THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 671 



best to force a way through the ice to Banks Island for the purpose 

 of connecting with their Eskimo trappers and also to see how we 

 were progressing at Cape Kellett, but she had been unable to pene- 

 trate more than a few miles northeast of Cape Bathurst. Im- 

 pressed with the necessity of hurrying back if he did not want to 

 be frozen in for the winter, Captain Pedersen had given up some 

 of his plans and turned west. He had been at Mr. Gordon's place 

 a week before our arrival and had been doubtful when he left there 

 of his ability to get out, for the ice was heavy and close to the 

 land. Mr. Gordon was of the opinion that the chances were 

 against us now. He did not have enough of a trading outfit to 

 satisfy all his Eskimo customers, from whom he could get a much 

 better price than from us, as he dealt with them in terms of furs 

 rather than money, so it was in the nature of a favor that he sold 

 us some additional supplies when we ourselves began to doubt that 

 we should get out. 



But as we proceeded west the conditions became more favorable. 

 Still, there was much ice about when on the evening of September 

 13th we arrived at a harbor at the east end of Barter Island. This 

 is the only real harbor known to me on the coast between Herschel 

 Island and Point Barrow, and as the night promised to be stormy 

 and very dark, our officers advised tying up for the six or eight 

 hours of darkness, to proceed again early in the morning. 



That night turned out to be one of the turning points in the 

 expedition. I was sleeping in the wheel house on deck. Captain 

 Hadley, who aimed to be always on deck when the ship was under 

 way, was sleeping below in his cabin, and it was the first officer's 

 watch. In the evening the wind was blowing hard from the north- 

 east. It was cloudy and dark. About the time that Castel first 

 noticed daylight in the sky the wind suddenly turned to southwest 

 and then blew as hard as before. Castel noticed that a strong cur- 

 rent began running through the harbor to the northeast. He came 

 and woke me and I told him to have the Captain "called imme- 

 diately. It was perhaps two minutes later and the Captain was 

 just coming on deck when the ship bumped bottom. We had been 

 lying with four or five feet of water under our keel and ample 

 room to swing in any direction the full length of the cable. But 

 the current and wind together had suddenly become so strong that 

 we dragged anchor, and it was so dark that no one realized what 

 was happening until our stern struck a sandbank. A moment later 

 we were broadside and helpless. We got out all our anchors, car- 

 ried them in a boat to windward and hove on the windlass, know- 



