Page 2nd Cover: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 1973)

"If at first you don't succeed..."

Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary is assuredly not the man who coined the phrase. "If at first you don't succeed, try. try again"

But few men ever applied the axiom with greater deter- mination or under more frustrating circumstances.

It was in 1898 that the great explorer first set out to find the North Pole on his ship the "Windward!' He was gone for four years, endured enormous hardships, but could get no closer than 390 miles of the Pole.

This was the farthest north anyone had ever gone in the

Arctic but coming close was no comfort to a man of Peary's determination.

In 1905. he set out again, this time on the "Roosevelt!" a ship specially built for the voyage.

Result? A new "farthest north record, this time within 200 miles of the Pole. But once more, the elements forced him to turn back.

Then, in 1908. he set sail again on the "Roosevelt!" which had proved itself to be a great ship. This time he made it. On

April 6.1909. Peary, with four Eskimos and a Negro manser- vant. stood on the exact location of the Pole.

But when he returned he was greeted with little enthusiasm since another American explorer. Frederick A. Cook, claimed to have reached the Pole a year earlier.

However, the Congress of the United States, after investi- gating Cooks claim, found it fraudulent and gave to Peary the credit he deserved.

Today. Admiral Robert E. Peary is recognized not only as the first man to reach the North Pole, but as one of America's greatest, and most important, explorers.

His achievements were many and his honors were great.

This advertisement, prepared by Gulf Oil, a leading supplier of quality marine fuels and lubricants, is one of a series paying tribute to the great explorers of the sea. It is published in the interest of the shipping industry and those associated with it.