stefansson-wrangel-09-32-085r

369 THE WRANGEL ISLAND DOCUMENTS woman’s courage and faithfulness, were based largely on state- ments made by her and on parts of a crude diary she kept. Some entries in this record, at first thought to be unreadable, have recently been deciphered by Mr. [[Noice, Harold|Noice]] and his wife. These, the explorer said, revealed that [[Blackjack, Ada, 1898-1983|Ada]] refused to aid [[Knight, Errol Lorne, 1893-1923|E. Lorne Knight]], actual leader of the party, as he lay dying on the island and that she probably saved her own life on food that would have saved [[Knight, Errol Lorne, 1893-1923|Knight]] from starvation. Went to Claim Island [[Knight, Errol Lorne, 1893-1923|Knight]], [[Crawford, Allan R., 1901-1923|Allan Crawford]], of [[Canada]], and [[Galle, Milton Harvey Robert, 1902-1923|Milton Galle]] and [[Maurer, Frederick W., 1893-1923|Frederick Maurer]], Americans, went to the island off the north Siberian coast in the spring of 1921, partly to claim it for [[Great Britain|Great Britain]] for possible use as a station on future trans-polar air flights and partly to test the theory of [[Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 1879-1962|Vilhjalmur Stefansson]] that men could live off game in the [[Arctic regions|Arctic]] without elaborate supplies or equipment. Since the chief need was warm clothing, they took with them [[Blackjack, Ada, 1898-1983|Ada Blackjack]], who was to be seamstress and cook. But Mrs. [[Blackjack, Ada, 1898-1983|Blackjack]], whose husband, a great Eskimo hunter, had died, soon revealed she had other ideas. She quickly proposed marriage to [[Crawford, Allan R., 1901-1923|Crawford]], Mr. [[Noice, Harold|Noice]] said, and, when repulsed by him, remarked that she had left [[Nome (Alaska)|Nome]] determined to marry one of the four white men. Since young [[Crawford, Allan R., 1901-1923|Crawford]] was not willing, any of the others would do. None could see Mrs. [[Blackjack, Ada, 1898-1983|Blackjack]] as a mate, however, and from that time her co-operation lessened. She often refused to work, Mr. [[Noice, Harold|Noice]] said, and gave the little group no end of trouble. Even- tually, however, the diaries of all in the party8 spoke less and less of the woman and it was presumed she was satisfied. At first there was much game, particularly polar bears, but the second winter brought real hardship. The bears failed to appear, food grew more and more scarce. [[Knight, Errol Lorne, 1893-1923|Knight]] was stricken with scurvy. Despite his illness, however, he and [[Crawford, Allan R., 1901-1923|Crawford]] started a dash toward [[Siberia (Russia)|Siberia]], only to be halted and driven back by bitter weather. 8 This language seems to indicate that Mr. [[Noice, Harold|Noice]] found on [[Wrangel Island (Russia)|Wrangel]] the diaries of [[Crawford, Allan R., 1901-1923|Crawford]], [[Galle, Milton Harvey Robert, 1902-1923|Galle]] and [[Maurer, Frederick W., 1893-1923|Maurer]], as well as that of [[Knight, Errol Lorne, 1893-1923|Knight]]. If so, he must have them still, for he has acknowledged to the relatives only the diaries of [[Knight, Errol Lorne, 1893-1923|Knight]] and some fragmentary notes by [[Galle, Milton Harvey Robert, 1902-1923|Galle]].