My own special task was done. The responsibility for what remained to be done would be shared with others; means must be devised for the rescue of the men on Wrangell Island.
CHAPTER XXIX
WAITING
The days following my arrival at St. Michael’s were busy ones for me. My immediate problem was to see what ships were available to make the voyage to Wrangell Island when navigation opened. Not until midsummer would conditions be right, and even then, as we had found in the Karluk, the time of open water was likely to be brief and might be cut short at any moment. I received many messages—from my family in Newfoundland, from my friends in Boston and elsewhere, from the press and from the authorities in Ottawa. I even had a telegram from the advertising department of an enterprising American periodical: “Please wire our expense permission to use your picture smoking pipe for tobacco advertisement. What brand do you smoke?”
From Ottawa I received a message expressing the relief of the authorities at news of the Karluk—which, I found, had been generally given up for lost, with all on board—and asking for advice and details regarding arrangements for the rescue of the men and the time when ice conditions would allow their being taken off the island. To this inquiry I replied:
St. Michael’s, Alaska,
May 30, 1914.
Hon. G. J. Desbarats,
Naval Service, Ottawa, Canada.
Russian ice-breakers Taimir and Vaigatch soon make annual exploring trip north coast Siberia. Strongly advise you try arrange Russian Government these vessels relieve men. Vessels wintered Vladivostock but may have already left for north. Failing this arrangement another Russian ice-breaker Nadjeshny lying idle Vladivostock might be obtained. Another chance United States revenue cutter Bear now in Bering Sea. Possible arrangements United States Government. If Bear goes should seek convoy Russian ice-breakers. No other available vessels these waters. My opinion July or early August before ice breaks up around Wrangell though seasons differ. Plenty bird other animal life island good Eskimo hunter should not suffer food. I want go relief ships. Russian ships have wireless can get in touch with them if already at sea.
Bartlett, Captain.
The Bear, as I have mentioned before, had been one of the ships to rescue the survivors of the Greely expedition thirty years before. I had never made a trip in her but I knew what kind of ship she was. Built in Scotland in the seventies for the Newfoundland seal-fisheries, she was considered a crack sealer for that period and made many successful voyages. In 1883 the United States Government was fitting out an expedition under Commander Schley to go to the Arctic to relieve Greely and his men. The Bear and the Thetis were all ready to leave St. John’s for their sealing trips, with their crews and outfits all arranged for. They were just the ships for the purpose and the United States Government bought them, paying, besides a liberal price for the vessels themselves, the amount of money that would have been shared by their officers and men if they had made good sealing trips. Many people, I have discovered, have supposed that the ships were given by England; what led to this supposition was the fact that Queen Victoria gave the United States the Alert, which, with the Nares Expedition, had spent the winter of 1875-6 at Floe-Berg Beach, Grant Land, somewhat south of our winter quarters at Cape Sheridan in the Roosevelt in the winters of 1905-6 and 1908-9. Will Norman, a relative of mine, from my own town of Brigus, Newfoundland, went as ice-pilot of the Thetis, on her voyage for the Greely survivors, and Captain Ash, from Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, who afterwards for many years was master of the Red Cross boats, plying between St. John’s and New York, was ice-pilot of the Bear. With the quality of the ship in mind, and her past record, to say nothing of her present work in Alaskan waters, I felt no doubt that the Bear would get through to Wrangell Island if any ship could do so. I had been told, too, that her master, Captain Cochran, was not afraid to put her in the ice, for he had served under that fearless and true-hearted man, the late Captain Jarvis. On the whole, it seemed to me that it would be a matter of singular interest for the Bear to rescue the Karluk survivors as she had rescued the Greely party thirty years before, on the other side of the continent.
The Russian ships, Taimir and Vaigatch, also, had fine records. I have already mentioned the success of Captain Vilkitski in the Taimir in discovering Nicholas II Land in 1913. I knew that both vessels were similar to the steel ships used in the Newfoundland seal-fisheries and that they were able craft, equipped with powerful engines.