stefansson-wrangel-09-31-009v

xvi

PREFACE

to make up this list. A. J. T. Taylor and John Anderson
of the Combustion Engineering Corporation, Toronto,
Canada, have had the thankless task of handling nearly
all the outfitting and other commercial affairs of the Ex-
pedition. Their motives, aside from personal friendship,
have been only those of a firm belief in the wisdom and
importance of what we were trying to do; their only pos-
sible reward the same as that of the rest of us—the con-
sciousness of having done their utmost for a cause they
believe in. Lomen Brothers, of Nome, Alaska, (es-
pecially Ralph Lomen) have handled all our Alaskan af-
fairs without pay—the outfitting of the Silver Wave in
1921, the Teddy Bear in 1922, and the Donaldson in 1923.
The late Sir Edmund Walker, president of the Canadian
Bank of Commerce, who helped to finance my first ex-
pedition to the Arctic in 1906, gave the largest Canadian
contribution to the Wrangel Island Expedition and sup-
ported us in every way. For England I must mention
that Colonel L. S. Amery,¹ not only contributed himself
but secured for us contributions from others to the
amount of more than £600. Several friends in the United
States made me unsecured personal loans. It was Or-
ville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, who loaned me the money
which enabled us to outfit the Teddy Bear in 1922 a week
before we got the grant from the Canadian Government.
As stated elsewhere, Griffith Brewer of 33 Chancery Lane,
London, loaned me (against anticipated public subscrip-
tions) the money which outfitted the Donaldson in 1923,
a loan which turned out to be considerably in excess of
the receipts through subscriptions, so that we are still
heavily in his debt.

So fan as loans are concerned, I have already begun to

¹ Now Minister for the Colonies.