|
Robert Edwin Peary, Sr. (May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer who claimed to have reached the geographic North Pole with his expedition on April 6, 1909. Peary's claim was widely credited for most of the 20th century, rather than the competing claim by Frederick Cook, who said he got there a year earlier. Both claims were widely debated in newspapers until 1913. Modern historians generally think Cook did not reach the pole. Based on an evaluation of Peary's records, British polar explorer Wally Herbert concluded in a 1989 book that Peary did not reach the pole, although he may have been as close as . His conclusions have been widely accepted.〔(American Polar Society: Sir Wally Herbert )〕 Ralph Plaisted (30 September 1927() – 8 September 2008) and his three companions, Walt Pederson, Gerry Pitzl and Jean-Luc Bombardier, are regarded by most polar authorities to be the first to succeed in a surface traverse across the ice to the North Pole on 19 April 1968, making the first confirmed surface conquest of the Pole. Herbert was the first undisputed explorer to reach the North Pole by surface travel, leading a British expedition in 1969 (see the list of firsts in the Geographic North Pole). ==Early life, education and career== Robert Edwin Peary was born on May 6, 1856, in Cresson, Pennsylvania, to Charles N. and Mary P. Peary. After his father Charles Peary died in 1859, Peary's mother took the boy with her and settled in Portland, Maine. After growing up in Portland, Peary attended Bowdoin College, some to the north. He was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon and Phi Beta Kappa fraternities while at college.〔(Who Belongs To Phi Beta Kappa ), Phi Beta Kappa website, accessed Oct 4, 2009〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=What They Packed )〕 He graduated in 1877 with a civil engineering degree.〔Mills 2003, p. 510〕 After college, Peary worked as a draftsman making technical drawings in Washington, DC, at the US Coast and Geodetic Survey office. He joined the United States Navy and on October 26, 1881, was commissioned as a civil engineer, with the relative rank of lieutenant.〔 He was initially assigned to duty in the tropics. As reflected in a diary entry he made in 1885, during his time in the Navy, he resolved to be the first man to reach the North Pole.〔 In April 1886 he wrote a paper for the National Academy of Sciences proposing two methods for crossing Greenland's ice cap. One was to start from the west coast and trek about to the east coast. The second, more difficult path was to start from Whale Sound at the top of the known portion of Baffin Bay and travel north to determine whether Greenland was an island or if it extended all the way across the Arctic.〔 Peary was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander on January 5, 1901, and to commander on April 6, 1902.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Robert Peary」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|