[Alberta's Child]

I don't think Cook reached the pole when he claimed he did. One of those guys from the Steger expedition pointed out that one of Cook's photos from his polar expedition showed a distinct land formation in the distant background ... in a place where Cook claimed he was miles from any land mass.

The guy speculated that Cook was actually somewhere not far off the coast of Ellesmere Island instead of standing within 50 miles of the North Pole.

[KamperKen]

One of those guys from the Steger expedition pointed out that one of Cook's photos from his polar expedition showed a distinct land formation in the distant background ... in a place where Cook claimed he was miles from any land mass.

What Cook photographed (and reported) was an ice island, which are common in the arctic and are often mistaken for land. The apparent land form was reported at around 88 degrees N but at the pole itself Cook explicitly reported there was no land. This was not known at that time and was one of a number of observations that were subsequently confirmed by other expeditions.

The National Geographic was one of the original backers of Peary and have never admitted like every polar explorer or expert on polar exploration that Peary's claim was a fraud. In backing this Steger expedition they're still trying to show that Peary could have attained the north pole (he didn't) and to further discredit Cook by saying that a photograph that Cook claimed as taken near the pole showed a land form.

There was a major campaign of vilification and character assassination of Cook by the Peary backers and partisans which has tainted the historical record to this day. Peary was a fraud and Cook was one of the greatest polar explorers. Read sometime about how he literally single-handed rescued the Belgica expedition of 1897-1899 in the Antarctic.