The Explorer and the Journalist - Frederick Cook, Philip Gibbs and the Scandal that Shocked the World

On 1 September 1909, a telegram from American explorer Frederick Cook caused perhaps the biggest sensation in polar exploration history. With no word from Cook for over a year and many assuming he was dead, here came the news that not only had he survived his Arctic expedition, but he had claimed one of the great prizes in exploration by becoming the first person to reach the North Pole.

Cook was instantly transformed into one of the heroes of the age. And with his boat due to arrive in Copenhagen a few days later, the world-s journalists scrambled to get there in time to meet him. One of those journalists was Philip Gibbs, a young reporter for the Daily Chronicle in London, who had a chance encounter in a Copenhagen caf-hat led to him getting an exclusive interview with Cook before he reached land. But Gibbs left the interview doubting Cook-s story, and so in his subsequent article he decided to gamble both his career and his reputation by making it clear he thought C