Departure of Peary [and the] "Roosevelt" from New
York
CREATED/PUBLISHED United States : American Mutoscope
and Biograph Company, 1905.
SUMMARY The camera pans to show the schooner "Roosevelt"
docked at a covered pier on the Hudson River on Manhattan's
west side. Then, from a camera position on board, men
in straw hats and fashionably dressed ladies are seen
boarding the ship. Next, the famous polar explorer Robert
Peary appears on the gangway in a dark jacket, mustache
and straw hat [Frame: 4552]. He tips his hat, consults
his watch, then, just before the film ends, motions to
order the departure. On this expedition he achieved the
"farthest north" record, but failed to reach the North
Pole. Completed only four months prior to this film, the
"Roosevelt" was specially designed to withstand Arctic
ice. She was 184 feet long, 35 and a half feet wide, with
a hull over two and a half feet thick. Fully loaded the
ship weighed 1,500 tons while drawing only 16.2 feet.
In addition to sail power, the ship was driven by a 1000
horsepower steam engine, which could produce short bursts
of even greater power to get the ship through thick ice.
The "Roosevelt" served Peary on this expedition as well
as the following one in 1908-1909. Sold numerous times
to a variety of commercial concerns, the "Roosevelt" was
abandoned to the elements on a mud flat in Cristobal,
Panama in 1937, where she eventually rotted away.
|
