[meteorite-list] NPA 09-21-1897, Peary Back Again (Cape York Meteorite)

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Naugatuck Daily News
City: Naugatuck, Connecticut
Date: September 21, 1897
Page: 8

PEARY BACK AGAIN

The July Expedition Returns From Greenland's Shores.

ALL ON BOARD SAFE AND SOUND.

The Last Ton of Coal Burned Steaming Into Harbor at Cape Brenton, but the 
Ship is Ballasted Well With a Giant Meteorite.

     SYDNEY, C.B., Sept. 21. - The steam sealing back Hope, with Lieutenant 
R. E. Peary and party on board, returning from north Greenland, arrived here 
late yesterday afternoon.  All on board are well.

     The Hope came into port burning her last ton of coal and with her 
bulwarks and decks giving evidence of the furious seas of an unusually 
stormy summer.  She is nearly as deep in the water as when she left here in 
the latter part of July with her bunkers full of coal, for the huge Cape 
York meteorite, the largest in the world, is in her hold.

      Lieutenant Peary has on board also six Cape York Eskimos, who will go 
with him when he returns next year to attempt to reach the north pole.  The 
Eskimos have their tent, sledges and canoes.  They are eager for the 
undertaking, and all the arrangements have been made.

     The expedition visited Cape Sabine, and relics of the ill fated 
expedition led by Greely have been obtained.  The summer in Baffins bay was 
marked by almost continuously stormy weather and by an unusual scarcity of 
ice.

     The investigating party from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
under Mr. R. W. Porter, landed at Cape Haven on Aug. 3 and did not re-embark 
until Sept. 13.  The party led by Mr. Hugh Lee, the arctic explorer of 
Meriden, Conn., landed at Godhaven on Aug. 7 and re-embarked Sept. 7.  
Professor Schuchert's party, landed at Omenak on Aug. 8, re-embarking on 
Sept. 4.  The party led by Robert Stein of the United States geological 
survey was on land from Aug. 10 to Sept. 2.

     The Hope will coal here and then proceed to New York, where she will 
land the meteorite.

                                                        
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     The object of the expedition, which left Boston on July 19 last for 
Sydney, was to bring about the establishment of a settlement at a remote 
northern point in Greenland, which would be used as a base of supplies for 
an expedition in search of the north pole under Lieutenant Peary in 1898.  
To this end, according to Lieutenant Peary's plans, as made known as that 
time, a party of Eskimos was to established at the new settlement and would 
during the ensuring 12 months be engaged in making preparations for the 
expedition.

     The Hope was to skirt the coast of Greenland, dropping scientific 
parties at various points and taking Lieutenant Peary to Whale sound, where 
it was proposed to establish the settlement.

     In the party as originally constituted were 43 persons, including, 
besides, Lieutenant Peary and Mrs. Peary and their daughter, their servant 
and the crew.  Mr. and Mrs. Hugh J. Lee, who chose a cruise in arctic waters 
as a wedding trip; Robert Stein of the United States geological survey, 
Albert Operil, the well known arctic scenic artist; J. D. Figgins of Falls 
Church, Va., taxidermist; Dr. Frederick Sohon, surgeon, Washington, and 
several investigation parties, one under the direction of Professor C. H. 
Hitchcock of Dartmouth, having in view a study of glaciers and the relics of 
the old Norse colonists from Iceland; another from the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, under Mr. R. W. Porter, whose plan was to hunt the 
big game of the country and bring back zoological specimens, and a third, 
headed by Professor Charles Echuehert and Mr. C.D. White, representing the 
National museum, with instructions to examine fossil formations, which it 
had been claimed tended to prove that Greenland was once a country of 
tropical climate.

     The bringing home of the Cape York meteorite was a secondary, though a 
scarcely less interesting object of the expedition.

(end)

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick


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