The San Francisco call., 1899-08-29
WELfM
ARRIVES IN
ENGLAND
Arctic Explorer Tells of His
Voyage in Search of
the North Pole.
MET PARTIAL SUCCESS
Believes he Would Have Pene-
tratel to the Polar Sea but
for an Accident.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

HULL. England. Aug. 29.-Walter Well
man, the leader of the Wellman Polar ex-
petition who returned to Tromsoe Nor
way. August II, after having successfully
completed operations in Franz Josef Land,
has arrived here. He walks with the aid
of crutches, his right leg, which was Sc
riously injured by fall into snow-cov-
cred crevasse while Mr.. Wellman was
leading his party, still being useless. The
explorer was accompanied by the Ameri-
can members of the expedition, who are
well. In an interview Mr. Wellman said:
THE object of the expedition was two
fold-to. complete the exploration of Franz
Josef Land. of which the north and
northeast parts were practically unknown,
and to reach a high latitude, or even the
pole itself. The first object was success
fully accomplished. The second would
have been achieved. at least to a greater
extent than by previous explorers, but
for the accident to myself.
Mr.. Wellman recounted the starting of
1898. how it reached Elmwood the head
quarters of the Jackson expedition, July
28, and hoisted there the stars and stripes
underneath the Union Jack. which had
been flying over the deserted settlement
for nearly two years. The provisions left
| tor Professor Andree, the missing aero
naut, were found by Mr.. Wellman un-
| touched.
After leaving letters about his expe-
dition and taking collapsible house with
him, Mr.. Wellman proceeded due east
for Cape Tegethoff and arrived there July
90 1898 There the party landed all the
stores and the steamer returned to Nor
way
We established our headquarters in the
little house brought from Jackson's head
quarters, continued Mr.. Wellman, "over
which flew the Stars and Stripes
Desiring to push further north with
the greatest speed. | dispatched Baldwin
August s, with the Norwegians, sledges,
! dogs and boats, myself and others intend
ing to follow in few days.
Shortly after Baldwtn's departure, I
| discovered that, owing to a sudden break
up of the ice; l was unable to proceed, but
II sent two NorWegians to inform Bald
win to build his outpost, leave two men
in charge. of it, and return to my head
Here Lieutenant Evelyn B. Baldwin of
| the bureau told of the doings Of his ex-
petition. He said:
| Heller, in latitude 81, where we decided to
make an outpost. From the very outset
we had a constant fight with the high
seas, ice and wind, and there was con-
! tinual fog The ice underneath us parted
with terrific crashes, leaving us adrift on
small floes: Here we built a station and
| called it Fort Mckinley. We stocked it
with blubber and meat, and leaving there
| two volunteers, Ventzen and Bjorvig
/ started to return October % to Mr.. Well
! Der 80 in safety, in spite of great hard
! ships, cold, darkness and ice
/ THE party spent the winter comfort
a6Iy in tn Hogse ba Thich
many bears.
MIR Wellman, February IS. 1899 with
! Norwegfans with sledges and dogs, start
| ed north
Mr. Wellman, continuing, said: Feb
ruary 26. 1899. 1 arrived at Fort McKin-
! ley. Bjorvig, rife in hand, stood at the
mouth of the snow tunnel. He wrung my
| hand and with tears in his eyes said:
| Poor Ventzen is dead
"'Of course, you have buried him. I
said
No Bjorvig replied, me lies there
pointing to the hut. L have kept my
| promise.
1.-The two men had made a compact that
| in case of death the survivor should keen
| the body until help came. In the little
/ hut the quick and the dead had slept side
! by side through two months of Arctic
darkness.
"Bjorvig said he had managed to keep
up his spirits by reciting I6sen's poetry
| THE next day we gathered stones and
under these we buried our dead comrade.
( A few fitting words were spoken as we
! stood around in 20 degrees of frost. After
a delay of ten days the party, including
/ Bjorvig, pressed north in sledges and by
march until we reached So degrees, east
! of Rudolph Island. The prospects then
were most reassuring. We had three
months Of the best season before us and
were confident of reaching 81 degrees.
! Though we had suffered from cold we
| were all in fine form.
Then seemingly trivial accident turned
the advance into a precipitate retreat
/ While struggling with the sleds in rough
ice my right leg was bruised and sprained
by my falling into hidden crevasse For
two days l went on, and unless other cir
/ cumstances had occurred | should
have pressed onward so far that 1 would
! never have been able to return alive At
! midnight. March %, we were awakened
by the crushing of the ice under our feet.