Frederick A. Cook
| Frederick Albert Cook | |
|---|---|
Cook с.1906
|
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| Born |
June 10, 1865 Callicoon, Sullivan County, New York |
| Died | August 5, 1940 (aged 75) New Rochelle, New York |
| Education | Columbia University, M.D. (1890) |
| Spouse(s) | 1) Libby Forbes (d. 1890) 2) Marie Fidele Hunt (divorced 1923) |
| Children | Helene Cook |
Frederick Albert Cook (June 10, 1865 – August 5, 1940) was an American explorer, physician, and ethnographer, noted for his claim of having reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908. This was a year before April 6, 1909, the date claimed by the American explorer Robert Peary, and the accounts were disputed for several years. His expedition did discover Meighen Island, the only discovery of an island in the American Arctic by a United States expedition.
After reviewing Cook's limited records, a commission of the University of Copenhagen ruled in December 1909 that he had not proven that he reached the pole. In 1911 Cook published a memoir of his expedition, continuing to assert their success. His 1906 account of having reached the summit of Denali has also been discredited.
Cook was born in Callicoon, Sullivan County, New York. His parents were Theodore A. Koch and Magdalena Long, recent German immigrants to the United States who anglicized their name by adopting the phonetic version of their German surname.
Cook attended Columbia University and received his M.D. from New York University Medical School in 1890.
In 1889 Cook married Libby Forbes, who died in 1891. On his 37th birthday in 1902, he married Marie Fidele Hunt. They had one daughter Helene. In 1923 they were divorced.
Cook was the surgeon on Robert Peary's 1891–1892 Arctic expedition, and on the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–1899 led by Adrien de Gerlache. He contributed greatly to saving the lives of the crew when their ship (the Belgica) was ice-bound during the winter, as they were not prepared for this. It was the first expedition to winter over in the Antarctic. To prevent scurvy, Cook went hunting in order to keep the crew supplied with fresh meat. When obtained from animals that make their own vitamin C (as most do), this could substitute for gaining the needed vitamin from citrus and other fruits and vegetables. Cook and Roald Amundsen, a fellow crew-member and Norwegian explorer, established a friendship and lifelong relationship of mutual respect.
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