Shift to Scientific Cooperation and Greely's Tragic Expedition

Key Insight

In September 1875, Karl Weyprecht, an Austrian army officer and co-discoverer of Franz Josef Land, urged a group of scientists in Graz to undertake a synchronous and more useful scientific examination of the Arctic, criticizing recent attempts to reach the North Pole as mere stunts and condemning the zealous international competition for new island discoveries. Weyprecht's primary interest lay in understanding the nature of the Arctic climate and its effects on Europe's weather, advocating for international cooperation over chauvinism to address these scientific questions. His proposals were refined and adopted, culminating in the first International Polar Year in 1882, during which eleven countries established twelve Arctic stations for a year of coordinated observations.

The farthest north station of the International Polar Year was an American outpost at Fort Conger, Ellesmere Island, commanded by Army Lieutenant Adolphus Greely, a 'humorless, mediocre commander' with no prior Arctic experience. Adhering to an American tradition of 'spectacular adventure' over tedious scientific observation, Greely dispatched Lieutenant James Lockwood along the Greenland coast to surpass the current British farthest north record of 83°20'N. On May 15, 1883, Lockwood, accompanied by Sergeant David Brainard and an Eskimo companion, successfully reached 83°24'N, four nautical miles further north than the previous record, a moment of fleeting joy captured by Brainard's note of carving an ale advertisement into the rock.

Greely's party, originally tasked with meteorological and magnetic observations and local exploration, was stranded when relief ships failed to appear in both 1883 and 1884. Desperate, Greely led his men south along the coast to Cape Sabine, where 16 of the 25 men on Pim Island died of starvation that winter. The failure to rescue the party, of which Greely himself was a survivor, became one of the most 'shameful episodes' in American history, characterized by inept and halfhearted rescue efforts. Greely subsequently faced intense public disparagement from the very politicians who had failed to underwrite a serious rescue, with even Robert Peary becoming a vocal condemner, illustrating a national emphasis on 'unqualified success' that overlooked the immense hardship endured.