Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-09-13
SCOUTS THRILLED
BY ARCTIC VOYAGE
Describe Battle With Great
Bear and Ball Game
With Esquimos.

BY the Associated Press.
SAN FRANCISCO, September 13
Eight Sea Scouts, Chicago youths
under 81 years Of age. are relating
humorous and thrilling tales OF
their experiences as crew members OF
the auxiliary yacht Northern Light,
which returned Saturday from the
Arctic with specimens for the Field
Museum of their city.
Each Of the Scouts kept diary
on the trip and from the pages or
these came stories that rivaled the
best of boys adventure books, such
as Staying of the giant polar and
kodiak bear. pursuit of the Killer
whale, struggles to reef san on
waves than ran % feet high, swim
ming parties in Northern seas and
in the crater of a steaming volcano
and of defeat in a game of base ball
at the hands of Esklmos.
Is Walrus Skins.
The bows were unanimous in the
assertion that their captain and
owner Of the vessel. John Borden,
wealthy Chicago explorer. was a
prince" and that his guests, men
and women. were good shots with
the rifle. AS testimony OF ms
craftsmanship the Northern Light
brought back for the museum the
skins of II kodiak bears. Is Walrus.
oorrook (whiskered seaD, s polar
bears and 1875 birds.
The scouts were Kenneth McClel-
land, Otto Christensen, Jack Hol-
brooke. Steven Ram, Bruno G. An
drews, Johnston Power, James Ryan
and Theodore Purcell.
The trip lasted four and one.ha!t
months The chronology OF hlsn
4
time was revealed by their diaries
as follows:
They sailed from San Francisco
Raw last April 81, touched at Victoria.
b. c.. and then proceeded northWard
through the inside passage to Juneau,
Alaska. thence to Canoe Bay on the
Alaskan peninsula, where the Kodiak
bear was hunted.
Camp on Beach.
They remained at Canoe Bay one
month, having pitched camp on the
beach. They struck their first bad
weather along this coast. and the
decks of the Northern LiSht were
swept by the seas most of the time.
At Pavlof Bay they found an active
volcano. plenty of fox, caribou, skunk
and Goldfish so plentiful that they
could be speared. At East Cove, they
purs,led a killer whale, species noted
for fearless attacks. They did not
catch their quarry.
At Unalaska, they were defeated IN
base ball by the crew of the Coast
Guard cutter Haida, but Jack Hol'
brooke, their heavy" man, had the
satisfaction of defeating the cutter
divisions best wrestler.
1t was off Unalaska they saw the
Bogosloff volcanic island, which has
changed its contours several times
during the course of a year. They
then sailed northward to Uribilof Is
lands There their parkas, or hooded
fur coats, were issued them to re-
place their sailor peacoats
Receives S o S Call.
Off st. Lawrence Island, near the
Boring Strait, the Northern Light re-
ceived the S o call sent out by the
reef-bound fur ship Charles Brewer.
The scouts said they were thrilled by
the forced draft speed through the
foggy night to the rescue. using the
radio compass to guide them. The
Brewer freed itself from the reef just
as the rescuers hove in sight.
The Northern Light then proceeded
to the Siberian Coast and across the
Strait of Nome. Then it went to Cape
Serdxe, where it drifted in the ice
while natives surrounded the vessel
in their kayaks, or skin boats. Rus
sian officials kept the Northern Light
under surveillance, ready to seize the
vessel if any trading occurred between
the visitors and natives.
On July Is the boys saw their first
midnight sun, the spectacle of the
Arctic, as they started farther north
ward toward Wrangle Island, their
fartherest northern point. The ice was
80 thick they could approach only
within a mile of the island.
The lads fell to ignoble defeat in
base ball when the Northern Light
anchored for few days at Point
Hope, on American soil above the
sixty-eight latitude.
The boys explained their defeat
naively by saying that the Eskimo
catcher possessed the only glove, a
thin fielding glove which the sea
scouts could not use because the ball
stung their hands. The natives were
greatly elated over their victory. The