Waubonsee Community College

Departure of Peary [and the] "Roosevelt" from New York, American Mutoscope and Biograph Company

eng

motion picture

Departure of Peary [and the] "Roosevelt" from New York

electronic resource

701797901

American Mutoscope and Biograph Company

4

New York at the turn of the centuryAmerican history in video

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. 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

live action

Departure of Peary [and] Roosevelt from New YorkDeparture of Peary