stefansson-wrangel-09-31-099v

158 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

It is usually possible in Nome to engage any one of
ten or twenty men who would be capable of taking
charge of such a schooner for a voyage to Wrangel Island.
But there was in New York the young man already re-
ferred to, Mr. Harold Noice, who had been a member of
my 1913-18 expedition. He had now been in “civiliza-
tion” over a year. Like most men who have been in the
Arctic, he was getting tired of “civilization” and for that
and other reasons he was anxious to go North. Thinking
to give him a chance to do so, and considering him suffi-
ciently qualified by experience, I had spoken to him be-
fore I left for England about whether he would like to be
in charge of the Wrangel Island ship in case I got the
money. He said he would be eager to do this. The
understanding was that when he reached Wrangel Island
he would discuss the situation with the party of occupa-
tion. If all the party wanted to come out, then Mr. Noice
would take charge in their place, or if before leaving
Alaska he decided he did not want to stay in Wrangel
himself, he was to employ and take with him some one
to put in charge. But if one or more of the original party
desired to remain, he would bring out the others, leaving
on the island, under the command of the senior officer
remaining, a small party of Alaska Eskimos which we
intended to take in.

About the middle of June Mr. Taylor cabled me from
Toronto, saying that if I still wanted Mr. Noice to go to
Wrangel Island, he would find the money to pay his ex-
penses as far as Nome on the chance that by the time he
got there I would be able to raise the charter money in
England. On my agreeing to this, Taylor sent for Mr.
Noice to proceed from New York by way of Toronto to