Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-12-08

Roosevelt in which Robert a. Pcary
went north to reach the pole in 1902.
The Karluk was caught in the ice
near Point Barrow, Alaska. and on
September 20 Stefansson led 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
navigator, 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
TO abandon her. This was 60 miles
north of Herald Island. The crew
| made camp on the ice. The next
day, as Hadley described it. the kar-
LUX suddenly Strengthened out on
level keel and slowly sank with the
Union Jack flying"
,, Ten days later Captain Bartlett
sent the first and second mates and
two seamen to Wrangell Island to
cache provisions taken from Ship
wreck Camp. This party camped on
the ice near the island, waiting for
n piece of water to freeze over so
/ they could go ashore. The ice car
ried them into eternity.
Meanwhile in Shipwrecll Camp
found a leader in Alister Forbes Mac
kay. n Scotch surgeon. February 5
n party led by DIR. Mackay left the
camp to make their own way to the
island. They included an ocean
ographer, an anthropologist and n
seaman. They drifted away on the
Ice. never to be heard of again.
On March IL Captain Bartlett sue
ceeded in landing the rest of his
party on Wrapgell Island. Six days
later he left over the ice for Siberia
accompanied only by an Eskimo. He
landed. made his way TO Nome, de-
spite illness. and gave the word that
sent several vessels on a relief race.
The race was won by the King &
Winge, Seattle-built gasoline
, schooner. She found IL survivors of
the company Of rs that Stefansson
left aboard the Karluk. OF those on
the island one had committed suicide
and two had died Of hardship. The
rescue was effected September Z,
1y14.
Stefansson, bereft of his vessel,
had turned his energies to proving
that men could travel several hun
dfed miles over the surface Of the
Arctic, living on the ice and killing
seals for food and fuel. lie led his
party to safety.
Stefansson considered that Great
Britain had good claim on Wrang-
ell Island. which he predicted would
prove an invaluable station for aerial
transportation. But the sinister as
sociations of the island had led It to
be dubbed "the death trap Of the
Arctic"
Another expedition. promoted by
Stefansson. was led to the island in
1921 by Alan Crawford, young son of
a Toronto professor. He took three
men, Lorne j.. knight, McMinnville.
rOSe.; Frederick w. Maurer, New
Philadelphia, o., and Milton Gale.
New Braunfels. Tex. knight and
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
living amid ice, because they only are
able to fashion from skins the
clothing necessary to life, and to do
1t swiftly.
The next summer Captain Joe Rer-
nard OF Nome in the gasoline schoon-
er Teddy Bear tried to reach yyrang-
ell Island with provisions for the
colony. Ice extended so far from the
island that he did not come within
sight Of it,
The following summer, 1928. Har-
old Noice, young Scotchman, led a
party TO the island In the gasoline
schooner Donaldson. He found that
Crawford, Maurer and Gale had do.
parted over the Ice for Siberia In