stefansson-wrangel-09-25-003-017

17

before Sir Robert Borden, then Prime Minister of Canada. Sir Robert
said at once that Canada ought to take the whole expense and responsib-
ility of the expedition since our purpose was to explore the Arctic
Ocean in which Canada had a logical interest. Upon my suggestion he
wrote letters to the American scientific organizations concerned asking
them to surrender the expedition. This they did upon the condition
(laid down by the National Geographic Society) that our sailing date
must not be delayed beyond 1913 and that the scientific program of the
expedition should remain substantially as already outlined by me.

When we sailed north the Spring of 1913 one paragraph of our orders
from the Canadian Government instructed us to discover what lands we
could in the Arctic, taking possession of them in the name of the King,
and to revisit lands previously discovered by British subjects and re-
affirm British possession. The latter part of this paragraph brought
us into direct relation with Wrangell Island as a land originally
discovered by a British ^{naval expedition.} subject.

However, we did not have the intent to sail for Wrangell Island.
Indeed, our plan was to go in a different direction, but Fate took a
hand. The ice hemmed in one of our ships, the Karluk, late in the
summer of 1914³, and carried her a prisoner west along the north coast
of Alaska and then in the direction of Wrangell Island, near which she
sank in January ¹⁹¹⁴ of that year, the men landing early in March. Our
expedition at this stage had three ships. I was with the other two
at Collinson Point, in northeastern Alaska, ignorant for more than a
year of the fate of the Karluk, which was under the charge of her
sailing master, Captain Robert A. Bartlett. After making a landing
on Wrangell, Captain Bartlett instructed his men to remain there, while
he, with one companion, crossed the 100 mile ice-bridge to Siberia and
proceeded 700 miles across country to Emma Harbour to send out a wire-
less call for help.