Matthew Henson was an American explorer who accompanied Robert Peary, most famously on an expedition intended to reach the Geographic North Pole in Subsequent research and exploration has revealed that Peary and Henson did not reach the North Pole but their failed attempt is still recognized as an important contribution to scientific knowledge.
Henson was born on a farm in Nanjemoy, Maryland on August 8, His parents were free people of color who worked as sharecroppers. Both parents died when Henson was a child and he was subsequently sent to Washington, D. The captain of the vessel taught Henson to read and write.
Henson sailed the world with the Katie Hines for the next few years. By November , however, Henson worked at a Washington D. Over that time, Henson traded with the Inuit in Canada and Greenland and learned their language. Eventually, both he and Peary married Inuit women.
His frequent journeys caused this to happen. Peary and Henson then made multiple attempts at reaching the North Pole. They were turned back many times, including in when several members of their party died. Peary and Henson kept pushing and finally, on April 6, , they reached the North Pole. They did this with four Inuits and 40 dogs. Though Henson was an indispensable member of the team, he was largely overlooked while Peary got all of the credit. Henson went on to work as a clerk in a New York City federal customs house for three decades.
In he released his memoirs of his journeys and in , finally received the acknowledgment he deserved. Matthew Henson died on March 9, , at the age of He was originally buried in New York City. Matthew Henson was a brave explorer who journeyed all over the world. He spent many years and several expeditions trying to reach the North Pole with Robert Peary.
Henson is thought to be the first man to actually reach the North Pole. He was fluent in the Inuit language and established a rapport with the native people of the region. Henson was a very capable hunter, fisherman, and dog handler. Though Peary repeatedly failed to reach his goal he managed to return safely time and time again having progressed a little further with every trip. In with the support of President Theodore Roosevelt, Peary and Henson managed to get within miles of the North Pole by ship using a state-of-the-art ice breaker.
On the three-masted steam-powered schooner called the Roosevelt, Peary and Henson made it closer to the pole than on any expedition to date. Two years later Peary and Henson would make their eighth and final attempt to reach the North Pole. Whether they succeeded or not both men, now in their 40s, could feel the strain of their long careers and decided this would be their last voyage together. Joining the party was Dr. John W. Goodsell, Donald B. MacMillan, Ross G. In a now classic system of caches the plan was to ferry and deposit loads of gear and food along the way with each successive team of dog mushers returning to the ship that was iced into port at Ellsemere Island.
A smaller team of two Americans and four Inuit companions would make the final push to their objective. Peary and Henson were the most likely choices to lead the Pole team. And even Peary agreed that the expedition would never be completed without his trusted friend. The group arrived at their starting point at Cape Sheridan on September 5, There they spent the long Arctic winter storing supplies of meat that included muskox, deer, and rabbit. Several of the Inuit men brought along their wives and children who set about the task of creating all the clothing and perishable supplies the expedition would need.
In February, Peary lead the party by sledge to Cape Columbia where out on the ice he established a forward base camp. The expedition began in earnest as Henson lead the first group of sledges toward the pole on March 1, And for the next five weeks the teams raced toward their goal. Along the way in addition to temperatures that fell to 65 degrees below zero they encountered the frequent hazards of cracking and drifting ice that formed patches of open water called leads.
But the group made steady progress as each of the support teams deposited their supply caches and turned back the way they came. McMillan lead the first team back with Dr. They were followed days later by Borup, then Marvin.
Bartlett was the last to return to the ship. In his account of the adventure The Negro at the North Pole published in Henson made a detailed summary of the five-day march. He, Peary, and Inuits Ooqueah, Ootah, Egingwah, and Seegloo drove the five remaining dog sledges at a breakneck pace day after day for stretches that lasted 12 to 14 hours.
Moving quickly to avoid the possibility of a massive lead opening up behind them and blocking their way back home they traveled more than miles.
In a series of hard pushes they made their way navigating by sexton and dead-reckoning until finally on April 6th, as conditions on the trail ahead seemed to improve Henson reported in his account that he felt certain their objective was within reach.
Estimating the distance that we had come during the last four days, we figured that, unless something unusual happened to us during the course of this day, we should be at the Pole before its close. According to his own recollection Henson was in the lead sledge through much of the day scouting the trail ahead.
So we went to work and promptly built our igloos, fed our dogs and had dinner. The sun being obscured by the mist, it was impossible to make observations and tell whether or not we had actually reached the Pole. The only thing we could do was to crawl into our igloos and go to sleep. The following day when the mist had cleared Peary took measurements of their location relative to the position of the sun at the noon hour.
The party had indeed reached the North Pole. But the question remained who had arrived there first. Upon their return to the United States some reports in the press indicated that there was tension between Peary and Henson as to whom between them deserved credit for reaching the North Pole first.
It seems odd that after such a long and successful partnership the two men would become estranged from one another. With a difference of a few hours at most it would be reasonable to give Peary and Henson equal credit for having reached the North Pole together as a team. But the racially divisive climate of time would not give an African-American man the same standing in the public eye for the accomplishment of such a monumental feat of human achievement.
Peary was the recognized discoverer of the Pole while Henson was relegated to the role of trusty companion.
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