrated the
importance of his
instrumental
observations, though
not numerous. Nansen,
1893-1896, has
priority in describing
geographical
conditions in the
Polar regions, but
Cook’s results in
1908 confirmed the new
theory of the Russian
Arctic explorer, A.V.
Kolchak, based upon
his explorations,
1900-1903, of the
independent
clockwise-moving
system of the ice
drift between the
Canadian Arctic
archipelago and the
North Pole (published
in Russia in 1909).
Kolchak’s
theoretical
conclusions, in turn,
confirmed the reality,
the correctness, of
Cook’s descriptions
of physical conditions
in the North Polar
region. But Americans
did not know of
Kolchak’s
conclusions regarding
the nature and
direction of the ice
drift in the Arctic
Ocean which confirmed
Cook’s account.
Kolchak’s work was
translated into
English and published
in 1928, almost twenty
years after the
beginning of the Cook-Peary
controversy. During
the controversy,
Kolchak was thoroughly
occupied by his
service in the Russian
Navy and he did not
take part in
discussions concerning
the dispute.”
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Historian
Koryakin: 40
years a Polar
geographer
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Koryakin
Vladislav
was
born
in
1933
in
Archangelsk
and in
1956
he
graduated
from
the
Moscow
Engineering
Institute
of
Geodesy
and
Cartography.
During
his
student
years
he
began
to
study
the
history
of the
Arctic.
And in
the
International
Geophysical
year
1957-19Historian
Koryakin:
40
years
a
Polar
geographer59
he
joined
a
two-years
wintering
expedition
to the
glacier
of the
New
Land,
where
he
obtained
experience
of
polar
research
in
glaciology.
He
examined
the
works
of
American
and
Canadian
polar
explorers
on the
drifting
ice
lands
T3 and
Ellesmere
Ice
Shell.
From
1965-2001
he
spent
11
polar
seasons
on
Spizberggen,
where
he
explored
the
glaciers
of the
archipelago.
In
1976
he
became
a
candidate
of
geographical
science. |
From
1968-1970 he
spent winters
in Antarctic,
explored the
glaciers of
Central Asia
and Kamchatka,
traveled North
east Passage
from
Archangelsk to
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski.
His
concentration
is the
evolution of
arctic
archipelago
freezing and
the history of
polar
exploration
and the
influence of
environmental
changes on
historical
events.
In
1970, Koryakin
began to
examine the
problem of
priority
arrival at the
North Pole.
In
2000 Koryakin
was awarded a
Doctorate of
Science with
his thesis on
the
environmental
system of the
New Land. He
worked in the
Institute of
Geography
about 40 years
as well as in
the other
institutes.
Now
he works in
the Russian
Science
Academy as the
professor of
Pomorskiy
State
University in
Archangelsk.
He is the
author of 150
science works
(including the
monograph of
New Land,
Spizbergen and
Arctic
glaciers and
the science
biographies of
V.A. Ruslanov
and F.A.
Cook).
Koryakin
was conferred
a decoration
upon a badge
of Honorary
Polar explorer
for his
contribution
in the Arctic.
He is a member
of Russian
Geographical
Society. |
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