2 96 NEAREST THE POLE 



In December, 1897, while I was in London, the steam 

 yacht Windward, which had been used in his Franz 

 Joseph Land expedition, was tendered to me by Alfred 

 Harmsworth, who offered to have her re-engined and 

 delivered to me in New York. This generous offer 

 I accepted. 



In the spring of 1898 the Peary Arctic Club was 

 organised, Morris K. Jesup, Henry W. Cannon, H. L. 

 Bridgman, all personal friends of mine, forming the 

 nucleus about which the rest of you assembled, and 

 in May the Windward arrived; but, to my regret and 

 disappointment, the machinists' strike in England 

 having prevented the installation of new engines, she 

 was practically nothing but a sailing craft. 



The lateness of the season was such that I had to 

 make the most of the Windward as she was. But her 

 extreme slowness (31-2 knots under favourable circum- 

 stances), and the introduction of a disturbing factor 

 in the appropriation by another of my plan and field 

 of work, necessitated the charter of an auxiliary ship 

 if I did not wish to be distanced. The Windward 

 sailed from New York on the 4th of July, 1898, and on 

 the 7th I went on board the Hope at Sydney, C. B. 



1898-1899 



Pushing rapidly northward, and omitting the usual 

 calls at the Danish Greenland ports. Cape York was 

 reached after a voyage, uneventful except for a nip 

 in the ice of Melville Bay, which lifted the Hope bodily, 

 and for a few hours seemed to contain possibilities 

 of trouble. 



