Robert Edwin Peary Sr. was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for, in April 1909, leading an expedition that claimed to be the first to have reached the geographic North Pole.
Donald Baxter MacMillan was an American explorer, sailor, researcher and lecturer who made over 30 expeditions to the Arctic during his 46-year career.
George Wallace Melville was a United States Navy officer, engineer and Arctic explorer.
Adolphus Washington Greely was a United States Army officer and polar explorer. He attained the rank of major general and was a recipient of the Medal of Honor.
USS Bear was a dual steam-powered and sailing ship built with six-inch (15.2 cm)-thick sides which had a long life in various cold-water and ice-filled environments. She was a forerunner of modern icebreakers and had a diverse service life. According to the United States Coast Guard official website, Bear is described as "probably the most famous ship in the history of the Coast Guard."
USCGC Northwind (WAG/WAGB-282) was a Wind-class icebreaker, the second United States Coast Guard Cutter of her class to bear the name. She was built to replace USCGC Staten Island which was in Soviet lend-lease service.
Uriel Sebree was a career officer in the United States Navy. He entered the Naval Academy during the Civil War and served until 1910, retiring as a rear admiral. He is best remembered for his two expeditions into the Arctic and for serving as acting governor of American Samoa. He was also commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet.
John Riddoch Rymill was an Australian polar explorer, who had the rare second clasp added to his Polar Medal.
The MacGregor Arctic Expedition was a privately funded expedition which set out to reoccupy Fort Conger, Ellesmere Island, Canada, a site within flying distance of the North Pole. 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.
Roy G. Fitzsimmons was an American Polar Explorer and Geophysicist. Born LeRoy Fitzsimmons, he was the youngest child of John and Alice Brown Fitzsimmons and was one of 10 children.
Isaac "Ike" Schlossbach was an American polar explorer, submariner and aviation pioneer.
Murray A. Wiener was a polar explorer and photographer.
Albert Gerald Sayre was an American radioman and Arctic explorer.
Edward Hanson "Iceberg" Smith was a United States Coast Guard admiral, oceanographer, and Arctic explorer. He was born 29 October 1889 at Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts. He received a Ph.D. in oceanography from Harvard, and commanded the USCGC Marion and the USCGC Northland. Most famously, he commanded the Greenland Patrol, and led Coast Guard efforts to defend Greenland against the Germans in World War II. After retirement from the Coast Guard, he assumed the directorship of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
A.W. Greely was a three-masted wooden schooner that became known for her role in the MacGregor Arctic Expedition, a privately funded expedition to the North Pole between July 1, 1937, and October 3, 1938.
John Johnson was an Arctic explorer and World War II veteran.
USCGC Northland (WPG-49) was a United States Coast Guard cruising class of gunboat especially designed for Arctic operations that served in World War II and later served in the Israeli Navy. She was the last cruising cutter built for the Coast Guard equipped with a sailing rig.
Godske Christoffersen Lindenov or Lindenow was a Danish naval officer and Arctic explorer. He was a commander on one of King Christian IV's expeditions to Greenland.
Buskø was a small Norwegian sealer, seized by the U.S. Coast Guard in East Greenland in September 1941, before U.S. entry into the war. She was bringing supplies and rotating personnel for the Norwegian hunting stations there. The episode is notable not only for the uproar in the American press when Buskø was towed to Boston as a prize, but also because it is frequently but incorrectly listed as being the first American capture of an enemy surface vessel in the war. Finally, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had frequently asserted that Germany would attempt to establish a foothold in Greenland, and the way this episode was presented seemed to bear him out. The affair was a notable early initiative in the North Atlantic weather war.