The Nome daily nugget., 1914-05-05
StefanssOn Writes Thrilling Description of His Fight For Life
 In the Arctic and Shi p's Loss

BARROW. Alaska Oct. IS. 1913.- On Aug. 6, 1913, the Karluk was in the pack ice about three miles off shore, floating northeast parallel to the coast about twelve miles per day. She would have been in danger of be- ing carried an indefinite distance into the open ocean to the northwest to freeze in there for the winter had the southwest wind continued that was driving the ice in which she was pin led fast had the wind shifted to any point between west and north before WIG drlfted clear of Point Barrow she would have been likley to get crush ed. Neither of these things happened.
 Drifting Northward.
 We passed Point Barrow early the morning of Aug. :, and, as expected, commenced drifting northwest on ac- C, unt of the current from the south west, which had brought us. uniting with a current from the southeast that met us as soon as We had passed the poleward corner of Alaska. We now drifted at the rate of over forty miles per day. About noon of the seventh the wind changed to northeast how cver and soon after that the ice be- gan to loosen up. By o'clock we were able to get under way. and in lsa If an hour we were steaming freely to the eastward. among scattered ice flo es with land in sight of the south.
 In the Dense Ice.
 Toward evening the ice became dCnser and the weather thickened, so we tied up to some ice for the few hours of the midnight twilight, about elght miles off shore from Coopers island, which we recognized by the Eskimo houses that were visit le both i, the evening and early morning soon after daylight we got under way. The ice was neither heavy nor densely packed and it was only occasionally necessary to buck" any of it.
 That evening we passed Cape Hal kett, and everything went well until afternoon. when we ran aground among the Colville flats. We got off again in half an hour, as the bottom thin, soft mud ovcrlying dense sand happened to be favorable. Later we went aground again, but only lightly as we were under slow speed.
 "5uekine" Ice Floes.
 That evening we passed the Jones islands, sometimes called the Thetis islands. Toward morning We had to do considerable "bucking' as the ice again became denser. The eve- ming of Aug. II we tied up behind q cake of grounded. ice about half q mile off shore from mall gravel island or sandspt, known to some whalers as Cross island and to others by various other names. It Is about ten miles from the mainland, in long, iture 14S degrees, approximately. The wind was northwesterly and the ice was gradually closing fin.
 We remained tied behind this grounded ice until the following after on, whenD we commenced working our way out into the pack again Shortly before midnight, Aug. 12, we tied up to some heavy ice about fif- teen miles off shore. The wind kept varying from southwest through west to north--light breezesand the Ice kept closing in more tightly each day By Aug. IT all the ice was tightly packed and cemented together by young ice strong enough to walk on
 karluk Is Stuck.
 From that time the Karluk was never able to stir an inch, and open water was never closer to us than a mile away. When later easterly winds came a fair way for ships opened along the land, and as late as the second week of September shiI ly either east or west between us ant of any draught could have sailed free the land. Had we been a mile nearer land we should, on more than one oc' casion have been freed by the break. ing of the ice into cakes and should have had another chance to advance had we been near shore we should apparently have had no trouble fl that vicinity whatever might have me us further east.
 Ship Drifts HslplsssIy.
 As 1t was. we drifted helplesiy. W, had dynamite enough to break abou half mile of ice. but the open watel never came near enough to mak, blasting seem worth while. First westerly winds drove us about fit, miles east then easterly winds drov,