The Last Voyage of the Karluk: A Survivor's Memoir of Arctic Disaster
On April 23, 1913, 24-year-old William McKinlay, a teacher of mathematics and science in Scotland, was finishing dinner when a telegram arrived. Legendary Canadian explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, it explained, was planning a four-year Arctic expedition between the northernmost shores of Canada and the North Pole. It was to be "a vast scientific project," McKinlay recalls, "involving studying Eskimos, geological surveys, sounding of uncharted Arctic waters, and a look-out for new islands to be discovered for Britain." McKinlay would be the team's magnetician and meteorologist--if he joined. He never thought twice--never mind that the crew was a motley assemblage of scientists and sailors, many of whom had never seen a polar bear outside a zoo. There was no survival training for the uninitiated. This was the heyday of the Arctic expedition--and "scientists were in great demand to bring back information about ... the poles."In July, the 250-tonKarlukdeparted Alaska. By August, the ship was doomed, trapped and drifting in a solid pack of ice. Stefannson abandoned ship (continuing his explorations for five full years before returning), and theKarlukdrifted for months before it was crushed by the ice and sank. Twenty-five people escaped onto the ice, isolated for a year before rescue arrived. By then, 11 people had perished--some in trying to reach land, others by suicide, malnutrition, or disease.McKinlay's first-hand account of theKarlukdebacle is Shackleton'sEndurancestoryin reverse: what happens when an untrained, ill-matched crew meets disaster and barely rises to the challenge. Leaderless and despondent, the stranded resorted to treachery, lying, cheating, and pure folly.Karlukis a story both unbelievable and familiar, and it is convincingly told: how ambition and poor planning lead to spectacular disasters from which only sheer will or luck can offer salvation.--Svenja Soldovieri