Wrangel Island

The Charge of Mr. Harold Noice that Ada Blackjack was Resonsible for the Death of Lorne Knight

As stated in the "History of Wrangell Island Documents," Mr. Noice first wrote and published through newspapers having an aggregate circulation of many millions a romantic story of Ada Blackjack as "the heroine of Wrangell Island." Then, months later, he published a newspaper attack upon her (quoted in full in Chapter IX) as having played "a mean role in a grim tragedy she could have averted." This had a circulation almost if not quite as large as the original favorable account andthis created an unpleasant situation which has to be faced, for the alternative of silence is worse in most repects and bad especially in its injustice to Ada Blackjack who, if not quite the sensational heroine Mr. Noice at first represented, is much farther still from being a vindictive criminal sitting fat and comfortable while a man she could have saved died of hunger.

Since people differ so much in their opinions of right and wrong, we originally had some idea of omitting from this book, as not forming any enlightening part of the narrative, certain entries in Lorne Knight's diary which a few readers might consider to reflect seriously upon the character of Ada Blackjack and which others might think it bad tase for us to print. But after this last newspaper publicity we had no choice. There must be not even this simple discretionary omission from a book which is the official account of the Wrangell Island expedition. I felt much better when that decision had been made, for one is never wholly

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after his hard journey across Skeleton River when he had to swim on his way hack. But that interpretation is opposed hy Knight’s on ^own frequent statements that when he knew he had scurvy he knew also that the scurvy could he cured with raw meat. He would thus have no reason for leaving the island in search of a medicine for that disease. Knight himself tells us in his diary that he felt the scurvy symptoms in November and discussed them with Crawford at the time. Perhaps that may he a slip of memory on Knight’s part and that he really felt the illness already in September.

When everything in Milton Galle’s fragmentary notes has been deciphered, interpreted and pondered over, we are left with an intensified feeling of what a pity it is that he did not leave behind on Wrangell Island at least one of his two apparently almost duplicate diaries, and what a pity it is that Crawford and Maurer left nothing. Still, we may well he glad that this was so. It is only our curiosity that is balked, and we have for recompense the knowledge, made clearer than it could he through a mere inference from an understanding of arctic conditions, that none of the party were obsessed with any fear that serious accident or death wrould meet them between Wrangell Island and Nome. Had the danger been even seriously considered, certainly duplicates would have been left behind. Had the danger been thought great, the members would have left all their most valued records behind, both for the safety of the information and to lighten their loads, for in a desperate situation every pound of burden may count. As we have said elsewhere, death must have come with the suddenness of a railway wreck or a shipwreck and not anticipated except as we all anticipate dangers whenever and however we travel by land or sea.

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box. These were covered with framentary ntoes in part very difficult to decipher. The writing was faded but that was not the greatest difficulty. There were single words, and part of sentences, and abbreviations which as first ^{seemed to hide their meaning} appeared incomprehensible. The references ^{first deciphered} also seemed at first to be largely to the weather adn therefore not of great importance.

I received ^{the box of notes} these shortly before leaving New York for Australia with a letter of apology from Mr. Taylor's office for having overlooked the box. It was ^I put ^it aside with the thought that the leisure ^{of a}of the sea voyage might enable us to decipher the notes and xxxx possibly ^to get out of them more than at first seemed likely.

On careful study it appeared that ^{the notes} these were aids to memory which Milton Galle had jotted down as a basis for his more complete diary. The abbreviations may have been ^used partly due to ^{because of} his hurry in setting them down; and some of them xxxx ^or possibly to

15

have open water to the east. The smaller floes would drift away from the point at which we had our camp. With east wind the small ice on the west side would drift to the west, so we nearly always had open water in which to hunt seals.

From an elevation close hy our camp the panorama presenting itself impressed me exactly as that of a certain kind of land. The color of course was the bluish white of ice hut the contour of the hills, the ridges and the levels in between and in which numerous small lakes and ponds were visible, was exactly like certain stretches of prairie I have seen in the midwestern United States and Canada. This similarity of old ice to land is well known.

The thickness of the ice at our camp, judging by the amount of it visible above the level of the sea, I should say would be about 50 or 60 feet. This extraordinary thickness was just local and the average of the whole floe naturally would be much less, probably less than 20 feet.

THE GAME WE SAW

Before the return of the second support party when we still were only 150 miles from the nearest land, numbers of snow buntings came to visit us. In the summer when we were drifting between the latitude of 75° and 74° I-Torth, a number of lapland longspurs were seen. In the

first part of May and the latter part of August a number of different species of salt water ducks were seen - the king eider, the old squaw, and the surf scoter, the first going to the northeast and then again returning to the southwest; the latter two were seen occasionally all through the summer. Of sea gulls there always ms an abundance, either one species or another. I noticed six species in all, first the jaeger gull, the ivory gull, the black-winged gull, the gray-winged large gull, and two species of the smaller gulls of which I do not know the names. Besides these, two species of loons were noticed.

32 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

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 March 31, 1915. 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 “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 account of her drift in the appendix to that book.

We can, therefore, choose between many sources. Most logical perhaps would be to use Hadley as the basis of it all, but we have decided to tell the first part of the story in the words of Frederick Maurer. If we used any of the other versions we should have to condense for the purpose of this book; but Maurer has been so brief that we can afford to print his statement without change, except minor editing as where names are misspelled

COMPANIES ACT.

CANADA

No. 5747 (1910)

PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION.

I HEREBY CERTIFY that "THE STEFANSSON ARCTIC EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LIMITED" has this day been incorporated under the "Companies Act" as a Limited Company, with a Capital of One Hundred Thousand Dollars, divided into One Thousand Shares.

The registered office of the Company is situate at Vancouver, Province of British Columbia.

GIVEN under my hand and Seal of Office at Victoria, Province of British Columbia, this twenty-third day of June, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-one.

H.G. GARRETT

Registrar of Joint-Stock Companies.

SEAL.

REGISTRAR OF JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES BRITISH COLUMBIA

June 27 No Ans

ALFRED J.T. TAYLOR A.S.M.E A.I.E.E. CONSULTING ENGINEER

VANCOUVER, B.C.

June 20th, 1921.

V. Stefansson, Esq., Ellison-White Sevens Chautauqua Circuit, Twin Falls, IDAHO.

Dear Stefansson,

Enclosed please find copies of the Articles of Association and Memorandum of Agreement for the Stefansson Arctic Exploration and Development Company, Limited. These documents have all gone forward to the Registrar of Joint Stock Company in Victoria, and the company now is in the process of being incorporated.

I do not know of any terms in either of these documents that need explanation except perhaps clause 26 of thw Articles of Association. That simply means that the company as incorporated is a private limited company and that we cannot advertise or in that way invite the public to buy the shares, but all the shares can be disposed of by private treaty. The fact that the company is a private limited company gives you a good many advantages, and has no practical disadvantages that I know of, inasmuch as I am quite sure you had never contemplated putting stock of this company on public market. If, however, you later decide to change the company into a public company, I believe this can be quite readily arranged.

You will notice that the signatures to these documents are those of my Secretary, Mr. Anderson, and our lawyer, Major Wilson. I have not used my own name for the reason that it will save me from being asked questions by inquisitive people, and I have not used your name for the reason that I have no Power of Attorney with which to sign.

I hope you will find everything in order and to your satisfaction, and if there are any matters that

V. Stefansson, Esq. -2- June 20/21

I have overlooked, please wire me promptly.

I am sending copy of this letter and of the accompanying documents to Mr. Lindeberg.

I am wiring you this evening to enquiry as to your wishes in the matter of publicity, and will be governed by your instructions. I do not know that it will be possible to prevent all publicity, if this is your desire, but I am quite sure that if you wished some favourable publicity, it would be quite readily secured.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) A.J.T. Taylor

AJTT : W Enc. Copy to Mr. Lindeberg

"COMPANIES ACT" 1910 AND AMENDMENTS

A Company limted by shares.

ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION

-of-

THE STEFANSSON ARCTIC EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LIMITED

1. The refulations in Table "A" in the First Schedule to the Companies Act, with the exception of Numbers 2, 51, 52, 66, 68, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 86 and 108, and except in so far as the same are modified by or are inconsistent with the following Articles, shall be deemed to be the Articles of Association of the Company,

2. Section 5 is amended by stricking out all the words after "Subscription" in the first line thereof.

3. Section 20 is amended by striking out the words "Not being fully paid up shares" in the first and second lines thereof

4. Sections 34 to 40 inclusive in so far as they refer to share warrants are hereby excluded.

5. The affairs of the Company shall be under the control of a Board of not more than three (3) directors, of whom two (2) shall form a quorum.

6. Notice of any Directors' Meeting shall be deemed sufficient if served or posted at or to the last known address of any Director; such address shall be left with the Secretary of the Company, and where no such address is left as aforesaid, no notice shall be deemed necessary to be given to the Director; verbal notice personally given to any Director by the Secretary shall be deemed sufficient. All meetings of the Board of Director : shall be called by the Secretary, and all notices shall be given by the Secretory, or in hie absence by such person who shall be appointed by the Board of Directors to act as Secretary pro tem.

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7. The office of Director shall he vacated before its expiry in due course - (a) if the Director ceases to he a shareholder in the Company; (b) if he be declared lunatic or become of unsound mind; (c) it he sends in his written resignation to the Board of Directors, and the same be accepted before the withdrawal thereof; the time of acceptance to be considered as the time the resolution of the acceptance was passed by the Board of Directors.

8. The Company may by ordinary resolution at any meeting, general or special, callod for the consideration of any business of the Company, remove any Director before the expiration of his period of office, and may by ordinary resolution appoint another person in his stead; the person so appointed shall be subject to retirement at the same time as if he had become a Director on the day on which the Director in whose place he is appointed was last elected a Director.

9. The Directors shall cause minutes to be made and kept in books provided for such purpose - (a) of all appointments of officers made by the Director; (b) of all the names of the Directors present at each meeting of the Directors and of any committee of the Directors; (c) of all resolutions and proceedings at all meetings of the Company and of the Directors and all committees of Directors; and such minutes of any respective meeting either of the Company or of the Directors or Committee of Directors, shall be signed by the Chairman of the Board of Directors and by the Secretary of the Company in such book, and in the absence of the Chairman and the Secretary or either of then, then by any two (2) directors who may be present.

10. The Directors shall have power to make bylaws and regulations not inconsistent with the Articles of Association or Memorandum of Association, providing for all matters pertaining to the internal management and economy of the Company