The North Pole is a desolate place. But it’s at the top of the world and holds magnetic allure. Two explorers made mad dashes for it in 1908 and 1909. Within five days of each other, both Frederick Cook and Robert Peary claimed to have gotten there first. Together they inspired a bitter and never-ending controversy about who is the real Columbus of the Arctic.
First to try to reach North Pole by air was Swedish Salomon Andree with his two-men crew , who lifted off Dane Island, Spitzbergen, Norway on July 11, 1897 with his rope-guided balloon Ornen (Eagle).
In 1930, Sir Hubert Wilkins acquired the submarine O-12 from the US Navy. He outfitted her and renamed her Nautilus, and prepared an undersea expedition to the North Pole. However, the Nautilus did make several short runs under ice, indicating that submarines could feasibility operate in and under the ice pack.