ARCTIC TRAGEDY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17573, 25 June 1925, Page 7

ARCTIC TRAGEDY.

MISSING EXPLORERS. REMAINS FOUND. E’y Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Jteuter’s Telegrams. NEW YORK. June 24. H. ,\. Snow, big game hunter and explorer, who has just returned from a two years’ photographing exploration in the Arctic regions, has announced the discovery of the remains of the missing members of Stefansson’s North Role expedition of IJ7II. on Herald Island. Ihe discovery clears up the mvstery concerning the fate of five members of the crew, one of the two parties into which the expedition was divided when they left the sinking ship. Karluk, and started back to A party led bv Stefansson arrived safely, but the other, led by the ship s “°^ or ' "' as; never again beard from 0 bodies were found sixty-five miles from where the Karluk was lost. The Stefansson Arctic expedition, which left Nome, Alaska, in the summer of 1913. was organised to find out whether a polar continent existed, to map the islands, east of the Mackenzie River and to study the blonde Esquimaux of Coronation Gulf. In the autumn of 1914. when Stefansson and a few companions were engaged in a hunting trip on the north coast of Alaska, his ship, the Karluk. under the command of Captain Robert Bartlett, was caught in a storm, became imprisoned in the ice and drifted away westwards. She sank on Januarv 11, when about sixty miles from Herald Island, w hich itself is about forty miles from U range! Island off the north-east coast of. Siberia. All on board were saved, and lived for some weeks in a hut which had been built on the drifting ice. ffhe camp was broken up in February, and an attempt made to reach W rangel Island. Captain Bartlett reached the island, and, in the belief that all the others had arrived or would shortly arrive there, he pushed on to the Siberian coast, and from there was taken across to Alaska, whence news of the disaster was telegraphed throughout the world. The Canadian Government at once arranged for attempts to be made to rescue the survivors from M rangel Island. A ship managed to reach the island in September, and took a party of about a dozen on board. It was then learned that some members of the expedition, including Dr Forbes Mackay and Mr Javies Murray. had failed to reach Wrangcl Island. At the time it was thought that there was a chance that the men were on Herald Island, but - the rescue ship could not reach this island on account of the ice.