stefansson-wrangel-09-26-001-034

25D

the North and continuing their work for the Canadian Government. (this was written in may, 1915)

Two days after Stefansson left us a heavy fog settled over the entire
region. It was so dense that we were able to see only a few rods in any direction.
Almost simultaneous with the fog, a blizzard blowing from the southeast sprang up.
The fog enveloped us for three days, and being unable to take any bearings, we
were wholly unconscious of any movement of our position. When the mists cleared
away the shores of the continent were no longer in sight, and upon taking astronomical
observations, we found that we had drifted quite a distance from our former position.

When the Karluk started on her famous drift there were twenty white
men, two Eskimo men, one Eskimo woman and two children, little girls, on board.
We were well supplied with provisions, coal, arms, ammunition, dogs, sleds, snow-
shoes and skiis, everything necessary for arctic travel. At first there did not
seem to be much concern among the members of the expedition, except among the
scientists. They talked among themselves a great deal as to the probable outcome
of our situation. The other members indulged in many conjectures, but passed the
matter over rather lightly, always expecting some turn of good fortune that would
liberate us from the grip of the ice. By taking observations daily, we knew that
we were skirting the shores of Alaska, and at no time very far from them, although
they were never in sight. We drifted past Point Barrow in the night, passing so
near that we almost touched land. Our passing was later reported to Dr. Stefansson
by a native who claimed to have seen us, and I believe he did, for he stated that
there was no smoke issuing from our funnels. This was true, for we had blown down
our boilers some time before.

When Stefansson returned from his hunting trip he found the Karluk
missing. He then made his way overland to Point Barrow, three hundred miles
distant, where he wrote a telegram reporting the loss of the Karluk, and sent it
by a native to Nome, four hundred miles away, which was the nearest telegraph
station. We learned later that he then returned to Herschel Island, where the