The Great Polar Fraud

Cook, Peary, and Byrd - How Three American Heroes Duped the World into Thinking They Had Reached the North Pole

By: Anthony Galvin

Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin

In 1910 Roald Amundsen set off from Oslo toward the North Pole but soon received word that two Americans - Frederick Cook and Robert Peary - each claimed to have reached the Pole ahead of him. Devastated, Amundsen famously went south. For years Cook and Peary tried to convince the world of their claims. Finally the National Geographic Society endorsed Peary, and the matter seemed settled. In May 1926 an American airman, Richard Byrd, flew north in a three-engine plane, and returned with a log showing that he had flow exactly over the geographical North Pole, becoming the third man to reach that mythical spot. National Geographic again supported the claim. However, it is now obvious that Peary claimed distances he could not possibly have achieved, and it is doubtful that Cooke, who had a history of fraud, ever got even close to the pole. Byrd flew further north than anyone before, but he did not have the fuel to have made the journey he claimed - his log was falsified. Just three days after Byrd's flight, Amundsen reenters the story on an airship traveling across the pole from Svalbard to Alaska, unknowingly passing directly over the pole, becoming the true first to reach it - just as he had been the first at the South Pole.

The Great Polar Fraud explores the history of the three men who claimed the pole, their claims, and the subsequent doubts of those claims, effectively rewriting the history of polar exploration and putting Amundsen center stage as the rightful conqueror of both poles.

©2014 Anthony Galvin (P)2014 Audible Inc.

A good read

The story is interesting and Galvin included enough ancillary details to put all three Polar efforts into historical context. Mispronunciations and grammatical errors are distracting.

The power of the ego

How far is far enough and what is true? Excellent story of real events and driven men.

Great

Great listen. Highly recommended!!! Very compelling and I couldn’t stop until it was over. Get it now.

Couldn’t stop listening

Very well read. Kept my attention. Fascinating men. How do they survive in such conditions?

Justice for Amundsen!

Informative. Good. Jumps around somewhat but not too hard to follow. I really enjoyed learning about these "accounts" of discovering the pole.