WB
Peary or Cook? Cold guns and a cast bullet.
Tuesday, October 27, 2020, 19:06

For the entertainment and pleasure of my dear Misfit friends; whom I cherish every one. I hope you find this interesting. There is still a controversy about who got "closer" to the North Pole first. The Cook 1908 or Peary 1909 expedition. Peary's expedition added his black assistant who did not get his due acclaim until much later post life, in 1961. A bit of a pity. Positive and literal success of standing astride the "North Pole did not actually happen until 1952, after a relatively safer plane ride.

This is a story of the returning Roosevelt ship and a mishap A.D. that occurred aboard. Back in those days a man shook it off, what he could. The alternative was to continue maimed or ball up and die. In reality the accident could have happened to anyone not very careful in "unloading" an 1886 Winchester. Cycling the action is an understandable manner.

The rifle believed to be carried on the 1909 Expedition. Last sold at auction for just shy of $21,000.

I am certain the rifle was kept devoid of any heavy grease. The performance of the 10mm cast 260 gr. plain lead bullet is undeniable. It's not fancy but with it's sectional density it's sure hard to stop! One can mimic the same performance today with a specialty .401 cal. revolver handload.

An incident on Peary’s 1908-09 North Pole expedition reminds us that gun safety is of paramount importance, as accidents due to inattention can happen at any time. Near the conclusion of the voyage Donald MacMillan was nearly killed while in his bunk on the Roosevelt by a bullet discharged from a .40-82 Winchester rifle. He had been hunting and returned the loaded rifle to Peary. The next day Chief Engineer George Wardwell volunteered to remove the cartridges and clean the firearm. In his book, How Peary Reached the Pole, MacMillan describes what happen next:
Standing at the messroom table with the rifle upside down, and lever up, he [Wardwell] began to pump the cartridges out of the chamber. Evidently his finger caught the trigger as he closed the lever, and with a bang the bullet was gone!

It passed through a partition, over the head of a sleeping mate, through another partition, and burst through the wood within a few inches of my eye, ripped through my arm between the ulna and radius, came out at the very middle of the wrist, entered my shoulder just above the collar bone, came our through my back, clipped off the side of one finger, passed across the room, dented the wall, and dropped to the floor!

Dr. Godsell tended to MacMillan, who was up and about in a few days. In his journal a clearly upset Wardwell describes the August 11, 1909 incident and in subsequent entries takes note of MacMillan’s steady recuperation. MacMillan kept the errant bullet, now in the Arctic Museum collection.

“The .40-82-260 is capable of propelling a .406” dia. 260 grain bullet at 1,475 fps with 1,256 ft.-lbs. of energy.” The rifle was certainly an 1886 Winchester, no doubt very handy for Seal, Walrus, and Polar Bear.

A box of early Smokeless cartridges from 1898-1900.

The parent case for those interested is the .45-90 WCF. Slightly longer version of the .45-70, necked to the same diameter of the later M1910 .401 WSL that used 200/250 gr. metal cased projectiles. I have seen photos of an early arctic expedition (I thought it Peary's) sporting the earlier M1907 Winchester rifle in .351 cal. But I cannot seem to locate it of late. It's plausible to me that it could be suitably maintained to function well in that climate.