The last voyage of the Karluk

by Bob Bartlett; Ralph T. Hale

McKinlay was the spokesman. “No,” he answered; “Malloch and Mamen and Breddy died on the island.”

There was nothing to be said. I had not really expected to see the mate’s party or the Mackay party, for I had long since ceased to believe that there was any reasonable chance that they could have got through to a safe place, but though it was hard to be forced to what appeared the inevitable conclusion in their case, it was an especially sad and bitter blow to learn that three of the men whom I had seen arrive at Wrangell Island had thus reached safety only to die.

THE RESCUE OF THE PARTY AT WARING POINT, WRANGELL ISLAND

“The rescue, both here and at Rodgers Harbor, was effected just in time.”

None of the three could well be spared. Breddy had been a careful and efficient worker in all the struggles we had gone through since the storm had carried us away in the previous September. Mamen was a great companion, indoors or out; he especially excelled in all athletic sports that demanded fearlessness and endurance, and he was, besides this, a devoted and helpful associate. At one time, in fact, I had had it in mind to send him to the Siberian coast with Kataktovick in my stead, if the injury to his knee-cap had not incapacitated him, and, if he had been able to start on such a journey, I feel confident that he would have made it or died in the attempt. Malloch was an ideal man for an exploring expedition like ours, brought face to face by circumstances with conditions that were calculated to test to the utmost a man’s real nature, for he was not only fully equipped in his own special field of science but beyond all that he was one of the most self-sacrificing men with whom it has ever been my lot to be thrown into intimate contact. If his task for the moment happened to be something connected with his own work as a scientist, he performed it as a matter of course, and if it happened to be sweeping the floor or doing any other odd job that needed to be done, he did that equally as a matter of course, without the slightest thought of self or any other idea in mind except to be as useful as possible to his companions.

I shook hands all around with our party and then with Mr. Swenson and Captain Jochimsen, the brave skipper of the King and Winge, and thanked them in the name of the Canadian Government for rescuing the men. Then I asked Mr. Swenson’s permission to have the Karluk people transferred to the Bear. There they could receive the medical attention that they needed, for there was no doctor on the King and Winge; there was, too, no reason now why Mr. Swenson should not continue the walrus-hunt that he had postponed to go to Wrangell Island for the men of the Karluk. McConnell, also, who was on the King and Winge, came on board the Bear with the rest.

To get the whole party and their few possessions over to the Bear took about an hour. Then we said good-by to the King and Winge and steamed in the direction of Herald Island to make a search for the mate’s and the doctor’s parties, though there was no likelihood of seeing any traces of them. At dark, owing to the ice, the engines were kept working easy ahead; at eight o’clock the next morning, September 9, we were twelve miles from Herald Island. The ice kept us from getting any nearer, and after we had done what we could to find a way through, Captain Cochran decided to go back to Nome. Mr. Swenson had already taken the King and Winge as near Herald Island as he could get, without seeing any signs of human life, and months before, shortly after my departure with Kataktovick for Siberia, McKinlay and Munro had made their way across the ice in the direction of Herald Island and had got near enough to see that no one was there. Later on, as I afterwards learned, the Corwin, on the trip on which, as he had promised, Mr. Linderberg sent her, cruised all around Herald Island without seeing any evidences that any one had been there. It was as certain as anything could be that both parties had long since perished, but it was very hard for me to give them up, men with whom I had spent so many months, men with the future still before them.

From the vicinity of Herald Island, the Bear headed for Cape Serdze and at six o’clock the next morning we anchored off Mr. Wall’s place. Mr. Wall was still away and we did not stop long but were soon steaming down the coast on the way to our next stop, Cape Prince of Wales.

I did not attempt to press the men for an account of what had happened on the island. They had been through a long period of suspense and were entitled to a rest, so it seemed the kindest thing to let the story come out spontaneously as time went on. McKinlay told me part of it and gradually further details appeared, as they came out in general conversation.