272 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



the mail came down the Mackenzie River, so that he could carry 

 the mail to Banks Island and especially so that he could secure the 

 chronometer watches and other scientific equipment which I had 

 asked the Government to send by way of the Mackenzie, expecting 

 them to be picked up just as Wilkins was doing. But while he 

 waited for the mail he incidentally waited so long that he was 

 overtaken by the Alaska and Sachs coming from Collinson Point. 



Wilkins' point of view now was one with which, in spite of my 

 great admiration for him in general, I never could agree. It 

 seemed to me that as he had his orders from the commanding of- 

 ficer direct he should have obeyed them irrespective of countermand- 

 ing orders from any officer of inferior rank. The theory he acted 

 on was that my death had removed me from the situation and that 

 Dr. Anderson was the actual commander and his orders should take 

 precedence, mine being as it were canceled by an assumption of my 

 death. Dr. Anderson now told Wilkins that he had decided not to 

 let the Star go to the Norway Island rendezvous but would take her 

 to Coronation Gulf instead. For reasons which he gave, he would 

 transfer Wilkins to the Sachs. 



The reason for the transfer had been the assertion that the Sachs 

 was better for sending to Banks Island because she was the bigger 

 ship. This was canceling my judgment as well as my orders, for 

 if I had thought so I should have arranged it that way. The sup- 

 position that the Sachs was better than the Star was tenable only 

 if the chances of meeting ice were ignored, and obviously the 

 chances of meeting ice around Banks Island were much greater 

 than of meeting it in the direction towards Coronation Gulf. The 

 reader will recall how the Star was purchased especially for the 

 Banks Island trip, and how the Sachs, through her twin propellers, 

 was particularly badly suited to those more northerly and icy 

 waters. 



Wilkins had transferred to the Sachs, taking Natkusiak with 

 him, and the Sachs had come to Banks Island. But on the way 

 one of her propellers struck a cake of ice, as was to be expected, and 

 was broken off. She had also been insufficiently caulked before 

 leaving winter quarters and was leaking heavily. When she got 

 to Kellett she found considerable ice along the sandspit and Wilkins 

 decided to haul her ashore in the last week of August for the fol- 

 lowing reasons: 



First, she was leaking so fast that she had to be pumped forty 

 minutes out of every hour; second, she was under one propeller and 



