The North Pole
When not otherwise qualified, the term North Pole usually refers to the Geographic North Pole – the northernmost point on the surface of the Earth and during the 19th century explorers wanted to solve the mystery to where the North Pole lay.
William Parry
One of the earliest expeditions to conquer the North Pole began in June 1827, when William Parry, a talented officer of the Royal Navy, set out from Spitsbergen with the explicit intention of reaching the North Pole. With two teams of 14 men and specially constructed boats that doubled as sledges, Parry and his men struggled through the ice. Because it was summer, the ice was moving south at a faster rate than they were able to proceed northward. After two months Parry eventually reached 82° 45’, a record that remained for 49 years as the highest latitude ever reached by an explorer.
While Parry’s expedition did not reach its goal, his achievement is set in a world very different from ours with no instant global communication or specialist equipment. Parry’s courage and determination to undertake such an extreme expedition in place fraught with danger and risk can only be imagined.
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