Some people started to question whether Peary's expedition had even reached the Pole at all. On April 6, Peary had claimed to establish a final camp within 3 miles of the pole, according to his own estimations. Henson, being the one to pave the trail, went to scout what was thought to be the North Pole, claiming that “I think I’m the first man to sit on top of the world.” Peary and his companions then began their return back home, departing for home on July 18th.
After successfully arriving home, Congressional investigations were conducted to Peary during 1910-11 under the suspicion of fraudulent claims of reaching the North Pole. Later on, a reassessment of Peary’s expedition in 1988 by Wally Herbert found the records lacked “essential data,” undermining Peary’s claim that he had reached the pole. Herbert found major “gaps” in logic when he was given access to Peary’s records of arriving at the North Pole. He noted that Peary's account of the arrival to the pole strongly implied that he may have been vulnerable to several human errors during the process of navigation, any one of which that could have led him miles to the left of the rough sheet of ice that Peary claimed he followed. The research concluded that Peary had most likely missed the pole and arrived 30 to 80 miles to the left due to navigational errors.
