Wednesday, September 1, 1909
The message that turns everything upside down.
«North Pole reached,» write the Norwegian newspapers.
The American Frederick Cook claims that he and his Inuit companions Ittukusuk and Aapila have become the first to reach the North Pole. This is said to have happened on April 21, 1908.
On their way home from the Pole, they have overwintered in a shelter in the far north of Canada, but now Cook is on his way back and has set course for Copenhagen.
But it isn’t long before doubts arise.
Maybe Cook has not been as far north as he claims?
Amundsen does nothing but believe in his old friend from the Belgica expedition. He tells the newspapers that Cook's expedition was "planned as a sports affair," and that it will have no effect on his own expedition.