Iditarod pioneer., 1914-04-11
WE'LL TOLD STORY OF PERILOUS
 VOYAGE OF SCOW MOSQUITO"

IditarOd people will remember the shliillS of the launch Mosquito last fall, in com mand of Ed Uhl in mad race to catch the last boat for Seattle at St. Michael before the close of navigation. In the party WAS q young man named Emory, who had arrived on one of the last boats from the Outside, and was anxious to return lmme- Giatclv to Seattle He has written an ac- count of the trip, which appeared n the Douglas Island News The story will he ot peculiar interest at this time, owing to the fact that Uhl and other members ot the party arrived from the Outside during the past week. The story follows:
 The fall of 1913 found inc WrIIer on business trip in the laiar"d al-Ir UHI,r h"at "''' scheduled for the last trtp, faced d l"IE winter m thlS Isolated camp or Wlih Hl some GOO miles over the lfdll |" 9tNdIu: \ uuSh of lhI> kind not appealing to hiNH'lt and one or two other, dnNuNS iU get Out' we looked around for evlir means ol get ting tu the OulSIdr.
 Id lhl and Mike MAhcr of lditarod, near ing of our desire to get out for the winter. agreed to fix up an old scuW that had seen a great deal of service on the upper luIla- rod. nIS StOW Wa uul'ul lol lN I''N t'''t and nine or ten feet wide, with twelve inch side ards. leaked pretty badly, ana NdN ruI of water Mir. Uhl beng anxious to get outside agreed to put lent on lhr bedding and land Us in st. M|chArl ai SGO per- This looked good to me. E3i m tuuch with parties OH otter ana fIdI creeks and With all hands huatIJn%, we , oa. cured the promise of twenty men that they Wuuli take the chance. Mi Of ms vas arranged for during the days or the great storm at Nome, between october "
 Aitrr satisfying themselves that they; could get d good pa~~cn@rr list, thl Wl4 Mahrr, captain and engineer or jhr Sn"u shIp Mosquito, with carpenter, got busy and put up a tent with pilot house m rear built Stau.!cr>. Got the old hulk Into the water, and the fun cunIncnrrd.
 The boys found an old kiondIke COOK stove, which was set up amldIhlpS, an olI a!r-ugnG heater beng installed in the bow. \ 31 horse power Reliance auto truCh en- zine furnished pUW"r with an rlghttrh- inch wheel Tn" weather had turned very coIG By october 6 all mining operations had to tie up. Everything rrozc. and on inc Gln. 7th and Sth was below freezing. on Thursday. the 9th, II turned warmer. Fms made us feel better. everybody Tn lGIfarud was sur" N" were all g"lAG It. certain Uoalh. Bets were freely "l',"l 0but found no takers that We would meyer reach the mouth of in" Yukon, ana tuaj the old rotten ~'"W Wl'h LIlGrn- .i'r" >l"'
  mnute lper-ouaIiy, 1 now agree with t#y3u. There k an old saying that Pr"'l- drncr looks after fools, "lr. IL was uuI\ by such aid that We got out. ne weather was modrratIng somewhat, and Thursday cvrmng the gih. II began tp SHOW. aIu by midnight there Was several inches ut water in the hull of the STOW. To take care of thr water, Engineer N1hrt known all over the North a- "WIndN Mkr'-A line chap tu travel with, bored q tWD-mrh h,lc through the bolt m of the >'oW, NAiirG q five gallon oII ran, with hnie ia inc boftpn over the hole in th" bottom or the sroW, and With an ordinary i'm force pump such a, groccrS use to pump oil out ui bar Vol>. kept the water down m the hulI ol Inc erow by standing up with IIH> tn pu"p >rt u9 th" floor A." pAHH.n% Mdj,' mic inc ttl can iu in" center ut the HnHt. We had to keep this up all the tune, day and night to keep ahoat .........,,., up tWcIN" passengers out ct the promised twenty or more The horrible rnG We were going tu meet did not took good to som" of the fellow, that were anN:uuS to get out, Not daring to take any more chances on GcIIy~ aS the river wa, freezing and full of >Iu~h snow, We decided tp leave d> uualutrh With the Iditarad river can fully appreciate its wonderful cuUr>r-n fact, it |, >o tOrtuous you hardly know whether you are going or coming Ho at 7:l3 q. m. Friday. october iO, We cut the rope. Aboard were the rolIow.ug: Capt2n Ed UhI Engineer Mike Naher, Doe Nadng, earga shields. Bob N"Millan. Tex Goddard, Harry Harmon, L. willis. Mr. 1ilnnF, Tom Rates. \. J. Emory and two others whose names have rorgottrn. This was the h3ud0o numbpr-t3. Nu we left at 7:i3 d. m. Friday. After cutting loose II rnptared that some "f us WGGr so5l@ tn settled, no breakfast WaS in -!ght :" yours
 truly suggested to Windy Mike that It might be q good time to takc my Crdrr for bacom etc. The engine had not got warmed taking bIrt- tHtt acted just AS if 1t was going to quit. | want to say that right then and there became arQuanled with Windy Mike. If l could Say the things he did, the way he did, l would be running all of the \. C. boats on the Yukon in ninety days. There was no II>tak" about It. The engine, thirty five horse power three cylinder turning 1&o per minute. sounded like a watch tick ing in comparison. l told him if il" WonId repeat il l would see that he had plenty of h"iN taking care Of Tn" "ata end Of the Dus!nrsS That broke the ice. H. sNG it WaS sure pleasure to meet man with hran~ enough to know classical ian-Uagr when he hears it. want to add that there i- no better meat or game cook in Alaska than Mike. II WaS up to some of Us to get the good eats ready. We had twenty tV" lUaveS of bread, half a case of eggs, a crate of spuds. ham, bacon, onions and beans. We expected to make st. Michael n four days. Ur some other place in the same tune. We reached Dtkeman, eIghty- five miles down the rIver about 4:30 ?. m. llljIF Il ldilNlllE, got some Gd1bIlIit, GNu picked up another passenger making the fourteenth aboard.
 Everything worked fine, tho weather get ting colder every hour With the two stoves and hot engine we were very com rOrablc. As not one of the passengers had ever been down the Yukon as pilots We were all on the anxious seat as to our course. We made the InuokO about mid night and picked up q broken down launch with q couple of natives and a sQuaWman took them in tow and landed them at Holy Cross about 7:3O a. m. sunday; secured some more gasoline, but could get no bread Left Holy Cross about q. m.. making a fine run during the day. It being q moon, we decided to keep going and trust to Providence Ot keep to the channel. (Thcre are SlOughS running back for a hundred miles or more, and should We by mistake get down one of these it would be all Otl Everybody was anxious to aVOId these blind waterways and all being willing to assist, kept the spirits up to the proper tune) About midn ght We found the water get ting so low that We were touching bottom for miles, when kefpiunk. We went on d bar and could see nothing but Yukon river sand storm. This meant that We had to get into the water and lift the old ark loose. This was the regular thing for a couple of hOurS when 1t was thought best to tie up and take a chance of freezing in. As soon as daylight appeared we were able nick inc channel and op wa