The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-04
Capt. Bob Bartlett

not know what time. He knew
they were going down, that there
was not a chance in million.
So he made ready to abandon
ship. Provisions, rifles and am
munition were prepared against
exposure to the elements. The
Eskimo woman sewed water
tight, warm skin clothing for all
hands. The best marksmen went
out across the ice on hunting ex-
peditionS-but it was hard to
sleep, the ship groaned so in the
clasp of the pack.
Then, in January, she began to
crackle, as though guns were be-
ing fired, and in the evening it
happened.
Abandon ship" Capt. Bob
cried, and they all got off-to
stand cold and sad, watching the
ice crush the Karluk, fill her with
water, sink her with her ensign
flying, and then close solidly over
the place where she went down.
They built houses on the ice,
houses made of boxes of hard
bread and sacks of coal, rein
forced with canvas and snow, and
they called their vicinity Ship
wreck Camp.
Capt. Bob knew, however, they
could not stay there long and
survive. Wise in the perils of
the North, he devised his pro-
gram deliberately. He established
1000 supply bases out across the
ice. He charted the way across
hundreds of miles of ice to the
mainland.
pUT he did not make the start
~ for civilization before his
party was cut in half.
DR.. A. F. Mackay, Oceanogra-
pher James Murray, DR.. Henri
Beuchat and Seaman S. S. Morris
by special permission, but against
the advice of their commander,
made an independent try for the
shore on Feb. 1, 1914.
They were inexperienced in ice
travel. They did not know the
Hazards of buckling ice, of wide
pressure ridges through which it
is necessary to hew a path; they
did not know how to cope with
open leads of water nor how to
take care of themselves during a
protracted blizzard.
That was the last of them.
Another party of four set out
later and came to an open lead of
water.
That was the last of them.
But finally Capt. Bob and the
main party reached Herald Is
land, then Wrangell Island. Eight
lives had been given in the 100
mile trip over the ice, and the
Siberian shore lay 10 miles south.
The captain decided not to risk
the lives of the whole party in the
next stage; he took with him only
one man, Kataktovich, an Eskimo,
and in II days they made the
coast-with 600 miles still ahead
of them before they might speak
for help.
They made those miles, too, and
then at last they got word to Capt.
G. S. Cochran, on the bridge of
the Coast Guards veteran ship,
the Bear.
I'm the WHOLE" Capt. Bob
" said later, sit seemed to me
that it would be a matter of
singular interest for the Bear to
rescue the Karluk survivors as
she had rescued the Greedy party
80 years before, on the other side
of the continent"
The Bear tried. Capt. Bob was
right when he said, I'D been told
Capt. Cochran wasn't afraid to
put his ship in the ice" The Bear
tried four times to land at
Wrangell Island.
But the ice pushed her back,
the polar pack kept her away.
She had to head back to Nome
for coal, and then Capt. Cochran
nosed her into the ice again.
That time she won. Capt.
Cochran found that while he had
been coaling another ship, the
King and Wing, had cruised 600
miles out of her way and had
reached the stranded crew; from
that little vessel he took off Capt.
Bob's men, the Eskimo woman,
the two little girls and the black
cat.
After that he waited for the
next:
dit dit dat, dar dar dar. dit dit
dit
TOMORROW: The Wreck of the
Rnhert E Lee.