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THE DIFFICULTIES OF 1922 121

frequently seen it (this was true, for especially in the
whaling days several ships used to sight Wrangel Island
practically every year). After the subject had been
discussed long enough around Nome, the theory devel-
oped that it had been deceitful of us, and even an inter-
national “unfriendly act,” to outfit in an American port
with the support of Americans when the design was to
get hold of an island which either was or ought to have
been American property.

As said, the substantial leading people of Alaska prob-
ably took little more than casual notice of these discus-
sions. However, it appears that the talk crystallized
into some sort of protest which was eventually sent by
Alaskans to Washington.

One of Captain Hammer’s assistants on the Silver
Wave was August Soderholm, now master of the schooner
Nokatak, plying in Alaskan waters for the Lomen Rein-
deer and Trading Corporation. He had been so much
taken with Wrangel Island that he tried hard on his
return to Nome to organize a party to charter a ship
and go there to establish a chain of fur trappers around
the island. Patriotism may have played a part (to make
the occupation of the island jointly American and Brit-
ish), but adventure and commercial motives were
doubtless uppermost. He was unable to muster a party,
because the season was so late (the last week of Sep-
tember) that the consensus of sailor opinion at Nome
was against the voyage as unsafe because of the nearness
of winter. This in spite of Soderholm’s strong urging
that they had just returned from Wrangel without seeing
snow except on the distant interior mountains, and with-
out seeing a cake of ice at sea.

After the landing of the party in Wrangel Island and