Evening star., 1909-09-05
could and effected landing of the stores

could and effected a landing OF the stores
| at Annovtok. twenty miles north Of Etah.
with great difficulty from the motor boat
Instead Of clear water we began to have
the worst ice we had seen on Smith sound,
| just where it chokes in and nIls Kennedy
channel. We were thirteen hours landing
! the stores. throwing them on the coast
from the motor boat wherever we could
Already there had been a call for volun-
teers to stay with pr. Cook, and FIVE OF
my men had responded. We considered
all their offers carefully. First. the ensi-
neer-no. we needed him: then the stew
ard-no. he was too giddy; then one Of
the sailors-no; then Kirby-no, he had
toothache.. and last my cook. Rudolph
Francke. good. healthy man. We de-
cided to land him, and when he had been
put on shore the doctor came on board.
wrote some letters home and we bade him
goodbye. That was the last we saw OF
him.
II can answer fully for DR.. Cooks
equipment. He had everything that could
be desired. He had lao dogs. and seventy
| men. women and children for Eskimo
companions, and one white man. He had
his winter house. machine shop. forty
tons Of coal, $50 feet of stove pipe, medi-
cines, books, pemmican, hickory for fif-
teen sleds, nails. screws, all tools, besides
the provisions for his polar dash. biscuit.
canned goods. coffee and tea, tobacco.
needles and thread. everything to begin
the winter season with on September 1.
1907. to make ready for his one-thousand-
mile journey northward. including his
dash to the pole. He had September and
house and have everything In readiness.
II proceeded south with the vessel and
tried to make Cape Sabine to 60 after
musk OK. but we had to give 1t UP on ac-
ever that 1 got my largest polar bear
in Hudson straits. He weighed 900
pounds. When we struck the coast Of
Labrador we ran into the worst storm we
ever saw. in which. afterward learned.
more than seventy vessels were lost. Four
men were kept working at the pumps for
many hours. We made the Bay Of Is
lands. N. F.. and anchored. and the stay
here gave me a weeks opportunity to go
hunting for caribou AT Sydney. Cape
and 1t was found that the ice had cut the
sheathing.
Sure Of Getting Back.
After my return to New York l was
asked a good many times how DR.. Cook
expected to get back to New York? had
told him. I am not coming up again.
and he had replied:
II do not want relief ship. / will
cross the inland ice to Cape York. can
get there. ! shall cross Melville bay to
Upernavfk. little Danish settlement on
the southeast coast of Greenland. Once q
yea blubber ship takes blubber to
upernavik. l can pay passage from there
to Copenhagen
Thus. 1t will be observed. Or. Cook did
exactly as he planned. He expected to
return to New York In November. 1909.
Those who knew Of the doctors PLAN
mrs. Cook. Capt. Bartlett and Rudolph
Francke, as well al myself-have been
confident that DIR. Cook has been alive
and would be heard FROM and that IL he
failed to reach the pole. he would GER
tatnly return home with the record Of the
farthest north.
His Intentions were, after landin~ NJ
Annootok. to make his sleds and his win
ter quarters as soon as there was enough
light to see. The details OF his experiences
| up to the time he was last heard from,
on March II. 1905. have been given to US
fully by the letters brought home by
Francke and by DIR. Cooks own reports
during the last few days. There has never
been any doubt In my mind about his
safety. knowing him aud his methods a.