stefansson-wrangel-09-25-007-018

18. But we feel sure that the kindness of the Russians on the north coast of [[Siberia (Russia)|Siberia]] is equal to the kindness of the na- tives. If, through some confused notion of the international issues at stake, they had take the pa taken the party prisoners, they would have made no secret of it and would have treated them humanly. We also have direct testimony from others than Russians. Captain [[Castel, Aarnout|Aarnaut Castel]], a member of my 1913-18 arctic expedition for five years, a comrade on it and friend of [[Knight, Errol Lorne, 1893-1923|Knight]] and [[Maurer, Frederick W., 1893-1923|Maurer]], was wintering on the coast south of [[Wrangel Island (Russia)|Wrangell]]. With him was anothe r comrade of [[Knight, Errol Lorne, 1893-1923|Knight]]’s on [[Storkerson, Storker Theodor, 1883-1940|Storkerson]]’s great sea-ice journey of our 1913-18 Expedition, [[Masik, August, 1887-1976|August Masik]], himself a Russian. Both say there is no chance of any one landing on the coast without everybody knowing about it. [[Knight, Errol Lorne, 1893-1923|Knight]]’s entry, "Blowing a howling gale", may there- fore be the key to the tragedy which he never suspected but which we know must have occurred in one of two ways. The gale may have broken up the ice in such chaotic fashion that death re- sulted immediately, either by the party being thrown into open water or crushed between the massive trumbling floes; or else death came, without warning or even premonition, through the form of accident that has been responsible for more polar tragedies than any other - breaking through thin ice and drowning. Even in midwinter the ice on the Northern Sea is in constant slow motion, the floes drifting before the wind and current, spinning around sluggishly and leaving patches of open wate r between. The danger comes when these patches freeze over and especially if the newly