Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Britain's most illustrious ex-plorer, has reignited a race row which simmered in America for much of the twentieth century by rejecting claims that one of the first people to reach the North Pole was a black man. Matthew Henson and his employer, Robert Peary, claimed to have been the first men to reach the North Pole, in April 1909. But when the two returned to the US later that year the achievement was questioned. The credibility as witnesses of Henson and four Inuits who accompanied Peary was doubted because they were not white. Peary had left behind a white co-explorer 130 miles before reaching his target.
Henson's case was a cause célèbre for black Americans for 90 years after he was first photographed with an American flag at what was claimed to be the top of the world. Many observers assumed that the controversy had been laid to rest when his achievement was finally admitted only weeks ago as America's National Geographic Society posthumously awarded Henson the coveted Hubbard Medal, an honour given to Neil Armstrong and Ernest Shackleton.
Now Fiennes, lauded worldwide as the first man to reach both Poles in one circumnavigation of the globe, says: 'Sadly, I doubt that Henson and Peary ever got to the North Pole. It can be mathematically proved that they could not have done it on the basis of their notes.
'There is still a question of why it took so long to acknowledge Henson's role as an explorer. But other early explorers were never properly acknowledged too. It has been turned into a race issue and one where people have to be very careful about what they say.'
Fiennes's claim has infuriated supporters of Henson. 'Had he been white,' says Bert Peary-Stafford, Peary's great- grandson, 'I don't think there would be any question, regardless of his navigational skills, that Peary took a reliable witness and reached the Pole. It is only because of racist attitudes that the question of reliability has come up.'
'People use the argument that the Inuits weren't credible witnesses as evidence of a race thing,' Fiennes told The Observer . ' They should have qualified this position by explaining that the Inuits were ignorant of the latitudinal and longitudinal methods of navigation. That's why they were not credible.'
For years, Henson has been held up to black American schoolchildren as a hero whose achievements were denied because of endemic racism in the American establishment. He has been claimed to be a victim of the 'whitewashing' of history.
Henson was orphaned at 13 after a childhood during which his family endured harassment by the Ku Klux Klan. He met explorer Robert Peary in 1887 when serving in a supplies shop in Washington DC. Peary first employed Henson as his servant to help him chart the jungles of Nicaragua. But Peary's principal ambition was to reach the North Pole, a feat he attempted on four occasions prior to 1909. Henson died in 1954, after spending his later life carrying luggage and parking cars for a living.
As well as recognition from the National Geographic Society, the supporters of Henson recently won a battle to have the explorer reburied in Washington's Arlington National Cemetery. He had been poised for worldwide recognition.
In Britain, Radio 4 is to broadcast Stealing the Glory on Wednesday, a documentary which recognises the claims of Henson's supporters. The critics of Peary and Henson had claimed that the two could not have travelled 30 miles a day as they claimed during their final five days on the way to the Pole. Suffering from frostbite, Peary was pulled on a sled. Earlier this year, two Canadians attempted a similar high-speed journey to the North Pole to prove the feat was possible. After travelling 482 miles in 42 days, Paul Landry and Paul Crowley insisted they could have matched the achievement.
But Richard Weber, who skied to the North Pole in 1995, still doubts the claim. 'The recent expedition didn't answer some burning questions about Peary and Henson in 1909. Today we have all the advantages of navigating with satellite by global positioning system. We're in much better physical condition. We've got all our toes. How could Peary make it [that fast] then and we're still not able?'
Inuits are the indigenous people of Greenland, Alaska and northern Canada. Many regard the ambition to reach the northernmost point of an ice mass as eccentric. Providing evidence of polar achievement has always been a matter of huge controversy. As the Poles are points above ice, it is impossible to leave objects behind.
Whether Henson reached the North Pole or not, he was certainly not the first explorer's companion to have his success unacknowledged. Charles Burton, the man who accompanied Fiennes to both Poles, has still not received any honour in Britain.
ben.summerskill@observer.co.uk
