stefansson-wrangel-09-25-005-016

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felt that the Canadians should do something. Then there was so much
distress of other sorts in every part of the world that it proved impossible
for me to awaken a keen concern in either government for the safety of just
four men isolated so far away. I consulted several friends connected with
the British press but they considered a public appeal for funds unadvisable.

At this stage there came to me an old friend, Mr.
Griffith Brewer, who asked me whether I thought the situation had become
one of life and death. I replied that with good luck everything should be
going well still in Wrangell Island, but that when four men are isolated for
two years there are so many chances of illness, accident and misfortune that
it seemed to me fair to say that their lives were now at stake. Mr. Brewer
then said that if that were the case he would pledge his property for a
loan at a bank (which eventually amounted to about 2500 pounds) in order
that a ship might be sent immediately, but making it a condition that there
should be a press appeal for subscriptions to reimburse him for his loan.
We cabled the money to Nome where preliminary arrangements about chartering a
schooner had already been made by old friends. Judge G. J. Lomen and his
sons, who are in business there. The schooner chartered was the Donaldson.
We placed her under the charge of a former member of my 1913-18 expedition,
Mr. Harold Noice.

The Donaldson sailed from Nome August 6th, expecting to
make the five hundred-mile voyage to Wrangell Island in a few days, but
outfitted, nevertheless, for a year. The plan was that if she failed to
reach the island by water, she would winter as near as possible and Mr. Noice
with some of his party would cross to Wrangell Island over the ice as soon as
it hardened in the fall. We were as yet expecting no tragedy, so the
instructions provided that, while the entire party on Wrangell Island were