MacGregor Arctic Expedition
The expedition, which took place from July 1, 1937, to October 3, 1938, had four main objectives: To collect weather data; to make a magnetic survey; to photograph the aurora borealis and study its effects upon radio transmission; and to explore the area northwest of Ellesmere Island, in order to clear up the questions about Crocker Land, which Robert Peary placed on the map more than 30 years earlier.
In the spring of 1937, a three-mast, tern schooner, Donald II, was purchased in Nova Scotia and brought to Port Newark, New Jersey, where new motors were installed and the ship reinforced and reconditioned for the expedition.
There were originally eleven members of the expedition: Clifford J. MacGregor, meteorologist for the US Weather Bureau; Isaac "Ike" Schlossbach, "second in command", navigator and chief airplane pilot, United States Navy (retired); Roy Fitzsimmons, Polar Geophysicist and magnatologist; Robert Danskin, aircraft supplier and geologist; Gerry Sayre, radio engineer and operator; Murray A. Wiener, photographer; John Johnson, cook and mechanic; Paul "Fuzzy" Furlong, mechanic and dog handler; Francis Lawrence, aerologist and Junior Naval Guard; Robert Inglis, Surveyor and Boy Scout (the youngest member of the crew); and Norman Hortman, pilot (who left en route north at Sydney, Nova Scotia).
They made two scheduled stops in Greenland, one to take on fresh water and food at Fairhaven and another at Idglorssuit, Umank Fjord to pick up dogs and deliver presents to the Eskimo inhabitants.
After two days they were able to get back to Reindeer Point near Etah, only to find that most of the supplies that they had unloaded earlier to re-float the ship were under water, as a 10-foot (3 m) tide ebbed and flowed there.
So confident was MacGregor that his ice-reinforced, wooden-hulled schooner could reach Ft. Conger that he hadn't bothered to obtain an entry permit from Danish authorities (required for a base camp in Greenland).
MacGregor believed that accurately observing and plotting the development and movement of air masses as they moved across the Arctic would make possible more precise, longer-range Northern Hemispheric weather forecasting.
Paul Furlong and Roy Fitzsimmons trekked across Smith Sound to Cape Sabline, Ellesmere Island to deposit supplies at a Royal Canadian Mounted Police cache site (a request from Charles Camsell the Northwest Territories Commissioner).
Isaac Schlossbach armed with a sun compass and extra gas, attempted to locate Crocker Land from the air.
When the ice broke in July 1938, the explorers left Greenland after making a brief stop in Thule to pick up John Johnson, who had been dog sledded there earlier for medical care.
Several seams opened up, and constant pumping was required for days before reaching St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, where repairs were made.
During the voyage from St. Johns to Newark, off the Grand Banks, on September 21, 1938, they encountered one of the worst hurricanes that had ever moved up the Atlantic Coast.
With only ten members and a scant budget, the MacGregor Arctic Expedition could not rival the major undertakings of Byrd or Scott.
Roy G. Fitzsimmons – Geophysicist and Magnetologist Seaton Hall College, Class of 1937, Physics Carnige Institution, Magnetology Captain - US Army Air Force Newark, NJ
