Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Ralph Plaisted" in English language version.
Why was the unlikely triumph of the Plaisted expedition lost to history? The answer is a combination of bad luck and polar politics. When the expedition returned to Montreal, a writer from National Geographic was waiting, hoping to acquire rights to the story. Plaisted flatly refused, despite the pleading of his comrades. Since Peary's day, the magazine had been the official arbiter of exploration claims like theirs; with his refusal, Plaisted denied his team the legitimacy only the society could bestow. "Ralph thought for sure there would be a ticker-tape parade in New York City," Pitzl recalls. "Ralph had a big ego — it was ego all the way. He was convinced there would be laurels. But no dice." Wally Herbert eventually reached the pole in 1969 after being trapped on an ice floe for close to eight months. Even the thwarted Englishman in his later years acknowledged that the rightful claim to being first to the pole went to Plaisted and his snowmobiling pals, although their voyage lacked the high-minded pretensions of golden-age exploration.
He also worked with the 1967 and 1968 Plaisted polar expeditions.
