We walked on in the direction of the town of St. Michael’s and on our way I was overjoyed to meet Hugh J. Lee, the United States Marshal. I had met him in Nome the previous summer, which was the first time I had seen him since 1896. He had been with Peary on his Greenland ice-cap trip in 1892 and had been on the Hope in 1896 when she touched in at Turnavick on the Labrador, my father’s fishing-station, where I was spending a summer vacation. He was astonished to see me in St. Michael’s and wanted to know what on earth I was doing there. A few brief explanations put him in touch with the situation and I felt that I was in the hands of a good friend.
THE NEWS OF CAPTAIN BARTLETT’S ARRIVAL AT ST. MICHAEL’S
REACHES NOME
Lee took me to the agent of the Northern Commercial Company, which has a large trading-house at St. Michael’s, and I was given a good room in the winter hotel where the company’s employees are quartered. The summer hotel was closed. Lee and I sat up until late that night, talking over the Karluk’s drift and the subsequent adventures of our ship’s company.
Early the next morning I was at the office of the wireless, which is a military station of the Signal Corps of the United States Army. I had very little money and as he had to follow the regulations the sergeant in charge refused to send my message to Ottawa unless I could pay for it. This was an unexpected obstacle. I had travelled a good many hundred miles to reach this spot and I am afraid that I almost lost my patience with the red tape that could stand in the way of a message that had to be sent. About that time Lee came in and explained matters, and the sergeant finally concluded to send the message, which I had written:
St. Michael’s, Alaska,
May 29, 1914.
Naval Service, Ottawa, Canada:
Karluk ice pressure sank January 11, sixty miles north Herald Island. Preparation made last fall leave ship therefore comfortable on ice. January twenty-first sent first and second mate two sailors with supporting party three months provisions Wrangell Island. Supporting party returned leaving them close Herald Island. They expected land island when ice moved in shore. February fifth Mackay, Murray, Beuchat, Sailor Morris left us using man power pull sledges. Sent again Herald Island three sledges, twenty dogs, pemmican, biscuit, oil. Open water prevented their landing. Saw no signs men, presumed they gone Wrangell. Returning left provisions along trail. Shortly after their return east gale sent us west. February twenty-fourth I left camp. March twelfth landed Munro, Williamson, Malloch, McKinlay, Mamen, Hadley, Chafe, Templeman, Maurer, Breddy, Williams, Eskimo family Wrangell eighty-six days’ supplies each man.
March seventeenth Munro two men fourteen dogs left for supplies Shipwreck Camp. Plenty of driftwood game island. March eighteenth I left island Eskimo landed Siberia fifty miles west Cape North. May twenty-first Captain Pederson Whaler Herman called for me Emma Harbor going out of his way whaling to do so. Soundings meteorological observations dredging kept up continually. Successful. Twelve hundred fathoms animal life found bottom.
Need funds pay bills contracted Siberia and here. Wire Northern Commercial Company, San Francisco, five hundred dollars. Instruct them forward by wire St. Michael’s.
Bartlett, Captain, C. G. S.