The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1924-12-22
First White Man Sighted
Wrangell Island in 1S49.
But Did Not Land, Think
ing 1t Was Part of Siberia
Many Other Explorers
Have Travelled Over the
Island

Seattle. Wash, Dec. ~. Wrangcll
Island, rife in story of tragedy and
of unfinished projects, has attained
the status Of Il Russian possession,
to he explored and exploited, accord
ing to dispatches which the Soviet
government has allowed to reach the
western world
Tie first white man to sight Wran-
CELL Island, so far as recorded, was
Captain kcllctt of the British ship
Herald, in ls49. He didn't land. He
thought the island. which is IS miles
long and 81 miles wide and which lies
10 miles north of Siberia and 300
west of the latitude of Boring Strait,
was part of an Arctic continent that
has beer proved nonresident.
A small island is that vicinity was
named after his vessel. On Herald
Island the Stars and Stripes recently
were hoistcd by Captain Louis Lane,
caster of The gasoline schooner Her
man. after he had made Il vain at
tempt to reach Wrangcll Island
Interest in Wrangcll Island appar-
entity dates back to 1923, when ma
tivcs reported such an island to Ad-
miral Baron Ferdinand Petrovich Won
WranGcll. Il Russian. governor Of
Alaska. Baron Wrangell tried vainly
to reach the island.
Saw 1t In 1867
From kcllett's time the island was
called kcllett until Captain Thomas
Long of the whaling bark Nile, out Of
New London, Conn, happened around
there in August, 1867. He also fail
cd tS land, but he clearly saw and
delincated the shores. which for the
most part are banked by masses Of
ice that come and go. He called it
Wrangcll Island, after the baron,
whose cognomen is scattered around
southeastern Alaska, and the name
stuck.
The first recorded landing on the
island was by party from the Unit
cd States revenue cutter COrwin,
August ~, 1881. This party was
searching for the Jeanette, an
American vessel in which Admiral
Melville had tried to reach the North
Pole and which was lost in the delta
OF the Lena river, Siberia, all of her
complement but one officer perishing.
The next year Il party from the
Rodgers of the United States navy,
an expedition fitted out in San Fran
cisco to hunt the Jeanette. spent 10
days on Wrangell Island. The Rodg-
crs, trying to get back to the United
States, burned in st. Lawrence Bay,
on the eastern coast Of Siberia. Her
people were rescued by the cutter
Corwin
In 1913 Vilhjalmur Stefansson,
heading an expedition for Canada to
explore lands and waters of North
America, went from Seattle via Nome
into the Arctic ocean in the karluk,
a 250-ton steamer The master of the
karluk was Captain Robert A. Bart
lett, master of the steamer Roosevelt
in which Robert A. Peary went north
to reach the pole in 1909
The Karluk was caught in the ice
near Point Barrow, Alaska, and on
September 20 Stcfansson led Il hunt
ing party ashore over the frozen
ocean. He never saw the karluk
again. She was carried westward in
the ice. John Hadley, a British nav
igator, one of the crew, is among
those who have told her story. When
the ice began to squeeze and crack
the vessel, the captain gave orders
10. al, Inn 'Th;c u, c
north Of Herald Island. The crew
| made camp on the ice. The next day
as Hadlcy described it, the karuk
suddenly Strengthened out on a lcve
| keel and slowly sank with the Union
Jack flying
Sends Men There
| Ten days later Captain Bartlett
| sent the first and second mates ant
| two seamen to Wrangel Island tt
i cache provisions taken from Ship
wreck Camp. This party camped OF
| the ice near the island, waiting fol
Il piece of water to freeze over Sc
they could go ashore. The ice car
ried them into eternity.
Meanwhile in Shipwreck CAM
there arose disagreements which
found leader in Alistcr Forbe.
Mackay, a Scotch surgeon. Februar!
. party led by DR.. Mackay left thu
camp to make their own way to tn
island. They included an oceano
graphcr, an anthropologist and &:
seaman. They drifted away on th'
ice, never to be heard of again.
On March II Captain Bartlett sue
cecdcd in landing the rest of his par
ty on Wrangcll Island. Six days lat
err he left over the ice for Siberia