For the past week or so, I had noticed that our drift was slow, and I felt that as the daylight lengthened we should have ample time, long before we could drift away from the land, to sledge enough supplies ashore to last the party until the birds returned and the ice broke up. If we could start the men in small parties to relay supplies to the island we could get a shore camp established where the men could dry out their foot-gear for their journey back over the ice to Shipwreck Camp for more supplies, especially if we should find plenty of driftwood on Wrangell Island, as I hoped and expected; we had fuel enough at the camp to last a year. The men could erect permanent snow igloos along the way, for relay stations, and once the road to the island was made, there would be little difficulty in keeping it open and by continuing the relays any faults that might come in the trail could be easily repaired. In these preliminary journeys, as I have said, the men would get accustomed to ice travel and finally the whole party, with its supplies, would be safe ashore. We were of course handicapped by lack of sufficient dogs, and in ice travel and in fact in any polar work, dogs are the prime requisites for success; man-power for hauling the sledge-loads of supplies puts a double burden on the men.
Those assigned for the first shoregoing party were First Mate Anderson, Second Mate Barker and Sailors King and Brady. They were to go to the island with three sledges and eighteen dogs, with Mamen and the two Eskimo men, as a supporting party, to come back with the dogs and two of the sledges after they had landed the mate’s party on the island.
The eighteenth was another bad day, with a strong northeast gale and blinding snowdrift. Some of the men were at work loading the three sledges for the mate’s party. Of the others, those that could be spared I sent out with pickaxes to make a trail towards the land, so that the shoregoing party might have a good start, but the weather was so bad that they had to return to camp after they had gone two or three miles. They reported seeing bear tracks on the ice and seal in open leads which they came to. We had plenty of seal meat so no attempt was made to do any shooting at this time.
Mr. Anderson, McKinlay and myself checked over the three sledge-loads on the nineteenth and found everything in readiness for the journey which was to begin the next morning. The next day, however, the bad weather continued. The watchman called me at 4 A. M. and I found a southwest gale blowing, with a thick snowstorm, so, as there was no change in the weather, the mate’s party did not leave. In the afternoon the storm subsided and by midnight the sky was clear and the air calm and cold.
The next day, Wednesday the twenty-first, conditions were more favorable and the party started. In addition to oral instructions about ice conditions and about returning to camp in case he met with open water, I gave the mate the following written orders:
Shipwreck Camp, Arctic Ocean,
January 20, 1914.
My dear Mr. Anderson:
You will leave to-morrow morning with Mamen, three sledges, 18 dogs, Mr. Barker, Sailors King and Brady and the two Eskimo. The sledges are loaded with pemmican, biscuit and oil. You will find list of articles attached to this. When you reach Berry Point, Wrangell Island, you will be in charge of supplies. Kindly pay special attention to the uses of them. The rations are: 1 lb. pemmican, 1 lb. biscuits, with tea, per day. One gallon of oil will last you ten days. Mamen will leave one sledge and the tent, taking back with him enough supplies to carry him to Shipwreck. Whilst on the island you will endeavor to find game. Be sure and bring it to your camp. Also collect all the driftwood you can find.
Very sincerely,
R. A. Bartlett.
The list of things carried on the sledge may serve to show what the Arctic traveller needs. Shelter, fuel and food, these are the three essentials for ice travel as they are for the journey of life itself. This is the way the mate’s party was equipped when it set out from Shipwreck Camp on January 21, 1914; there were enough supplies to last them for three months: