The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1961, Síða 28

26
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Summer 1961
awakened by the bumping of ice
against the hull and realized that she
was in the pack, “working ice.” He
admitted later that he should have
ordered Bartlett to take her back in-
shore, but did not have the moral
courage to do so. Increasing pressure
eventually brought her to a standstill,
and she never moved again under her
own power. “This was my most serious
error of the whole expedition,” he
wrote in The Friendly Arctic.
The Karluk drifted with the pack
until about the middle of September
when she came to rest in Harrison
Bay where she might, with luck, re-
main frozen in for the winter. Stef-
ansson now selected a few men to go
ashore with him to hunt caribou for
meat and skins.
Shortly after they had set off, a storm
carried the ship, still locked in the
floes, out of their sight. Stefansson was
not to know her fate for seventeen
months, when he learned that after
drifting a thousand miles she had been
sunk (in January, 1914) about sixty
miles northeast of Wrangel Island, off
the Siberian coast.
With a less resolute and resource-
ful commander, the Karluk’s loss might
have been a fatal blow, but Stefansson
soon had evolved new plans from
the wreck of the old. The largest un-
explored area in the Arctic at that time
was the Beaufort Sea; it wias the most
likely spot in which to look for new
land, and Stefansson’s hopes of achiev-
ing something of value were centred
in it. His plan was to travel north-
ward over the ice with two companions,
continuing as far as travelling condi-
tions would permit, and returning by
a diagonal route, either east or west
of his starting point. Preferably, de-
pending upon circumstances, a landing
might be made on either Banks or
Prince Patrick Islands, in which case
a base would be established for further
exploration the next year.
The historic exploratory journey
began at Martin Point, Alaska, on
March 22, 1914, when Stefansson,
Storker Storkerson and Ole Andreasen,
set off across the Arctic ice. They had
one sledge and six dogs with a load of
1,100 pounds, including food for a
month. When snow was suitable, they
would sleep in snow-houses, otherwise
in a tent. An important part of the
equipment was Stefansson’s Gihbs-
Mannlicher-Schoenhauser rifle with
170 rounds of ammunition and a 30-30
Winchester carbine with 160 rounds.
As Stefansson had expected, the go-
ing for a considerable distance from
shore was most difficult. Near shore
the pressure caused the pack to buckle
into huge ridges through which it was
often necessary to chop their way. At
other times, delays were caused by
open water, but sooner or later the
leads would freeze over and allow them
to proceed.
Later, when advancing spring resul-
ted in wider leads which did not freeze,
or insufficiently to bear a load, they
crossed from one icefield to another
by means of a “sledboat”. This con-
traption was built thus: a tarpaulin
was spread on the ice and the 14-foot
sledge placed upon it; two sticks, six
feet long, carried for the purpose, were
lashed crosswise, a framework being-
completed by lashing a ski on each
side. The edges of the tarpaulin were
then brought up and secured to the
framework. This provided a boat cap-
able of carrying 1,000 pounds.
Since they started with approximate-
ly thirty days’ food, no time was spent
during the first month in hunting
seals, but toward the end of April
Stefansson realized that the testing;-
time had come. The first seal was seen
on May 7, but not until a week later