stefansson-wrangel-09-13-047-001

MAROONED PARTY
IS BELIEVED ALIVE
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Explorers on Wrangell Isle
Said to Be Alive.
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RESCUE PLANS ARE LAID
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Lorne Knight of McMinnville One
of Four Adventurers Who
Have Been Lost 2 Years.
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TACOMA, Wash., May 3.—(Spe-
cial.)—Belief that Lorne Knight of
McMinnville, Or., leader of the ma-
rooned expedition; Frederick Mau-
rer of Ohio, Milton Galle of Texas
and Allan Crawford of Toronto, the
explorers marooned on Wrangell
island for nearly two years, are
alive was expressed today by Cap-
tain W. W. Putta of the 70-foot
power schooner Iskum, which will
clear from Tacoma in the near fu-
ture for the north Bering sea on a
trading expedition and a searching
trip for the missing men.

“It’s a pretty hard thing to say,
but yet after a year’s roughing it—
and I know that they were alive
last year—they ought to have been
able to stand one more winter,” he
said.

Canadian Flag Guarded.

Strengthening the belief of Cap-
tain Putta that the men are alive
is a report from Ottawa relating
that four men are guarding a Cana-
dian flag raised on the island by
the Stefansson party in 1921 and
that Vilhjalmar Stefansson is now
appealing to the Canadian govern-
ment to accept sovereignty of the
island and pay him $25,000 as com-
pensation for his expenditures on his
northern expedition.

The Iskum is now overhauled and
repainted and will start the latter
part of this week on a fur-trading
trip to the far isolated stretches of
the Bering sea, with at least two
principal objectives in view. One of
these is to reach the Kolima river,
500 miles west of Cape Nord on the
Siberian coast-—a feat thus far ac-
complished only by one other vessel
flying the American flag, the little
power schooner Polar Bear, which
is believed to be at present pin-
ioned in an ice field, where she has
been all winter.

Rescue to Be Attempted.

The other motive is to reach the
four men marooned on Wrangell
island. The party, originally mem-
bers of the 1921 Stefansson expedi-
tion from Vancouver, B. C., started
on their own expedition from Nome
in June, 1921, on the trading
schooner Silver Wave, operated by
Jack Hammer. The original plans
of Knight were that they were to
be left on Wrangell island for a
year, during which time they were
to make observations, collect the
valuable white fox fur and look for
new forms of sea and bird life. They
were to have been picked up by the
Silver Wave in the summer of 1922
and returned to Nome.

Because of adverse tides and
weather conditions, the island was
surrounded on every side with a
20-mile wall of grinding, treacher-
ous and ever-moving ice fields,
thickly scattered with great float-
ing mountains of ice, towering
nearly a quarter of a mile into the
air, it was reported.

Silver Wave Gives Up Attempt.

The Silver Wave, unable to rescue
the men, returned to Nome after
it had been determined by “wig-
wag” signals, discerned at a great
distance through a glass by Ham-
mer and his crew aboard the Silver
Wave, that all were well and in no
danger.

During the 1922 expedition the
Iskum met the Silver Wave while
the latter was returning to Nome,
and it was learned at that time that
the men on the island were safe,
according to their own signals.

Captain Hammer, on his long,
lonely trips into the Siberian seas,
does not find the time passing so
slowly, it was said, for on his re-
turn to Nome last fall he married,
and his 20-year-old bride now ac-
companies him on his voyages, and
is believed at present to be with
him on a trading cruise off St. Law-
rence island, according to Captain
Putta. The pelt of the white fox
is very valuable, it was pointed out
by the skipper of the Iskum, each
hide having a market value of ap-
proximately $47.

Iskum Well Equipped.

The Iskum will go north well
equipped for bartering, carrying
such goods as cooking utensils, toy
novelties, flour, cloth, silverware
and grain. The north and western
distance to be traversed will be well
above 3500 miles, it was said, which,
with the return trip, indicates that
when the staunch little schooner re-
turns to Tacoma, her home port, late
next September she will have logged
approximately 7500 miles.

The Iskum’s crew is an optimis-
tic lot of characters, without any
fear of having their own little craft
enmeshed in the pitiless floes of
ice that has already crushed in the
sides of many a ship on similar
expeditions. Her crew has all had
previous experiences on the far
northern voyages.

Crew All Experienced.

Besides Captain Putta, there will
be Alex Nicholson, mate, who is a
native of Sweden, and who says his
home is wherever his hat is hang-
ing; Ira Diem of Seattle, supercargo
and secretary for the Phoenix Trad-
ing company, which is engineering
the trading cruise; John Felkel, fur
buyer for large eastern interests;
J. A. Oliver, cook, of Seattle, who
will handle the culinary end of the
voyage, and “Jumbo” Thomas, mas-
ter mind in the engine room, with

full control over the 75-horsepower
semi-Diesel engine, which is relied
on to bring the little vessel safely
home again.
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