Evening star., 1924-12-07
WRANGELL ISLAND
COST MANY LIVES
Explorers Have Been Victims.
Now to Be Exploited Under
Russian Rule.
By the Associated Press.

| BY the Associated Press.
| SEATTLE, Wash, December g.
| Wrangell Island, rife in story oi
| tragedy and of unfinished projects
has attained the status of a Russian
possession, to be explored and ex-
plotted, according to dispatches which
the Soviet government has allowed Il
reach the western world.
The first white man to sight Wran-
gell Island, so far as recorded, was
| Capt. Kellett of the British shiI
Herald, in 1S49. He didn't land. He
thought the island, which is rs miles
! long and 35 miles wide and which
lies 10 miles north of Siberia and
800 west of the latitude of Bering
Strait, was part of an Arctic conti-
nent that has been proved non-exist-
ent
small island in that vicinity was
named after his vessel On Herald
Island the Stars and Stripes recently
| were hoisted by Capt. Louis Lane
master of the gasoline schooner Her.
man. after he had made a vain at
tempt to reach Wrangell Island.
Dates Back 100 YEARS
Interest in Wrangell Island appar-
| emily dates back to 1928, when ma.
| tives reported such an island TO Ad-
miral Baron Ferdinand Petrovich Won
Wrangen. a Russian governor OF
Alaska. Baron Wrangell tried vain
ly to reach the island.
From kelletts time the island wa!
called Kellett until Capt. Thoma,
Long of the whaling bark Nile, ou
of New London, Conn. happenet
around there in August, 1867. He
also failed to land. but he clearly
saw and delineated the shores, which
for the most part are banked by
masses of ice that come and go. II,
called it WrangelI Island, after the
baron. whose cognonen is scattered
around southeastern Alaska, and the
name stuck
The first recorded landing on the
island was by party from III,
United States revenue cutter Corwin
August IL, 1891. This party was
searching for the Jeanette. al
American vessel in which Admira
| Melville had tried to reach the Nortf
Pole and which was lost in the delta
of "%he Lena River, Siberia. all ot
her complement but one officer perish,
ing.
Navy Party on Island.
The next year a party from III,
Rodgers of the United States Navy
an expedition fitted out i'm san Fran.
cisco to hunt the Jeannette. spent ]!
days on Wrangeil Island. The Rodg
ers, trying to get back to the United
! States, burned in ST. Lawrence Bay
on the eastern coast of Siberia Hei
people were rescued by the cutter
Corwin.
In 1918 vilhjaImur Stefansson
! heading an expedition for Canada Il
! explore lands and waters of Nortl
I America, went from Seattle Via Nom,
into the Arctic Ocean in the KarIuk
a 25O-tcn steamer. The master Of tn,
karluk was Capt. Robert \. Bartlett
master of the steamer Roosevelt. il
which Robert A Peary went uortl
to reach the pole in 1909.
The harluk was caught in the ic,
near Point Barrow, Alaska, and Sep
tember 20 Stefansson led huntina
party ashore over the frozen ocean
He never saw the karluk again. Sht
/ was carried westward in the ice
John HadIey. British navigator. on,
of the crew. is among those who
} have told her story. When the iCt
began to squeeZe aud crack the YES
sci the captain gave orders to aban.
don her. This was 90 miles north o,
Herald Island. The crew made cam,
on the ice. The next day, as Hadley
described il. the karIuk suddenly
q
slowly sank with the Union Jack fly.
ing"
Lose Lives ON Ice.
Ten days later Capt. Bartlett sen
the first and second mates and TIVE
seamen to WrangeII Island to each,
. provisions taken from ShipwrecL
Camp. This party camped on tn,
ice near the island. waiting for Z
piece of water to freeze over so they
could go ashore. The ice carried then
into eternity.
Meanwhile In Shipwreck Camp ther,
arose disagree eements which found ;
leader in Alister Forb-s Mackay,
Scotch surgeon. February a party
led by DIR. Mackay left the camp t,
make their own way to the island
| They included an oceanographer, al
ianthropoloeist and seaman They
! drifted away on the ice, never to b.
heard of again.
March / = Capt Bartlett succeeded
in landing the rest of his party OF
! Nrangetl Island. Six days later h,
left over the ice for Siberia, accom-
panied only by an Eskimo. He land
ed. made his way to Nome. despft.
illness, and gave the word that sen
several vessels on Il relief race TIL,
race was won by the King & Wipge
a Seattle-built gasoline schooner Sh.
found IL survivors of the companv a
20 that StefanSson left aboard III,
karluck. OF those on the island one
had committed suicide and two hat
died of hardship. The rescue wa!
effected September 7, 1914.
| Leads Party to Safety.
Stefansson. bereft of his vessel. haf
| turned his energies to proving tha,
. men could travel several hundred
miles over the surface of the Arctic
living OH the ice and killing seals foI
food and fuel He led his party tc
| safety
| StefanSson considered. that Grear
Britain had q good claim on WrangeI
| Island. which he predicted would
prove an invaluable station for aerial
| transportation. But the sinister asso-
Citations of the island had led it to be
dubbed ''the death trap of the Arctic. .
Another expedition, promoted b1
! Steffansson, was led to the island ir
| 1921 by Alan Crawford, young sor
! of TORONTO professor. He took
three men, Lorne E. knight McMinn.
vile, Ore: Frederick w. Mauer, New
: Philadelphia, Ohio. and Milton Gale
I New Braunfels, Tex. Knight anC
Maurer had been members of the first
! Stefansson expedition. At Nome the
| party engaged a seamstress, Ada
| Blackjack, an Eskimo. Such native
seamstresses are indispensable in liv-
/ ing amid ice. because they only are
| able to fashion from skins the cloth
| ing necessary to life, and to do II
| swiftly.
The next Summer Capt. Joe Ber-