stefansson-wrangel-09-31-101r

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THE SUMMER OF 1923 AND THE TRAGIC NEWS 161

the island. But in any case contact had to be made. A
third possibility was that the sea would be open until
within a few miles of the island, but the coast itself
barred. In that case experienced men, either whites or
Eskimos, could cross from the ship to the shore carrying
with them an umiak which they would haul over the floes
and launch in the water patches between.

The money Mr. Noice was working with was partly a
loan from Mr. Griffith Brewer made to forestall, if pos-
sible, loss of life on Wrangel Island, and partly contribu-
tions secured through the campaign in the Times on a
pledge that they would be used exclusively for humani-
tarian purposes
. I did not feel able to authorize the em-
ployment of expensive men or the purchase of costly
supplies to carry on the work of occupation. But it
seemed that the supplies which had to be taken to use in
case of an enforced wintering by the Donaldson and the
people who had to be carried to make such a wintering
safe and successful, would be adequate equipment and
personnel to carry on the Wrangel work for another
year or two in case they could be delivered to the island
by direct ocean voyage. In other words, since these
people and supplies had to be paid for, they might as well
be used to continue the occupation if Mr. Noice could
land them there the summer of 1923. I accordingly gave
him instructions to that effect—the plans to be made were
rescue plans, but they were to be converted into plans of
continued occupation if and when the rescue proved suc-
cessful.

A few days before the Donaldson sailed Mr. Brewer
had published his plea for funds in the form of a letter
printed in the Times.

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