stefansson-wrangel-09-25-003-019

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as strong and fine young, men as ever went on a Polar expedition. Breddy,
a sailor of British birth, died from an accidental gunshot wounds

On the Canadian holiday, July 1, 1914, the Canadian flag was hauled
up as a part of the ceremony of reaffirming possession of Wrangell Island
--according to our general instructions from the Government to that ef-
fect. The party were at the time under the command of the senior of-
ficer present, engineer John Munro a Canadian. The man who actually hauled up
the flag was Frederick Maurer. I had first met him at Herschel Island
on the Arctic coast of Canada in 1912 when on my way home from my second
expedition and when he was a member of the whaling crew of the steamer
Belevedere. Later, when he heard I was outfitting a new expedition,
he had applied and had been assigned to the Karluk. This hoisting of
a British flag by a typical young American of the Middle West was the
beginning of a series of events destined to be of international signif-
icance.