THE ARCTIC TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18565, 24 November 1923, Page 14

THE ARCTIC TRAGEDY.

WHANG EU ISLAND PARTY. : \;v\ v |i: RELIEF ; SHIP TOO LATE. DR. ! STEFANSSQN'S STORY. ;> An. account of the tragedy on Wr&ngel X Itland, : involving the loss _ of a small British party landed there in September 1921, to preserve the rights of Britain, has been given in the London Times by Dr. V. Stefansson, the noted Arctic explorer. His story was compiled from details forwarded from Wrangel Island by Captain Harold Noice, who commanded the relief AJP Donaldson which sailed in August, IJ->, to endeavour to rescue the members of the previous expedition. Dr. StefaDSson stated that because of the extensive experience of Knight and Maurer, members of the ill-fated party, he had merely advised thera on the equipment they should take. The expedition was being wholly financed by him, and he just- gave them all the money he had, telling them use it as they thought best in toe chartering of the ship at Nome and the purchase of supplies. The general underding was that emphasis would be laid upon hunting equipment, and that actual food for no more than sue months would bo carried. They particularly discussed their taking an Eskimo skin boa. (umiak). This was the only boat suitable for walrus hunting, being so light that it (Ould be dragged over ice.bridges and relaunched on the other side, a process that had to be frequently repeated in tho pursuit of walrus among floating I ©. Things go Wrong in First Year.

The letters sent back after the landing Various things had gone wrong on Wrangel Island the first year he said. A typical example is that a large amount of meat (apparently several tons) was accumulated at a point some miles from the main camp. It is easy to say now that one or two of the party should have camped by this meat until enough snow fell,- so that it could be taken by sledge to . the main camp. Incidentally, they oould then have killed as additions to the meat supply any Polar bears that •were attracted by tho smell of the meat, However, thov optimistically left the meat unguarded, and when the snow time they found it eaten by Polar bears. Other miscarriages in hunting, combined with approach of mid-winter darkness, compelled them to feed the dogs on groceries. Optimism a Stumbling Block. Game sediis to have been plentiful all the time; but in the second spring there were nisfortunes again in hunting. It seems also that the party felt so certain that a ci.pplv ship was coming that they spent a .'arge part of the summer just waiting for it. Optimism was again one ci their stumbling-blocks. Had they doubted the coming of the ship they might have employed the best hunting season in the accumulation of a largo supply oi meat, When they finally gave up hope of a ship's coming, the season was so far advanced that the autumn hunting was not/ very productive. , It'seems to have been at this stage that they felt most keenly the unaccountable omission of a boat from their equipment. Mr. Noice .-ports they had instead a heavy wooden dory. This would bo as good as a skin Boat among very scattered ice, but 'with ice at. «dl closely pressed together (the beat for walrus hunting) the wooden boat was worthless, being too heayy and fragile for . dragging over io® from one water hole to another. . • - ' ' . ' Towards Christmas, v 1982, food was running somewhat short. At this point the men did what I would have done in th« timnnstancea. They : decided that, as

they could not very well hunt in darkness, three men with the dog team should cross to Siberia for a visit to the hospitable traders, both Russian and American:, who are scattered along; that coast, or to the wealthy native reindeer herders. This, they considered, would save the food applies on the island during the time cf enforced idleness, giving them opportunity as well to get news of the world and to send out letters. ; They then expected to come back to the island with the ample _ daylight of March to take up the spring aunt with energy. . Element of Fata in Tragedy. We shall never know exactly how the party were lost. Tie Arctic • ice is always broken into cakes that raove before wind . and current. !In January there ould be only three or four hours of daylight about' noon. It seem likely that, one . afternoon the party travelled ; too far,y. into the gathering twilight, •walked on unsafe ice, and broke through. During my eleven years ;of Arctic experience various 'members of our expeditions and ;X have had in th 6 aggregate several hundred : mere or ; less narrow escapes from sucn accidents. It is analogous to the crossing of a • city street through heavy ; traffic, although the degree of Hanger :l is perhaps ■ somewhat greater. • A \ ( There is also .an element of fate in this tragedy, v- for the most experienced ice traveller was ill and cooJd not go. Knight (.does',, not seem to have been seriously 3l at the time still he was the one who logically stayed behind. 'He had been a member of one of our parties under the command of Storker Storkerson in 1918, when, at" a season of the year worse for travelling than January (October and November), they travelled 300 miles over shifting ice north of Alaska, an area considered more difficult .than that around Wrangel. With Knight ill and waiting ' for the others to, come back, things went from bad. to worn. The disease was scurvy, which our experience has shown can as easily be cured by underdone meat as by fresh fruits or vegetables. But there was no one to hunt. The one elderly Eskimo woman who was with the party as seamstress had unfortunately been brought up in a city (Nome), and knew no more about hunting or trapping than an ordinary city-bred white woman. It is, therefore, "not strange that her success in bunting was small, , but on tho other hand most remarkable that she had the character to do anything but sit. and wait. Without experience, she .? bravely taught herself -through failure after failure how animals may be approached and secured. If that story could be adequately told it- would be a heroic tale.

fourth Burial oa Island. Her success became gradually better, but she did not understand that certain parts of rcnijmnls have more in them than other parts of the qualities which pre' vent and cure scurvy, and Knight does not seem to have realised this adequately either. It is also possible that there ■were other disease's that complicated the scurvy. What we know is that the illness passed from bud to worse, until he finally died on June 22, 1923. After that time Ada Blackjack "lived alone in a tent on * the island, fearful of thf* Polar bears which she could so easily have killed with her adequate weapons if she had held the knowledge or experience.

Noice followed the Scott and Shackleton precedents, and the grave of Knight, the fourth man to have' died there in British service, is on Wrangel Island. When the party landed in 1921 they reported that there was'not a speck of snow on the island. Noice appears to .have found conditions similar, for he •speaks of beautiful green fields stretching ' Aif.P to the mountains in the interior, DoUrwf^ 5 •us la *' game conditions apSfccn in °fv? lrn , a k°ut the best he had ever had i been?* v The Eskimos who ke lp in +Vi« n • ng from Alaska to landed "hv v.; Wcue operations wero tho com™* J" Wr^el Island Chart*. WelJs ®h" of , a white man, party \v«rns entfmsii. t at . 'whole conditions,, as £ ' C about the Hunting £>y to which the V ™re j Urab!e than The Party: have suS)li! 1" Alaska But most Jmportff l^ 8 . f?. r tw ° years. b „wo skin boats which ,»•?!' the >" have c not only to xnUmitL Wabl ® them a l.-,o bides and ivZ V>»•■*. but , '«»" for their stav en 7?'°*! will av -i ' on the island.