41

Herbert Berri.

Diary of the Peary Relief expedition, with related papers.

Various places, 13 July to 30 August 1901 (diary)
44 manuscript diary pages plus several news clippings and two photographs laid or mounted in. Folio, 12¼ x 7½ inches, original cloth, front joint split, otherwise minor wear; inserted leaves and clippings worn, but otherwise minimal wear to contents.

  • Notes: The Arctic explorer Robert Peary set out on an expedition to northern Greenland in 1898, accompanied by his African-American colleague Matthew Henson. An 1899 relief expedition found that he had lost most of his toes to frostbite but refused to return south for treatment. His wife Josephine and her young daughter Marie went north to join him in 1900, hoping to convince him to return. No word was heard from the Pearys by the end of 1900, so a third relief expedition was sent aboard the ship Erik in 1901 to rescue them. Financed and organized by the Peary Arctic Club, it included a small professional crew and several paying guests who went in search of adventure. The surgeon of the Erik party was a famous Arctic explorer in his own right, Frederick Cook. The well-heeled guests were soon pressed into duty as seamen and shared in the hunger as supplies ran short. When they finally found the Pearys and Henson in August 1901, Peary once again refused to head south, hoping to make another attempt at the North Pole. The relief party spent a few weeks hunting walrus to replenish Peary's food stores and then sailed south with Josephine and Marie on board.

    Herbert "Bert" Berri (1881-1948), a 19-year-old son of a Brooklyn newspaper publisher, was one of five paying guests aboard the relief vessel. Another guest was Berri's teacher, Professor Limond C. Stone. At least two of the others also kept diaries, which were published in Gillis & Ayer's "Boreal Ties: Photographs and Two Diaries of the 1901 Peary Relief Expedition" (2002). This Berri diary has apparently remained unknown and unpublished until now. 

    The diary begins on 13 July 1901 and continues with daily entries through 22 August, plus a loose page of diary notes through 30 August. It begins when Berri boards the relief ship Erik in North Sydney, Nova Scotia. The next day he befriends the ship's famous physician, Frederick Cook:  "I found Dr. Cook fixing up his darkroom, which was the chart room really. I decided to help him so started in." 

    On 25 July, the Greenland coast was in sight: "We all gave three cheers and excitement began to manifest itself with the belief that we were really off Greenland and about to experience real Arctic conditions, pleasures, dangers, joys, & sorrows. . . . Made Godhaab [Nuuk] at 1 noon, did not stop."

    The ship stopped in Godhavn [Qeqertarsuaq] on 28 July: "Governor Nelson came off in a family boat or oomieack with pilot Andreas and came abord. . . . It being Sunday, the lid was down but the governor made it a special consession and there was a dance in the evening. The sailors danced with the girls in the town all evening." Three days later, in the harbor of Upernavik, he spoke of himself in the third person: "Cook and Berri went off on the island just off the town of Upernavik and took many beautiful pictures."

    The ship reached Peary's base at Etah, Greenland on 4 August. Fortunately, Berri had brought his phonograph player along on the expedition: "As we closed into the harbor of Etah, both ships ran up their flags and greetings were exchanged with the Windward which was lying off shore. . . . All well. Mr. & Mrs. Peary & Marie came on board the Erick and remained for dinner, after which Bert [the author] gave all a concert on the phonograph and many records were taken."

    The next day, Berri went out on a bird-hunting expedition with Dr. Cook: "We continued the sport until 11 a.m. and sat down to wait for the doctor, who had gone up the golfe to take pictures. He had taken the boat with all our Eskimos and supplies, and when one o'clock came and no Cook, we all got mad, and when 3 o'clock came without any sight of Dr. Cook we had made a yell which we sprung on his coming within ear shot of us: ‘Damn the Doctor!' repeated as often as possible and in unison could be heard far off. He arrived at 3:15 with a boatload of Eskimos, mostly woman, and we all climed in to go back to the ship. Mad is no name for it." 

    Berri spent quality time with Peary and Henson on 6 August: "At 10 a.m., Peary, Sam, Bartlett, Mrs. Peary and some sailors came aboard the Erick and we weighed anchor for Whale Sound for walrus." On the way back to Etah, "Took Matt Henson on board at Merke. Arranged deer hunt." The next day, Berri describes a walrus hunt at sea. "We had secured three. All the rest of the walrus slid off the pan and began snorting, even threateng to hook their tusks over the edge of the boat and upset it. . . . Dr. Cook and Captain & Berri went on shore taking our cameras, and took pictures of the oldest family in the Arctic." On the next day's walrus hunt, the passengers did the shooting, and Matt Henson was apparently tasked with securing the wounded beasts and getting them on board:  "I made a fine shot of 200 yards and bagged my game, but before Mat went to him, he slid off the ice and to the bottom." 

    From 14 to 22 August, Berri went on a hunting trip to Olrick's Bay. On 20 August, "Mr. Peary took all the walrus & deer mat and skins along with all of his supplies and exchanged ballast. . . . Dr. & Mat & mate went hunting this p.m., brought in two rabbits. . . . All the party took walrus penis bone. . . . The boys helped Mr. Peary correct his map of Salmon Lake as a result of their tramp over the peninsula." 

    Accompanying the diary are some important loose papers relating to the expedition:

    Biometric measurements of 7 named Inuits, on 7 pages. Includes gender, age, and 15 measurements such as height, finger-reach, waist, temperature, and width of nose. Berri discussed these measurements in his 21 August diary entry, using a racial slur for the Inuit: "Stone & Cook took measurements of huskeys all a.m. in the developing room. Copy of measurements on page___." He apparently intended to paste these measurements into the diary. The handwriting is not a close match for Berri's, but also does not appear to be Cook's.

    Berri's essay, "An Arctic Deer Hunt." 3 pages, typescript with very heavy manuscript corrections, signed "H.B. 1902." A version of this was apparently published in the school newspaper of the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (see Brooklyn Citizen, 24 November 1901).

    Manuscript essay, "What Mr. Peary Did Last Winter." 2 manuscript pages, unsigned but in Berri's hand. "On August 29 we left Mr. Peary with Mat Henson his best man. . . . If everything has gone as he hoped it would, he has either perished in the attempt or has reached the Pole." 

    Manuscript essay, "An Arctic Camp." One manuscript page, incomplete. 

    Letter signed from Clarence F. Wyckoff to Berri. A letter from one of Berri's fellow paid passengers on the Peary Relief Expedition, shortly after their return to America. Ithaca, NY, 5 October 1901. 

    Laid down or inserted into the diary are several news clippings relating to the expedition, 1901-1909. Most notably, in September 1909, Dr. Cook was found to be promoting "new" photographs of his recent polar expedition which were actually taken in 1901--by Herbert Berri! At the rear of the diary are two bits of doggerel about Dr. Frederick Cook and the other Erik shipmates.

    Provenance: to Berri's son William Henry Berri (1909-1962); bought by the consignor at the estate auction held at William Berri's Suffern, NY home by Rockland Auctioneers, 8 September 1962. 
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