Transcriber’s Note
Hyphenations have been standardised.
Page 27 — changed way to away
Page 160 — changed paces to places
Pages 252 and Page 309 — Nordenskïold and
Nordenskiöld, have been left spelt as is.
THE LAST VOYAGE
OF THE _KARLUK_
[Illustration: THE _KARLUK_ IN THE ICE-PACK
“The snow formed a blanket on the ice and later on its melting and
freezing cemented the ice snugly about the ship.” _See page 26_]
THE LAST VOYAGE OF
THE _KARLUK_
_Flagship of Vilhjalmar Stefansson’s
Canadian Arctic Expedition
of 1913-16_
AS RELATED BY HER MASTER,
ROBERT A. BARTLETT, AND
HERE SET DOWN BY RALPH T. HALE
_Illustrated from
charts and photographs_
[Illustration]
BOSTON
SMALL, MAYNARD AND COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1916
BY SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)
Printers
S. J. PARKHILL & CO., BOSTON, U.S.A.
TO
MRS. WILLIAM BARTLETT
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I THE EXPEDITION AND ITS OBJECTS 1
II THE VOYAGE BEGINS 10
III WE MEET THE ICE AND GET A POLAR BEAR 16
IV WE ARE FROZEN IN 23
V OUR WESTWARD DRIFT BEGINS 29
VI STEFANSSON’S DEPARTURE 34
VII DRIVEN BY THE STORM 39
VIII WE DRIFT AWAY FROM THE LAND 48
IX IN WINTER QUARTERS 59
X THE ARCTIC NIGHT 71
XI THE SINKING OF THE _KARLUK_ 83
XII OUR HOME AT SHIPWRECK CAMP 93
XIII WE BEGIN OUR SLEDGING 105
XIV THE SUN COMES BACK 117
XV THE RETURN OF MAMEN AND THE DEPARTURE
OF THE DOCTOR’S PARTY 124
XVI OVER THE ICE TOWARDS WRANGELL ISLAND 137
XVII THROUGH THE PRESSURE RIDGE 150
XVIII WE LAND ON WRANGELL ISLAND 161
XIX KATAKTOVICK AND I START FOR SIBERIA 171
XX ACROSS THE MOVING ICE 179
XXI IN SIGHT OF LAND 194
XXII WE MEET THE CHUCKCHES 207
XXIII EASTWARD ALONG THE TUNDRA 220
XXIV COLT 231
XXV “MUSIC HATH CHARMS” 242
XXVI WE ARRIVE AT EAST CAPE 253
XXVII WITH BARON KLEIST TO EMMA HARBOR 264
XXVIII IN TOUCH WITH THE WORLD AGAIN 280
XXIX WAITING 285
XXX OFF FOR WRANGELL ISLAND 297
XXXI THE RESCUE FROM WRANGELL ISLAND 311
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE _KARLUK_ IN THE ICE-PACK _See page 26_ _Frontispiece_
PAGE
THE DRIFT OF THE _KARLUK_ 1
THE _KARLUK_ IN HER WHALING DAYS 4
VILHJALMAR STEFANSSON 8
THE LEADERS AND THE SCIENTIFIC STAFF BEFORE
THE DEPARTURE FROM NOME 10
STEFFANSSON AND HIS PARTY LEAVING THE _KARLUK_ 36
HAULING THE DREDGE 48
MAKING SOUNDINGS 52
THE SUPPLIES ON THE BIG FLOE 56
PAGES FROM CAPTAIN BARTLETT’S DIARY 92
PLAN OF SHIPWRECK CAMP 98
CAPTAIN BARTLETT’S COPY OF THE “RUBÁIYÁT” OF
OMAR KHAYYAM 102
THE ICE-PACK 106
LETTER FROM THE DOCTOR’S PARTY TO CAPTAIN
BARTLETT 128
MUGPI 142
SHIPWRECK CAMP 144
ANOTHER VIEW OF SHIPWRECK CAMP 148
MAP OF WRANGELL ISLAND 162
FIVE OF THE MEN OF THE _KARLUK_ ON WRANGELL
ISLAND 180
CAPTAIN BARTLETT’S CHART OF THE ALASKAN COAST 204
CAPTAIN BARTLETT’S CHART OF THE SIBERIAN COAST 214
THE NEWS OF CAPTAIN BARTLETT’S ARRIVAL AT
ST. MICHAEL’S REACHES NOME 282
THE CAMP AT RODGERS HARBOR, WRANGELL ISLAND 306
THE RESCUE OF THE PARTY AT WARING POINT,
WRANGELL ISLAND 314
MAKING THE KAYAK ON WRANGELL ISLAND 320
THE _KARLUK_ SURVIVORS ON BOARD THE _BEAR_ 324
THE LAST VOYAGE
OF THE _KARLUK_
[Illustration: THE DRIFT OF THE _KARLUK_]
CHAPTER I
THE EXPEDITION AND ITS OBJECTS
We did not all come back.
Fifteen months after the _Karluk_, flagship of Vilhjalmar Stefansson’s
Canadian Arctic Expedition, steamed out of the navy yard at Esquimault,
British Columbia, the United States revenue cutter, _Bear_, that
perennial Good Samaritan of the Arctic, which thirty years before had
been one of the ships to rescue the survivors of the Greely Expedition
from Cape Sabine, brought nine of us back again to Esquimault—nine
white men out of the twenty, who, with two Eskimo men, an Eskimo woman
and her two little girls—and a black cat—comprised the ship’s company
when she began her westward drift along the northern coast of Alaska
on the twenty-third of September, 1913. Years of sealing in the waters
about Newfoundland and of Arctic voyaging and ice-travel with Peary
had given me a variety of experience to fall back upon by way of
comparison; the events of those fifteen months, I must say, justified
the prophecy that I made in a letter to a Boston friend, just before
we left Esquimault: “This will have the North Pole trip ‘beaten to a
frazzle.’”
It did; and there were two main reasons why.
One was that the _Karluk_, though an old-time whaler, was not built,
as the _Roosevelt_ was, especially for withstanding ice-pressure; very
few ships are. Dr. Nansen’s ship, the _Fram_, was built for the purpose
and has had a glorious record in both the Arctic and the Antarctic. The
_Karluk_, a brigantine of 247 tons, 126 feet long, 23 feet in beam,
drawing 16-1/2 feet when loaded, was built in Oregon originally to be a
tender for the salmon-fisheries of the Aleutian Islands. Her duty had
been to go around among the stations and pick up fish for the larger
ships. The word _karluk_, in fact, is Aleut for _fish_. When later in
her career she was put into the whaling service her bow and sides were
sheathed with two-inch Australian ironwood but she had neither the
strength to sustain ice-pressure nor the engine-power to force her way
through loose ice. She had had, however, an honorable career in the now
virtually departed industry of Arctic whaling, and was personally and
pleasantly known to Stefansson, who had travelled on her from place
to place along the Alaskan coast on several occasions during his
expeditions of 1906-7 and 1908-12.
The other reason was that the winter of 1913-14 was unprecedented in
the annals of northern Alaska. It came on unusually early, as we were
presently to learn, and for severity of storm and cold had not its
equal on record.
The National Geographic Society had originally planned to finance our
expedition, and it was only at the urgent request of the Canadian
premier, the Right Hon. R. L. Borden, that the Society relinquished its
direction of the enterprise. The Canadian Government felt that since
the country to be explored was Canadian territory it was only fitting
that the expedition fly its flag and be financed from its treasury.
When I returned from the seal-fisheries to Brigus, my old home in
Newfoundland, in the spring of 1918, I found awaiting me a telegram
from Stefansson, asking me to join his expedition and take charge of
the _Karluk_. I went at once to New York, then to Ottawa for a day with
the government authorities and direct from there to Victoria, B. C. It
was the middle of May and there was work to be done to get the ship
ready to sail in June.
It was an elaborate expedition, one of the largest and most completely
equipped, I believe, that have ever gone into the Arctic. It differed,
too, in one other respect than that of size, from previous Arctic
expeditions, in that its main objects were essentially practical,—in
fact, one might say, commercial. It was in two divisions. The northern
party, under Stefansson himself, was primarily to investigate the
theory so ably advanced by Dr. R. A. Harris of the United States Coast
and Geodetic Survey that new land—perhaps a new continent—was to be
found north of Beaufort Sea, which is that part of the Arctic Ocean
immediately to the north of Alaska. “The main work of the party aboard
the _Karluk_”—to quote Stefansson—“was to be the exploration of the
region lying west of the Parry Islands and especially that portion
lying west and northwest from Prince Patrick Island. The _Karluk_ was
to sail north approximately along the 141st meridian until her progress
was interfered with either by ice or by the discovery of land. If
land were discovered a base was to be established upon it, but if the
obstruction turned out to be ice an effort was to be made to follow the
edge eastward with the view of making a base for the first year’s work
near the southwest corner of Prince Patrick Island, or, failing that,
on the west coast of Banks Island.” The _Karluk_ was to go first to
Herschel Island, the old rendezvous of the Arctic whaling fleet and the
northernmost station of the Canadian Mounted Police. If she should
be beset in the ice and forced to drift, it was expected that certain
theories about the direction of Arctic currents would be tested, and
there would also be opportunity for dredging and sounding.
[Illustration: THE _KARLUK_ IN HER WHALING DAYS]
Both of these main objects were accomplished: Stefansson ultimately
found new land and the _Karluk_ engaged in an Arctic drift, but neither
result was attained in quite the way which was planned when we were
getting the ship ready in May and June, 1913. We returned—some of
us—rather earlier than we had expected, for we were prepared to be
away until September, 1916, and contrary to one of the theories of
Arctic currents we did not drift across the Pole to the Greenland
shore. Before we started some of the newspaper accounts of the
expedition said that the ship might be crushed in the ice; the
newspapers are more often correct than they are supposed to be.
Travelling to Herschel Island on the _Mary Sachs_ and the _Alaska_,
small schooners equipped with gasolene engines, the southern party,
under Dr. R. M. Anderson, who had been Stefansson’s only white
companion on his previous expeditions, was to map the islands already
discovered east of the mouth of the Mackenzie River; to make a
collection of the Arctic flora and fauna; to survey the channels among
the islands, in the hope of establishing trade-routes; to make a
geological survey of the coast from Cape Parry to Kent Peninsula and of
Victoria Island north and east of Prince Albert Sound, with the primary
object of investigating copper-bearing formations; and to study still
further the blond Eskimo who had been discovered by Stefansson in 1910.
Peary’s attainment of the North Pole in 1909, the goal of three
centuries of struggle, enabled the world to give attention to problems
unrelated to polar discovery and afforded men an opportunity to realize
not only that a million square miles in the Arctic still remained
marked on the maps as “unexplored territory,” but also that a great
deal remained to be done in regions which already had technically been
“discovered.” Stefansson himself had already proved this. The shores
of Dolphin and Union Straits, for instance, had been mapped by Dr.
John Richardson as far back as 1826, yet Stefansson, when he found the
blond Eskimo there in 1910, was the first white man on record who had
ever visited that tribe in all its history. After his return from that
remarkable expedition, I had made his acquaintance at a dinner in New
York, some time previous to the planning of the expedition of 1913-16,
and admired him for his scientific achievements and for his skill
and daring in living so long off the country in his many months of
exploration in the territory east of the Mackenzie River.
The scientific staff gathered for the expedition was large and
well-equipped. Besides Stefansson, anthropologist, and Dr. Anderson,
zoologist, it included twelve men who were all specialists. The
Canadian Geological Survey detailed four men to our party: George
Malloch, an expert on coal deposits and stratiography, who had been
a graduate student at Yale; J. J. O’Neill, a mining geologist, whose
specialty was copper; and Kenneth Chipman and J. R. Cox, skillful
topographers. For studying ocean currents and tides and the treasures
that might be brought up from the bottom of the sea we had James
Murray of Glasgow, oceanographer, who had worked for many years with
the late Sir John Murray, one of the world’s greatest authorities on
the ocean. Murray had been with Sir Ernest Shackleton on his Antartic
expedition and afterwards had been biologist of the boundary survey
of Colombia, South America. To study the fish of the Arctic Ocean we
had Fritz Johansen, who had been marine zoologist with Mylius Erichsen
in East Greenland and had done scientific work for the Department
of Agriculture at Washington. As forester we had Bjärne Mamen, from
Christiania, Norway, who had been on a trip to Spitsbergen and had
done work in the timber-lands of British Columbia. As the study of the
Eskimo was one of the most interesting objects of the expeditions we
quite naturally had two anthropologists besides Stefansson, one, Dr.
Henri Beuchat of Paris, the other, Dr. D. Jenness, an Oxford Rhodes
Scholar, from New Zealand. The magnetician was William Laird McKinlay,
a graduate of the University of Glasgow, who had been studying in the
Canadian Meteorological Observatory in Toronto. The photographer was
George H. Wilkins, a New Zealander, who had been a photographer in the
Balkan War and possessed mechanical ability. He had a motion-picture
apparatus as well as other cameras. In medical charge of the expedition
was Dr. Alister Forbes Mackay, who had served in the British navy after
his graduation from the University of Edinburgh, and, like Murray, had
accompanied Shackleton into the Antarctic. Five of these twelve men, as
shall be related, were to lay down their lives in the cause of science
during the coming year.
The crew consisted of the following: R. A. Bartlett, master;
Alexander Anderson, first officer; Charles Barker, second officer;
John Munro, chief engineer; Robert J. Williamson, second engineer;
Robert Templeman, steward; Ernest F. Chafe, messroom boy; John Brady,
S. Stanley Morris, A. King and H. Williams, able seamen; and F.
W. Maurer and G. Breddy, firemen. Six of these men—good men and
true—were starting on their last voyage. One other member of the crew
was added in Alaska,—John Hadley, who signed on as carpenter.
[Illustration:
_Photograph copyrighted, 1914, by Lomen Bros., Alaska_
VILHJALMAR STEFANSSON]
By June 16 we had the _Karluk_ outfitted and were ready to leave our
berth at the Esquimault Navy Yard. Official photographs were taken and
a luncheon was given in Victoria at which Sir Richard McBride, the
Premier of British Columbia, on behalf of the people of the province,
presented Stefansson with a silver plate, suitably engraved. Stefansson
replied and Dr. Anderson and I were also called upon. Later the mayor
and aldermen of Victoria visited the _Karluk_ and presented us with a
set of flags to use when new lands were found.