ALL DEAD

Evening Post, Volume 55, Issue 55, 3 September 1923, Page 7

ALL DEAD

VANISHED EXPEDITION

TRAGEDY IN ARCTIC SEA

WHAT RELIEF PARTY FOUND.

(BNIIBD FRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPJHGII.)

(AUSTRALIAN - HEW ZEALAND CASH ASSOCIATION.)

(Received 3rd September, 9 a.m.)

NEW YORK, 2nd September.

There has been another terrible tragedy in the Arctic. Captain Stefansson, two summers ago, sent an expedition to occupy Wrangel Island. Last year's relief ship failed to reach the party on account of the ice. ."•■■:■ •

This year's expedition was successful in breasting the. barrier, and'returned home reporting that, all were dead, except an Eskimo woman, of starvation and scurvy. They had goae through awful sufferings.

The dead include Allan Crawford, ton of a professor at Toronto University, who was leader, and fciires companions named Maurer, Knight, and Galle.

Stefansson sent the party to take possession of the island with the intention of making it a station for round-the-world aeroplane flights. ■ Knight, who was. an old-time and experienced explorer, t who Had been with Stefansson on other expeditions, became ill last winter, so Crawford, Galle, and Maurer attempted to reach the shore of Siberia, hoping to bring aid. They started over the ice, but were never seen again, and undoubtedly perished of starvation.

Knight lived until June this year, tended by the Eskimo woman, who alone was left when the rescue party arrived last .week.-

■ The first object that met the sight of the rescuers was a bottle containing a record of the raising of the British flag, and proclaiming the island as under the sovereignty of Britain since August,

WrangeMsland is in the Arctic Sea, nearly north of Bearing Strait.' There has lately been gome difficulty over the hoisting of the British flog, owing to the Soviet Government disputing the nationality of th& island.