stefansson-wrangel-09-26-001-030

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had his opinions gained under the leadership of Peary and from association with
the Greenland Eskimos, who differ in many of their ideas and methods from those
of Alaska. Hadley and I had ideas developed in the western Arctic, partly from
association with the local Eskimos, some of themvery free in expressing their
opinions
. The scientific staff and crew were divided and perplexed by these three
sets of views.

As Hadley told me the story during long winter evenings, we talked
much of what should have been done and might have been done with condemnation,
approval or regret. When he wrote the story at my request he naturally filled it
with long discussions of what himself and others had argued as to whether this or
that were safe or wise. It has long been the custom to publish certain historical
documents only after the men concerned with them are dead. Some time Hadley’s
manuscript will doubtless be published as he wrote it. It will then be far more
enlightening than the fragments of it which we can now publish. Even so, I feel
that Hadley should be allowed to tell at least part of the story in his own words,
editorial discretion imposing silences and softening phrases here and there.

As we have said, Captain Hadley’s handwritten document as preserved
in the Government archives at Ottawa is the fullest and most explicit story of the
vicissitudes of the Karluk on her long drift. If a critical history ever comes .
to be written, the Hadley story can be checked and supplemented by the copy of
Captain Bartlett's log which is also in the same archives and has been published
in the Report of the Department of the Naval Service for the Fiscal Year ended
. While this log is too fragmentary to form a connected story, it
is of great value when used together with Hadley's narrative or else together
with Captain Bartlett s own popular account as published in under the name of
"The Last Voyage of the Karluk.” My own version of how the Karluk was first beset
by the ice and how my small hunting party and I were separated from it by accident
has also been published in "The Friendly Arctic," Chapters V and VI, and some

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