The last voyage of the Karluk

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 State...

On June 17, cheered on our way by the good wishes of the people among whom we had spent a pleasant month, we left Esquimault for Nome. The trip north was a memorable one for me,...

While we were steaming along off Point Belcher, about seventy-five miles to the southwest of Point Barrow, I was in the crow’s nest, which on the _Karluk_ was situated at the fo...

It was clear by this time that there would be no chance this year to reach new lands to the north by direct voyaging and that we should be lucky if we succeeded in winning our w...

The problem of laying in an adequate supply of fresh meat for the winter, for our dogs and ourselves, was now beginning to be a serious one. Long before this we had expected to...

For several days the ship had remained stationary,—that is, the ice had shown no signs of movement, and the weather had been generally calm. The Eskimo were becoming more succes...

All day long on both September 21 and 22, it was dull and cloudy and the barometer was falling steadily, so I was not surprised at daylight September 23 to find the wind blowing...

The last day of September we got another glimpse of the land, seeing distinctly the low shore of Cooper Island, with its Eskimo houses. We were still to the eastward of Point Ba...

We made another change in our routine October 28, going on to a schedule of two meals a day, breakfast at nine o’clock and dinner at half-past four. Tea could be obtained at one...

The first few days of December were cold and stormy, with very high winds. I made up my mind that we were in the place where all the bad weather was manufactured, to be passed a...

During the night of New Year’s Day we could hear, when we were below, a rumbling noise not unlike that which one often hears singing along the telegraph wires on a country road....

The point where the _Karluk_ went down was hard by the place where the _Jeannette_ of the De Long expedition was frozen in the ice and began her westward drift to a point off He...

not been repaired in various places by surgeon’s plaster, I believe it would fall to pieces. I have had it with me on voyages to South America and other foreign parts on sailing...

On January seventeenth I decided that before long I would send a party of four men to the land to look out for game, see whether any driftwood was to be found on Wrangell Island...

January 25 was a day of rejoicing, because it marked the return of the sun, after seventy-one days. The sun was only rather indistinctly visible, half a disc above the ice, to t...

February 3 dawned fine and clear. There were a few narrow leads of water near Shipwreck Camp; the ice was constantly cracking here and there around us as the wind veered and cha...

There were two parties, each with a sledge and four dogs. In the first party were Malloch, Hadley, Williamson and Breddy; in the second Munro, Maurer, Williams and Chafe. Each p...

At dawn the next morning, February 28, leaving at this sixth camp some cases of biscuits, with alcohol and coal oil, we started again landward, going over the trail made by the...

March 12 we got away again at dawn. McKinlay, Mamen, Kataktovick, Kerdrillo and his family and I went ahead of the others, with lightly loaded sledges, and, on account of improv...

With our sledge loaded with supplies, which included forty-eight days’ food for ourselves and thirty for the dogs, we shook hands all round and Kataktovick and I were off on our...

From now on, our journey became a never-ending series of struggles to get around or across lanes of open water—leads, as they are called,—the most exasperating and treacherous o...

March 30—the thirteenth day of our journey from Icy Spit—was the first fine day we had had. We broke camp at dawn. Almost at once we encountered open water and from that time un...

At dawn the next morning we left our igloo and went back over the trail we had made to the place where we had thrown off our supplies the afternoon before. Owing to the bad ligh...

By the next morning, April 7, we were ready to start on our way. Our clothes were all dried out and in order, our sledge was repaired, our dogs were rested and the dogs and ours...

Shortly after we started, one of the dogs, called Whitey, lay down and refused to work. Poor old Whitey! He had given all there was in him and had worn himself out on the hard t...

The next morning dawned clear and fine. We got away early and had good going, so that by noon we reached an aranga not far from Cape Wankarem. We were received kindly here and g...

The next morning, April 19, we started off with the two sledges. I had our own dogs harnessed in the team that drew the sledge on which I rode and had with me the pemmican that...

At Emma Town I found the brother of the Mr. Caraieff whom I had met at Cape North. I presented my letter of introduction and was hospitably received. Mr. Caraieff, I found, was...

On the morning of May 19 an Eskimo whom we had sent over to John Holland Bay came back and said that the _Herman_ had been there, but had left for Cape Bering, so I sent word th...

The days following my arrival at St. Michael’s were busy ones for me. My immediate problem was to see what ships were available to make the voyage to Wrangell Island when naviga...

From time to time there came rumors of how close the season was and how much ice there was about the coast. This was disquieting. I had told the captains of the vessels that fro...

On August 30, at half past seven in the evening, we anchored off Nome. Early the next morning a lighter came alongside with coal but a fresh south-west wind sprang up while we w...