Doug Davies, Douglas R. Davies, Navigation Report

Matt's diary

"Henson's diary would be a great find, particularly if he made entries on the final five outbound marches or first few return marches."

Date: Wed, 31 May 2000

I have never located Matt's diary. Rawlins refers to it, but I think he is really quoting "A Negro Explorer at the North Pole." Peary supposedly collected everybody's diaries, but I know of some that are not in the Peary records, and Matt's is not in the Peary records. It was probably made available to the publisher (Stokes?) of Matt's book to do a first draft. (That is the way Peary's book was written.) Presumably they returned it. Dr. Allen Counter is probably the best source to start with to track it down.

Henson's diary would be a great find, particularly if he made entries on the final five outbound marches or first few return marches. Henson is in many respects the key to the whole controversy. I think all but a few diehards would agree that the events up until Bartlett's return are truly recorded. If Henson, Peary et al. really went 132 miles in a more or less straight line (as Henson has stated), even the one photo showing the sun, which even Rawlins admits shows the correct solar altitude, would place Camp Jesup very near the pole. The other possibilities are that Henson was lying or just plain wrong. I find it hard to believe that Henson was lying. Even forgetting what we know about his character, it seems to me if he had been lying to support Peary, he could have extracted much more favorable treatment thereafter from Peary and his supporters than he got.

Also, I find it hard to believe he lived with a lie for another 50 years without telling anyone. Assuming Henson were simply mistaken, how far off could he have been? Suppose he were off by as much as 25 miles. Rawlins likes to speculate that Camp Jesup was intended to be the place of a final zeroing in set of sights before the final push. He then speculates that the party was not only short of the pole, as Peary had expected, but 100 miles or more from the pole because of being so far off course. Discourage, Peary reluctantly decides to fake it. Again, the one photo, and the virtually certain time at which it must have been taken, would say that even if Camp Jesup was 25 miles short of the pole, the total distance to the pole could have been no more than about 35 miles. Why would Peary have stopped at this point. Sure, it is possible, but is it likely?

Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000

I don't think the Explorers Club has Matt's diary. We managed to have access and spent a day there reviewing files. Morgan State or Howard is a pretty good bet. I did not mean to imply that Matt did not write his book; only that it might have been largely taken directly from his diary, as was the case with Peary's and Borup's books. Its hard to know without knowing how thorough Henson was in his diary. I do allow myself to consider the possibility that Peary and Matt did not make it for some reason. However, I don't think that can be "proven" by a blizzard of speculation. What is required is at least one coherent story of what happened that is at least as credible, in view of all the evidence, as the chronology given by Peary and Henson. I can't come up with such a story, and no one else has. In the end, one has to rely at least to some extent on an understanding of the character of the persons involved. No amount of analysis of evidence could prove or disprove whether Camp Jesup was 10 or 15 miles from where Peary said it was. Peary, with or without collusion by Matt, could have said screw it, this is good enough. What I know about these men, from reading history, tells me this is unlikely. Those who have (or had) more personal knowledge of these men have even stronger convictions, which is appropriate.

Doug